LAA Update Bulletin No 2

Local Area Agreement Update Bulletin No 2

General Update

We are now deep in the world of negotiating targets against our chosen indicators with the Government Office (GOSE), with a final submission date of 30 May 2008. In some cases arriving at agreed three year targets is proving a little problematic. There are a number of reasons for this; firstly the definitions for each of the National Indicators (from which the LAA indicators are drawn) have changed from the original guidance; for others the Government has chosen to delay the introduction of indicators by a year, this is often where the indicators (and their measurement) are new so baselines and appropriate collection mechanisms need to be established; finally those indicators that relate to the Place Survey are also likely to be delayed, as following a national pilot of the Survey a number of concerns have been raised as to whether the Survey accurately demonstrates public perceptions in the areas trying to be measured. We will be required to 'refresh' our LAA later in the year (January 2009) and this should offer the opportunity to firm up on indicators and targets.

The Local Government Association (LGA) has produced a 'league table' of the top 20 indicators being chosen for inclusion in LAAs across the country. This can be accessed here. (You will need to scroll down the page). In East Sussex we have 16 of those top twenty indicators in our submission.

The LGA has also produced a Councillor guide to LAAs and this is available to view or download here. It offers a general overview of LAAs and should be useful to others as well as elected members.

Submission Template

The final column in the LAA submission template requires us to show for each indicator which is the Lead Agency and which Statutory Partners are engaged in helping to deliver on specific indicators. The Statutory Partners with a 'duty to co-operate' in the LAA are named by Government and feature in the the attached list. Where they are helping to deliver on a specific indicator they must be named on the template against the relevant indicator. In addition we will include Non Statutory Partners (ie other partners not named as Statutory Partners in the draft statutory guidance), such as informal partnerships, professional groupings, voluntary and community groups, and business sector groups where they too are involved in the delivery of specific targets.  We have until 30 May, the date of the final submission, to show which partners have signed-up to each target. If you know your organisation will contribute to delivery and should be a named partner, please contact the indicator lead to discuss further.

The LAA is being considered in a number of forums before the final document is submitted to the Government Office. The LAA Project Board will review progress on 15 May, East Sussex County Council will consider it on 20 May and the East Sussex Strategic Partnership on 22 May, it will go to the East Sussex Chief Executives Group on 29 May. Once the LAA targets have been finalised and submitted  on 30 May, thoughts will turn to developing detailed action plans for each indicator.  Organisations will want to ensure they build the targets into their business planning processes.

Indicator Specific

There are two indicators that GOSE is still seeking to have included in the LAA and where we have not yet reached agreement to their inclusion. These are NI 169 - Non-principal roads where maintenance should be considered and NI 154 Net additional homes provided. Discussions continue on both of these indicators. One indicator previously included in the list is being dropped; that is NI 172 - VAT registered businesses in the area showing growth. This was an indicator specific to the Hastings area and linked to their Working Neighbourhood Funding, however Hastings is likely to focus its work with small businesses who do not reach the VAT threshold, so this is an inappropriate indicator.

If you have mislaid the previous newsletter, or require again any of the more basic information on the LAA, this can be accessed on the ESSP website www.essp.org.uk . On the home page follow the link to 'what we do' and it will lead you to the LAA.

Alison Horan

Head of Community Partnerships
01273 481381
alison.horan@eastsussex.gov.uk