Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This report provides an update on the Local Area Agreement (LAA) refresh for Bath & North East Somerset. The LAA is a three year agreement between the Government, the Council and its partners working through the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP).

1.2 The Bath & North East Somerset Local Area Agreement (LAA) was signed in June 2008. The LAA is subject to an annual review and refresh which takes place with Government Office South West (GOSW). The current LAA contains a number of gaps in targets and baselines which are highlighted as "placeholders." The refresh process is designed to ensure that the LAA is focussing on the priorities for the area and a particular feature of this year is a focus on filling the gaps and considering the targets in light of the current economic climate.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 The current draft of the Local Area Agreement for Bath & North East Somerset is approved for negotiation with GOSW.

2.2 The Chief Executive is authorised to finalise the document for submission in consultation with the Leader in light of such negotiations

2.3 The Chief Executive signs the Local Area Agreement for Bath & North East Somerset on behalf of the Council.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 There will be performance reward grant associated with achievement of all targets set for the indicators listed in Appendix 1. Central Government has just announced how the new round of Performance Reward Grant will work. Further detail is set out in the body of the report, paragraph 5.5.

3.2 The existing "stretch" targets that were agreed as part of the previous round of LAA's remain as priority indicators and also have performance reward grant associated with them.

4 CORPORATE PRIORITIES

5 THE REPORT

5.1 Discussions are underway now with Government Office South West (GOSW) about the outstanding targets and baselines. Two indicators; (NI 21 "Percentage of people who agree that the police and local councils are dealing with anti-social behaviour and crime issues that matter in their area" and NI 139 "The extent to which older people receive the support they need to live independently at home") await the release of the Place Survey data which measures public perception on a number of indicators. Data from this survey is expected to be released during March and will enable a baseline and targets to be set.

5.2 A summary of the key points currently under discussion with GOSW are set out in Appendix 1. One of the key changes relates to NI 175 (Access to services and facilities by public transport, walking and cycling for all households) being replaced by NI 176 (Working age people with access to employment by public transport, walking and cycling") to allow for simplified data collection. GOSW are in support of this change. Another possible change is that the Voluntary & Community Sector is putting a proposal forward about NI 7 (Environment for a Thriving Third Sector) being included as a designated target, which would make it part of the LAA priority set. More detail on the full list of issues under consideration in the refresh is set out in the table at Appendix 1.

5.3 The deadline for the submission of the LAA to Government is the end of March. Negotiations on targets will continue throughout March as data becomes available. The draft LAA set out at Appendix 2 is incomplete as the majority of data will become available during February and into early March.

5.4 The LAA will be subject to various sign off procedures including Cabinet, PCT Board and the Police Authority. The LAA is formally signed off by a Government Minister on behalf of all government departments, the chair of the Local Strategic Partnership and the Chief Executive of the Council.

5.5 Government has just announced the new round of performance reward associated with Local Area Agreements. The reward model is calculated on average performance across all of the LAA designated targets. The sixteen statutory early years and education indicators are not included in this model.

5.6 Exact amounts are not yet known but it is anticipated that the maximum amount of reward grant to be received should Bath & North East Somerset meet all of its targets would be just under £1 million.

5.7 The performance reward grant will be awarded to the Council as the accountable body. However there is an expectation that LSP partners will want to influence where the reward grant is allocated as many targets are being delivered by partner agencies. It is suggested that a discussion on the allocation of performance reward grant is brought to Cabinet at a later date once the LAA refresh is completed.

5.8 One of the issues for the LAA refresh is ensuring that there is flexibility around some targets that are particularly influenced by the economic downturn. For example there are some areas of work where economic and financial uncertainty makes it very difficult to finalise ambitious but realistic targets by the end of March 2009, for example when looking at targets for house building.

5.9 Government has highlighted some indicators where the opportunity to review the targets that are included in the performance reward grant calculation is deferred to the LAA refresh that takes place in late 2009/10. It is felt that by that time, more realistic baseline or trend data would be available from which to set targets. The indicators that are within the Bath & North East Somerset LAA where this applies are:

6 RISK MANAGEMENT

6.1 The report author and Lead Cabinet member have fully reviewed the risk assessment related to the issue and recommendations, in compliance with the Council's decision making risk management guidance.

7 EQUALITIES

7.1 Bath & North East Somerset Council have conducted an equalities impact assessment into the selection of priority indicators for the B&NES Local Area Agreement.

8 RATIONALE

8.1 The Local Area Agreement is a statutory agreement that sets out the priorities for the locality and identifies targets over three years. It is a key performance framework for the delivery of the Council corporate plan and also the emerging Sustainable Community Strategy as it acts as a three year delivery plan.

9 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

9.1 None.

10 CONSULTATION

10.1 Cabinet members; Other B&NES Services; Stakeholders/Partners; Other Public Sector Bodies; Section 151 Finance Officer; Chief Executive; Monitoring Officer

10.2 The LAA Theme Sponsors form the Executive of the Local Strategic Partnership and are acting as the project board for the refresh of the LAA. A project team of theme co-ordinators is responsible for liaising with the various partnership structures that sit beneath each theme in order to get full agreement on the targets set.

10.3 In addition, the list of issues being discussed through the refresh process has been discussed at the LSP Public Services Group, various thematic partnerships and will be considered by the full LSP at its meeting on the 24^th February 2009. All discussions on targets are also undertaken with Government Office South West.

11 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

11.1 Social Inclusion; Customer Focus; Sustainability; Young People; Corporate.

12 ADVICE SOUGHT

12.1 The Council's Monitoring Officer (Council Solicitor) and Section 151 Officer (Strategic Director - Support Services) have had the opportunity to input to this report and have cleared it for publication.