Decision - Local Area Agreements (LAA)

Draft LAA for agreement by City prior to negotiation with government.

1.     To recommend to Council the Local Area Agreement for approval.

2.     That it be noted that the Local Area Agreement would be reviewed in January 2009, when targets still outstanding would be determined, and other targets and indicators removed or amended.

3.     That it be noted that cross-partner delivery plans for all national indicators in the LAA were being determined and would be reported and monitored to the Public Sector Board and Local Strategic Partnership in due course.

1.     The Council has a statutory duty to draw up a Local Area Agreement for the city. In doing so, it must consult the council’s key partners in service planning and delivery.

2.     The Agreement (attached at Appendix One) is the result of wide consultation through the various partnership mechanisms in the city, and has been discussed with all the main political groups on the Council.

3.     The Agreement is in line with the Administration’s priorities. It focuses on new ways of working to tackle cross-service issues such as worklessness and mental health, and provides an opportunity for the Council, as the democratically elected element of local service provision, to give a lead to others working in the city.

4.     The Agreement is also brings key partners together in delivery of targets related to the City Employment and Skills Plan and the Reducing Inequality Review.

5.     The formal deadline for the submission of the Agreement was 31 May 2008. This would have required us to bring the Agreement to Council on 24 April.  Because of the changes to governance structures in the city, we believed that this timetable did not give sufficient time for consideration. We therefore agreed with GOSE that the Agreement would be submitted after the next Council meeting, but that concerns with targets or indicators should be reserved for the first review of the Agreement, which will take place in January 2009. At that point, any indicators and targets can be changed in the light of experience.

6.     As Cabinet will see from the Agreement, not all targets are yet finalised. This is due to delays on the Government side in defining some of the targets and measures in the National Indicator Set. Any missing targets will be completed at the time of the first review in January 2009.

1.     During the drawing up of the Agreement, various options for indicators were considered and rejected, based on prioritisation by partnerships and officers. Details of these can be obtained from officers, but the Agreement has never existed in an alternative form.