AGENDA ITEM NO. 8
To: FSP BOARD
Date: 25 April 2006
From: Sara Rodriguez-Jimenez, Cambridgeshire County Council
CAMBRIDGESHIRE’S LOCAL AREA AGREEMENT (LAA): IMPLEMENTATION AND DELIVERY
1.0 PURPOSE
1.0 The purpose of this report is:
· To update the Board on the current status of Cambridgeshire’s LAA and highlight the way forward towards implementation, delivery and further development of the LAA.
2.0 BACKGROUND
2.1 The final draft of Cambridgeshire’s LAA has now been signed off by government and Cambridgeshire’s five Local Strategic Partnerships. A copy of the final draft is available at www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/partnerships/lsp
2.2 On March 23rd a national event took place to launch the second round of LAAs. Nationwide, sixty six areas are to be added to the first twenty one to have a Local Area Agreement in place. The Leader of the County Council and the Leader of Cambridge City Council represented Cambridgeshire at this event. The Key speakers at the event – David Milliband, Ruth Kelly and Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart- highlighted the importance of LAAs to service improvement at the local level and the expectations central government has of them. The main points made were:
· Engagement with partners across sectors via the LSP is essential to the effectiveness of local authorities. There needs to be change as to how we move forward in service delivery with fewer but more meaningful partnerships.
· LAAs reflect the importance of local delivery in a joined up way in line with other agendas such as Every Child Matters.
· Guidance on the third round of LAAs has now been published. The new guidance includes more funds pooled through the LAA and reflects a stronger commitment from central government (the new guidance can be found at www.odpm.gov.uk/pub/941/LocalAreaAgreementsGuidanceforRoundThreeandRefreshofRoundsOneandTwo_id1164941.pdf)
· The real potential is not just pooling funding but also working around the totality of public funding for a local area bringing together access through a single point and providing local government with an opportunity to drive rationalisation and efficiency
2.3 The partnerships involved to date in the development of the LAA will continue to have a strong role during implementation. Existing systems and structures for engagement and consultation were used whenever possible, but strong time pressures to reach milestones set by Go East meant a great deal of work was carried by officers in individual organisations. With the LAA in place, we now have an opportunity to refine our approach and ensure effective leadership and support to enable delivery and future development of the LAA.
3.0 GOVERNANCE ARRANGEMENTS
3.1 Partners agreed early in the process to set an overarching countywide structure to drive Cambridgeshire’s LAA and oversee delivery and performance. To this effect, an LAA Board is now in place and scheduled to have its first meeting on May 9th. The terms of reference for this Board together with a map of partnerships currently operating underneath it and a forward work programme for 2006 can be found in Appendix I of this report.
3.2 The sheer magnitude of the work required by the LAA and the vast number of partnerships with different boundaries, roles and capacity involved in this process make delivery and further development a very complex task. The arrangements put in place so far offer a starting point but it is likely that as the year progresses some arrangements may have to be reviewed, particularly once the impact of new policy developments such as the future role of LSPs becomes clearer.
3.3 The LAA Reference Group (LAARG) has revisited current partnership arrangements under the LAA Board and addressed questions of connectivity between groups and some other practical issues that have arisen as we move towards implementation. In order to ensure clarity of approach in early but critical stages the following decisions were made:
· Cambridgeshire County Council is best placed to drive the LAA countywide. To this effect, members of the County Council’s Strategic Management Team will lead on an LAA Block each and champion and drive forward priority outcomes and pull together key partners at the strategic level whenever necessary. Whenever possible leads will operate within existing partnerships for each of the blocks instead of forming new groups.
· The membership of the LAARG has been reviewed to create a smaller and more effective group whose membership mirrors that of the LAA Board, with organisations represented at senior level
· Members of the LAARG will be responsible for collective advice and decision making; taking tasks forward between meetings to achieve objectives and facilitating communication and engagement between their agency/partnership and the LAA Reference Group.
3.4 A joint workshop for members of the LAA Board and the LAARG has been scheduled to take place on 15 June. This workshop will provide a good opportunity to explain and embed the detail of partnership support arrangements under the LAA.
3.5 Local Strategic Partnerships are expected to drive the LAA locally and they should feed into the different blocks. There needs to be a programme of capacity building for LSPs in order to ensure they can successfully fulfil their role.
4.0 RECOMENDATIONS
4.1 Board Members are asked to note contents of the report
APPENDIX I
TERMS OF REFERENCE
The LAA Board will:
· Facilitate and deliver improvement to public services in the county by delivering the LAA vision.
· Provide the leadership required to achieve delivery of the LAA having regard to Community Strategies and Plans and other jointly agreed strategies.
· Improve partnership working be open to new ideas that will lead to continuous improvement.
· Ensure cross-cutting themes are explored and developed so that the full potential of the LAA can be realised
· Oversee the aligning - and pooling where appropriate- of resources to tackle priorities in the most cost-effective way for the communities it serves
· Oversee the effective use and management of resources
· Demonstrate flexibility and take account of the needs of different partners, different communities of interest and different localities.
