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Meeting
Salford Strategic Partnership
Date
16 November 2007
Agenda Item
1
Type of Report
For discussion
Title
Developing the next Local Area Agreement
and updating the Community Plan

Purpose of
Report


Recommendation
Report prepared
by
To outline the government’s plans for new Local
Area Agreements
To set out why the Community Plan should be
updated
To provide information to inform a discussion at
the meeting on the approach to be taken in
Salford to development of our next Local Area
Agreement
Salford Strategic Partnership members are requested to
i.
Consider the contents of the report
ii.
Contribute their ideas at the meeting on how we
seize the opportunities and challenges presented
by the need to develop a new model LAA
iii.
Confirm that a Sustainable Community Strategy
should be developed based on review of the
current Community Plan
Sheila Murtagh, Partnership Manager
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1.
Government Guidance
New LAAs
1.1
As part of the local government white paper, Department of
Communities and Local Government (DCLG) announced that the
current framework of Local Area Agreements (LAAs) would be
replaced with new LAAs from 2008. The new LAAs would be part of a
whole performance system for local government. The new
performance system would be streamlined and significantly reduce the
burden on local authorities. It would include LAAs, a new
Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) to replace Comprehensive
Performance Assessment (CPA) as well as sweeping away most
existing performance indicators and reporting systems and replacing
them with a new, single set of national performance indicators. These
changes are aimed at improving local outcomes for people.
1.2
DCLG published ‘Negotiating New Local Area Agreements’ at the end
of September, (available at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/developin
gfuture.) The guidance is relatively non-prescriptive providing some
general direction and case studies. LAAs are about improving local
services and increasing economic prosperity for local people. They are
three-year agreements with priorities agreed between all the main
public sector agencies working in the area and with Central
Government.
1.3
These priorities will be based on evidence shared by local partners,
brought together under the umbrella of the Local Strategic Partnership
(LSP). The LSP is expected to agree a Sustainable Community
Strategy (SCS) for its area. The SCS is a long term strategy for the
local area based on consultation with local people about the sort of
place they want the area to be. The LAA is based on the objectives in
the Sustainable Community Strategy and the LAA translates these into
targets to secure the improvements local people want to see.
1.4
Part of the backdrop to LAAs is the Government’s drive for greater
efficiencies- councils are being expected to make savings year on year,
other public sector funding is tight and at the same time expectations of
public services are rising. LAA grant will come as a single pot with no
earmarking of funding streams for particular services which offers great
flexibility (and new challenges). Public organisations will be expected to
align their capital resources as well as revenue if the full potential of
place shaping and regeneration is to be achieved.
New National indicator set
1.5
The number of national indicators has been radically reduced, from the
around 1200 that local authorities and their partners report on at
present, to 198. Final guidance on definitions will be published in
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January/February 2008 (information available at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/nationalin
dicator)
1.6
This national indicator set has been developed as part of the
Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 so that it reflects the
Government’s national priorities. Performance against each of the 198
indicators will be reported for every single tier and county council Local
Strategic Partnership. The national indicator set will be the only
measures on which central government will performance manage
outcomes delivered by local government working alone or in
partnerships. From April 2008, all other sets of indicators, including
Best Value Performance Indicators and Performance Assessment
Framework indicators, will be abolished.
1.7
As the new performance framework is focused on outcomes and their
delivery through stronger partnership working, the same indicators will
be used for different local partners as relevant. Therefore, many of the
indicators in this set will also apply to the police, primary care trusts
and other local bodies.
1.8
In each area, targets against the set of national indicators will be
negotiated through new style Local Area Agreements (LAAs). Each
Agreement will include up to 35 targets from among the national
indicators, complemented by 16 statutory targets on educational
attainment and early years. There will be no other way of setting
targets, no other way of Whitehall managing local authority
performance. There is also the scope for LSPs to develop local targets;
these will not be subject to Government monitoring.
1.9
Setting the targets will be the subject of negotiation between central
Government and the local area. Even where targets are set out for
Public Service Agreements at national level, local areas will have the
flexibility to respond to these national ambitions in the most appropriate
way in negotiation with Government Offices.
1.10
The timetable for negotiation of LAAs and for publication of further
guidance is set out at Appendix 1.
1.11
The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act has also
recently received Royal Assent. This emphasises the need for effective
and sustained partnership working to improve local services and
outcomes. The Act includes a new statutory duty to cooperate with
local authorities with respect to Local Area Agreements and
Sustainable Community Strategies for named partners including:
Primary Care Trusts, Chief Officer of Police, Fire & Rescue
Authorities, NHS Foundation Trusts, Learning & Skills Council,
Jobcentre Plus, Probation Boards, Youth Offending Teams,
Passenger Transport Authorities and others.
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4.
Developing the new LAA
4.1
In Salford the development of the new style LAA is very timely- it gives
us the opportunity to build on the work done for the existing Salford
Agreement but also to give a strong signal that the freedoms offered
will enable us to pursue our transformational agenda, particularly
Connecting People to Opportunities, more effectively. The Partnership
will be able to organise its collective resources differently to achieve
the improvement targets it selects and to maximise synergy with
partner business plans.
4.2
The Government guidance draws on lessons from the 17 “dry run”
authorities that had piloted aspects of the new arrangements. It
identifies 4 key elements of the process to successfully negotiate a
new LAA which we will want to consider, set out below.
4.3
The story of the place – local areas need to ensure they have a
Sustainable Community Strategy that sets out “the story of the place”.
Where an area has come from, where it is at, and where it wants to
be. This story should be developed with the involvement of all the local
strategic partnership partners and should be based on strong evidence.
4.4
Identifying priorities – Once a local area has the “story of the place”
this should be the foundation for identifying priorities.
4.5
Involving councillors – The role of local councillors in LAAs has not
been strong in the past, and the guidance makes clear that improving
this is fundamental to making the LAA a document that genuinely sets
a vision, not just a technical exercise for officers.
4.6
Relationship with the Government Office – Key to a good
relationship with the Government Office is agreeing a clear process
with everyone involved before starting negotiations, including roles and
how to resolve conflict.
5
Considerations for Salford
5.1
This new model LAA will require partner organisations to change the
way they work to ensure there is real buy in to the vision and its
delivery through ensuring alignment of mainstream programmes. We
will need to move from the current LAA being regarded as improving
things at the margins to a position where it is recognised as being the
fundamental part of the ‘day job’ of partner organisations.
5.2
In developing and delivering the new LAA, the partnership will want to
consider the learning from the ‘Dry Run’ authorities which highlight the
following elements as needing particular consideration:
 Identifying Priorities
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




