Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This is the performance report by the Local Strategic Partnership for the Local Area Agreement for 2008/9.

1.2 This reports performance against targets and progress in delivering improved outcomes for local people. The report is in sections matching the "themes" of the area's Local Area Agreement. The themes of the Local Area Agreement relate to the priorities in the Council's Corporate Plan.

1.3 The Council leads or is a key partner for all of the themes of the Local Area Agreement, and has a co-ordinating role for reporting progress and ensuring good performance.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 That Cabinet notes progress against the Local Area Agreement outcomes and proposals for remedial actions against the indicators that are significantly off track.

2.2 That Cabinet Members review any areas of poor performance in greater detail or discuss progress with the relevant theme partnership.

3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 There are no direct financial implications from this report.

3.2 There are two performance reward grant schemes that relate to current Local Area Agreement (LAA) targets. The first relates to the achievement of the 32 LAA stretch targets and has the potential to attract a maximum of £4.5 million into Bath & North East Somerset. The stretch targets are 3 year targets with the 2008/9 results being 2 years into the 3 year period.

3.3 A baseline performance was established for these indicators and in negotiation with Government a "stretch" target to achieve over the 3 year period was then agreed, i.e. a target set for the level of improvement. Payment of 60% of the reward grant is made upon achieving 60% of the stretch. After that, the level of reward grant rises in proportion to the level of performance achieved, up to the stretch target being 100% achieved. Performance to date indicates that we may achieve around £2.1 million of this reward grant.

3.4 The other reward grant scheme relates to the achievement of the 27 designated LAA targets for the period 2008/9-2010/11 as agreed in 2008 (with one added in the 2009 LAA refresh, making 28). Exact amounts are not yet known but it is anticipated that the maximum amount of reward grant payable to the LSP should the area meet all of its targets would be just under £1 million. It is too soon to estimate how much of this reward grant may be achieved.

3.5 Any performance reward grant achieved is received by the Council as the accountable body. As many targets are delivered in partnership, the LSP has agreed in principle that the money will be allocated towards the priorities contained in the refreshed Sustainable Community Strategy.

4 CORPORATE PRIORITIES

4.1 Progress against the LAA themes and achievement of LAA targets contributes to the vision of "Making Bath & North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and visit" and also "a distinctive place, with vibrant, sustainable communities, where everyone fulfils their potential".

4.2 The themes in the LAA are closely linked to the Council's Priorities:

5 THE REPORT

5.1 The Council and the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) report progress against the LAA twice yearly.

5.2 The targets in the LAA measure the area's progress in delivering improved outcomes for agreed local and national priorities. In particular, the LAA measures shorter term progress on delivery of our longer term Sustainable Community Strategy, which covers the period until 2026.

5.3 The theme sections of the report will be presented to the relevant Overview & Scrutiny (O&S) panel meetings in July. The themes of the LAA match the O&S panel remits directly, with the exception of the Environmental Sustainability & Climate Change theme which is reported to the Corporate Performance & Resources O&S Panel.

5.4 The LAA has been "refreshed" in 2009 in negotiation with Government Office for the South West (GOSW). This is an annual process where the selection of targets is looked at along with target levels to ensure that the LAA remains suitable to drive improvements in priority areas. A new priority ("designated") target was adopted, NI 7 - % of third sector organisations giving a high rating of the local environment for a thriving third sector (voluntary and community sector). This replaced several local indicators which were previously being used to monitor this.

5.5 Performance for some of the LAA targets has been impacted upon by the economic downturn. The Council and the Local Strategic Partnership have re-evaluated planned actions and priorities in light of the economic downturn and have considered their roles in alleviating the effects. The LSP has established a working group to continue this work. On 6^th May Cabinet received a report on the Council's response to the economic downturn and approved an action plan.

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 The Council conducted an equalities impact assessment into the selection of priority indicators for the B&NES Local Area Agreement.

7.2 Two of the three cross-cutting themes of the LAA are: (1) narrowing the gap between the most affluent and most deprived neighbourhoods and (2) reducing health inequalities. Several targets in the LAA relate to these themes.

7.3 Many of the indicators in the LAA relate to vulnerable or potentially vulnerable groups, particularly in the Children & Young People and Health & Wellbeing themes.

7.4 No specific decisions on policy or service are requested and so no equalities impact assessment has been carried out for this specific report.

8 RATIONALE

9 The Council and its partners have agreed Local Area Agreement targets with Government and must seek to achieve improved performance against these targets and, more generally, to deliver improved outcomes for local people for the themes of the LAA. This will contribute to delivery of the Council's Priorities and to the achievement of the Council's Vision for the area.

10 OTHER OPTIONS CONSIDERED

10.1 None.

11 CONSULTATION

11.1 Cabinet members; the Section 151 Finance Officer; the Chief Executive and the Monitoring Officer have seen this report.

12 ISSUES TO CONSIDER IN REACHING THE DECISION

12.1 Social Inclusion; Customer Focus; Sustainability; Young People; Corporate; Other Legal Considerations

13 ADVICE SOUGHT

13.1 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.