Local Area Agreements new arrangements and new opportunities

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Local Area Agreements new arrangements and
new opportunities

• Phil WorsfoldLocal Agreements and
  PartnershipsCommunities and Local Government

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Local Government White Paper

• Offers
• a stronger role for local authorities to lead
  their communities, shape their areas, and
  innovate in response to local needs
• In exchange for
• more bottom-up accountability, better and more
  efficient services and tougher intervention when
  things go wrong

White Paper positions LAAs at the heart of the
new performance framework - applying to all
outcomes delivered by local government working
alone or in partnership
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The Future landscape

• The LG White Paper moves LAAs from the margins to
  the mainstream critical to delivery of the new
  central-local relationship
• LAAs to meet place shaping ambitions/challenges
• LAAs no longer about specific funding for
  specific targets. 35 (17) agreed targets cover
  everything local govt delivers alone or in
  partnership, supported by all resources in the
  area
• Negotiations of new LAAs to be concluded in all
  areas by June 2008 for period 2008-11
• We are learning important lessons about
  implementation which will help all those
  involved locally, in Government Offices and in
  Whitehall prepare for effective implementation

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The components of place shaping

• Local energy and commitment to realise the
  vision for an area
• Focus on place
• Strategic vision, ambition and commitment to
  places not institutions
• Horizontal relationships
• Strong partnership working, with LAs taking a
  convening role
• Securing innovative joined up local outcomes
  and services, making
• the best use of resources locally
• Vertical relationships
• A central government approach which creates space
  for local priorities
• and innovation a better balance between local
  national priorities
• Empowering/working with local people
  strengthening local accountability
• Expressed through
• Sustainable Community Strategy, LAA and Local
  Development Framework

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LAAs at the heart of a new performance framework

• Applies to all outcomes delivered by local
  government working on its own or in partnership
• Strengthened accountability to citizens and
  communities
• Greater responsibility on local authorities and
  their partners for securing improvements in
  services outcomes
• A better balance between national and local
  priorities through
• a smaller set of national indicators (200)
• limited set of priority targets for local
  improvement in LAAs
• (35 statutory DfES targets)
• additional local targets in LAAs (not monitored
  by Govt)
• More proportionate external assessment and
  inspection based on risk
• Streamlined co-ordinated improvement support
  and intervention

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Named partners
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Testing the new LAA model

• Worked with 17 Partnerships, Government Offices
  and Departments to road test
• The key stages/success criteria for local
  authorities and partners to agree up to 35
  priorities
• Reaching cross Government agreement on how
  national and local priorities meet
• The negotiating framework to strike a deal
  between Government and local authorities and
  their partners
• 2 one-day workshops to share issues and concerns
  about the negotiations process and identify ways
  of addressing them
• Some Partnerships negotiated a package of
  priorities, others addressed particular issues.

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Outcomes from the Dry Run

• Most partnerships were able to identify separate
  processes for identifying and agreeing priorities
  locally
• Some success in agreeing processes between
  partnerships and Government Offices
• Partnerships making good progress towards their
  top priorities but some concern about standing of
  local targets
• Some progress on agreeing priorities between
  partnerships and Government Offices
• Departmental leads had clear commitment to the
  process which now needs to be developed
• Departmental processes to support Government
  Offices starting to develop

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What we have learnt Local Areas

• Partnerships will need to
• Develop a story of place with underpinning
  evidence which it is owned by and signed off by
  the partnership
• Involvement of local councillors in defining the
  story of place, articulating political ambitions,
  agreeing priorities, leading negotiations,
  providing scrutiny and accountability
• Using the story of place and local ambitions to
  shape the whole Local Area Agreement and to
  identify within it the up to 35 priorities
• Ensuring the involvement of the wider
  partnership, including the voluntary and business
  sectors, remains central throughout the process
  and is at the heart of each section and,
  therefore, not developed separately
• Negotiations - developing a constructive and
  productive relationship with the Government
  Office

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What we have learnt GOs

• GOs will need to
• Gathering and reading the data. Getting a
  rounded locality story using the most appropriate
  intelligence. Sharing real-time, quality assure
  and mutually accessible data and intelligence.
• Challenging and Stretching ambition. The up to
  35 priorities within an LAA will, perhaps
  inevitably, have a focus on improving performance
  in those areas needing to do better. But they
  may also be things that a locality does well
  and wants to do even better.
• Developing and managing relationships. This is
  about the way GOs handle their position as the
  connector between local and central.
• Reaching agreement. It is unrealistic to imagine
  that the GOs will always agree with Whitehall
  colleagues on priorities and it is just as
  unlikely that local partners will always agree
  with each other, and with the GO.

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What we have learnt Whitehall

• Central Government will need to
• Ensure that LAAs act as a mechanism to deliver
  shared priorities which support both national
  policy and locally determined priorities through
  their relationship with PSAs and the local
  performance framework
• Provide good quality information to the GOs.
  Ensure there are good lines of communications
  throughout the negotiations so that GOs fully
  lead the negotiation process
• Accept that core Departmental business can be
  delivered through actions by other Government
  Departments

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Next Steps

• LAA Dry-run negotiations final report Headline
  Messages published 18 September 2007.
• The report highlighted outstanding issues raised
  by GOs, Partnerships and Central Government
  Departments.
• We are responding to these by
• Producing operational guidance (Phases 1 2)
• Producing a core narrative
• Updating QA
• Statutory Place Shaping guidance
• National Indicator Set technical guidance
• Regional Road shows following CSR07 announcement