Closing the gap
Robust Partnership Governance
Evidence
Planning for Delivery, Performance Management
Funding – finance
Findings from the current Partners in Salford Peer Review should also
inform partners’ considerations. The Executive will consider all these
aspects in detail and bring recommendations back to Partnership.
Sustainable Community Strategy
5.3
The Executive considered a report on New Model LAAs at their
meeting on 22 October. They also considered a related report with
respect to the review of our Community Plan. This Plan was launched
in late 2005, before the Government published guidance on
Sustainable Community Strategies. A gap analysis of what is in our
Plan compared to the guidance, plus initial assessment of current
context showed that some updating is necessary:
 Some policy areas recommended in the guidance are not covered
in the Community Plan
 Some of the targets have been superseded
 New strategies or approaches have been subsequently approved,
such as the Connecting People agenda and the intention to close
the inequalities gap
 Better analysis of evidence has given a greater prominence to
certain issues, such as the importance of worklessness, low skills
and child poverty
 Major events have happened, in particular, the decision that the
BBC will come to Salford
5.4
The Executive agreed it is appropriate to use this opportunity to review
the Community Plan and produce a new document – a Sustainable
Community Strategy which:
 Provides an updated vision and strategic framework for the City and
 Forms the vision and foreword for the new model LAA
5.5
The Executive acknowledged that many of the priorities as set down in
the Community Plan are still appropriate, and the current document will
provide a strong foundation for the review. The product of this review
will be an updated long term strategy for the area. The LAA will be
based on the objectives in the Strategy and will translate these into 3year targets.
5.6
The detailed process for the review, including public consultation, is still
to be determined. However it will use existing partnership structures,
including the Strategic Partnership, the Executive, the thematic
partnerships (and their sub groups), the community committees and
communities of identity which are currently engaged with the
partnership. In particular, the date of the next Strategic Partnership
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meeting has been brought forward to February to enable participation
by the Board in priority setting for the Sustainable Community Strategy
and LAA.
5.7
The Executive considered an approach to priority setting for the LAA
which would put the most important, intractable issues requiring broad
partnership working at the centre of the agenda. This will be the subject
of further information and discussion at the meeting.
6
6.1
Conclusions
The new model LAAs will give the Salford Partnership an
unprecedented opportunity to negotiate an agreement with government
that puts local priorities centre stage. This devolution of power is also
expected to be matched with increased accountability to local
communities and therefore the processes and outcomes must be
properly open to scrutiny.
6.2
The new indicators will strengthen the incentives for closer partnership
working to deliver joined-up outcomes. The flexibility and opportunities
represented by pooled funding provides the opportunity to improve
effectiveness in a context of tight resources.
6.3
Within a vision set by a refreshed and ambitious Community Strategy,
the New Model LAA will enable the Partnership to work with
communities to deliver significant improvement outcomes.
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APPENDIX 1: LAA TIMETABLE
Key Milestones
• May/June: Dry Run 17 LAA areas (NW – Oldham and Cumbria)
•
October: CSR 07
•
October/November: Development of technical guidance
•
November: New round of CLG Roadshows
•
November onwards: Transitional negotiations with LAA areas
•
March 08: Agreed priorities and indicators
•
May 08: Agreed targets
•
June 08: Ministerial sign off for new generation LAAs
Publication dates
• Core Narrative- end Sept (published)
•
Phase 2 of the Operational Guidance - mid/late Oct
•
A list of National Indicator Set ‘headline definitions’, as part of CSR07
announcements - mid/late Oct (published)
•
A consultation draft of the statutory guidance on Place Shaping mid/late Oct
•
The National Improvement & Efficiency Strategy Framework - mid/late
Oct
•
A package of departmental narratives that clarify what the new
performance framework means to government departments and those
in their relevant sectors - mid/late Oct
•
A consultation document on the new CAA framework – Nov 08
•
A consultation document on the technical mechanisms underpinning
the National Indicator Set – Nov 08
•
Final Guidance on national indicator definitions - Jan/Feb 08
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