· Maintain clarity as to where responsibility and accountability lie and identify and address areas of underperformance
· Play a central role in performance review and management to ensure priorities are being delivered
· Respond to Government reviews of the LAA
LAA Board members will:
· Ensure the bodies they represent sign up to the guidelines put forward in these governing principles
· Act as a link to their organisation and (where appropriate) Local Strategic Partnership link on all LAA issues
· Represent the views of the respective organisation or partnership and undertake decisions within appropriate frameworks
· Offer constructive challenge to matters arising at meetings
· Focus on the service user
· Promote partnership working within their own organisation where appropriate
· Strive to achieve consensus through flexible partnership approach
The LAA Board Chair will:
· Act as the spokes person for the LAA Board
· Preside over Board meetings
· Manage Board meetings effectively, adhering to agenda and time
· Develop partnership work through consensus management
· Secure agreement and clarity over actions
In fulfilling these roles, the LAA Board will be guided by the following principles:
Equality: celebrating Cambridgeshire’s diversity and recognising geographical, social and economic differences within the county and so respond appropriately to different needs
Partnership: working in partnership at the local, sub regional and regional level
Outcome Focus: ensuring the Board’s agenda and decision-making focus on outcomes and tangible progress towards LAA priorities
Inclusive Participation: recognising and supporting the role of all sectors in service delivery and empowering local communities to engage in shaping services
OBJECTIVES
The work programme for the LAA Board will be determined by the priorities and objectives set out in the Local Area Agreement Framework.
MEMBERSHIP
The Board will have 12 executive members drawn from businesses, Local Strategic Partnerships, the Children and Young People Strategic Partnership, public sector and voluntary and community sector organisations as follows:
District Councils / Local Strategic Partnerships / · Cllr Ian Nimmo-Smith, Leader of Cambridge City Council· Cllr Michael Bunting, Vice Chair of East Cambridgeshire Strategic Development Committee
· Tim Pilsbury, CEX Fenland District Council
· Cllr Ian Bates, Leader of Huntingdonshire District Council
· Cllr Sebastian Kindersley, Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council
Cambridgeshire County Council / · Cllr Keith Walters, Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council
· Cllr Shona Johnstone, Cabinet Member for Children & Young People’s Services
Cambridgeshire Constabulary / · Julie Spence, Chief Constable, Cambridgeshire Constabulary
Health / · Audrey Bradford, CEX East Cambs & Fenland PCT
Business / · Selwyn Image, SDI Consultants
Voluntary Sector / · Lynn Hogarth, CEX CCVYS
· Kirsten Bennett, CEX Cambridgeshire ACRE
The LAA Board will retain the right to co-opt additional members if/when appropriate.
PARTNERSHIP STRUCTURE
The Local Area Agreement builds on the work of our five District based LSPs and their Community Strategies.
The detail in each of the LAA blocks has been developed by existing partnerships already involved in priority setting and delivery over relevant areas. A list of partnerships involved in the development and delivery of the LAA can be found at the end of this document.
These partnerships will continue to play an important role in the delivery of LAA outcomes and targets and therefore need to be actively engaged in providing support and advice on specific issues to the LAA Reference Group and the LAA Board.
A countywide officer group –the LAA REFERENCE GROUP - that includes representation at the officer level from individual organisations and LSPs has carried out the overall coordination of the LAA development.
The LAA Reference Group will be an Executive for the LAA Board responsible for ensuring the right information and advice is provided to the LAA Board to facilitate appropriate decision-making, and providing important feed back to the organisations and partnerships represented in the LAA Reference Group.
LSP representation is important to provide the LAA Board with the appropriate locality focus. In addition, LSPs are a good potential vehicle for extensive community engagement capable of offering a good representation of local needs and views.
The Board may receive reports from any of its participating organisations and partnerships involved in delivering services included and/or affecting outcomes in the LAA.
MECHANISM FOR DECISION MAKING
It is important that agents representing an organisation have the delegated authority to take decisions on its behalf operating within the appropriate frameworks
Decisions need to be open to scrutiny and challenge, and the Board will seek consensus among members when reaching final decisions.
Procedures to resolve potential conflict of interests must also be in place that takes account of the complex membership of the LAA Board, which brings together representatives from individual organisations, partnerships and forums for businesses and voluntary sector.
A voting mechanism can be used to provide a steer if consensus cannot be reached. Each Board member will be allocated one vote.
The interaction between the LSPs, other relevant partnerships, the LAA Reference Group and the LAA Board must be taken into account in the development of a robust and supportive process that fits in with the decision making mechanisms within constituent partners.
A potential model for how the process could work is presented below:
ACCOUNTABILITY
Accountability to Government
One of the aims of the LAA process is to streamline, simplify and integrate existing performance management arrangements into one area-based framework.
It appears that for funding streams pooled in the LAA, current monitoring and reporting arrangements will be replaced by the need to only monitor and report those outcomes and targets agreed as part of the LAA, unless otherwise stated.
Local areas are expected to demonstrate they have agreed:
· Outcomes, indicators and targets
· Reporting chains between partners
· Robust processes for identifying locally when performance is succeeding or failing
· Partners’ responsibility for individual outcomes; and
· Clear mechanisms for identifying and addressing changes in performance against trajectories
The Government Office will conduct six-moth and annual reviews where partners will have to demonstrate their direction of travel towards achieving LAA outcomes.
Public Accountability
The LAA Board is accountable to the people of Cambridgeshire. It will be open and transparent in their decisions and activities and communicate them effectively to the public. The Board needs to ensure service users are involved in decision-making and operational activities through direct involvement and through consultation, and provide service users with the means for redress when things go wrong.
In order to achieve this the LAA Board will:
· Produce a progress against targets report to be published annually and presented in a public forum
· Demonstrate open decision making (all meetings of the LAA Board should be public)
· Document all decision making processes and have these available to the public
· Consult their local communities and develop joint communities consultation strategies
· Deal with complaints collaboratively and determine precisely which organisation is responsible for redress if things go wrong.
Arrangements for Scrutiny
There is potential for large amounts of public money to be channelled through the LAA. As the money will be channelled through the County Council, it will be the responsibility of the County Council’s auditors to ensure that these resources are properly managed and accounted for. There is however also a need to consider whether the LAA Board needs to be supported by scrutiny arrangements and, if so, how this might work. Potential scrutiny arrangements will be considered and firmed up in year one of the LAA.