REPORT TO:Executive Board
REPORT NO:CE/12/09
DATE:28 April 2008
LEAD MEMBER:Councillor Aled Roberts
(Corporate Leadership and Children (Schools and Corporate Parenting)
LEAD OFFICER:Chief Executive
CONTACT OFFICER:Rachel Spurr (Tel: 292259)
SUBJECT:Local Service Board – Local Delivery Agreement 2009/10
WARD:N/A
1.PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
To provide Members with information on the proposed Local Service Board (LSB) Local Delivery Agreement (LDA) projects for 2009/10 and to gain their views on services to be considered as part of one of these projects.
2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2.1Each year, the Wrexham Local Service Board (LSB) is required to identify and agree with the Welsh Assembly Government key projects it will undertake, that will have a positive impact on public service customers. These projects form the Local Delivery Agreement (LDA). In 2008/09 three projects were identified. Two of these have now been progressed sufficiently and will be passed back to the relevant partnership group to manage. One of these projects, mental health, will continue into 2009/10.
2.2Another project which met specific criteria to be considered as an LDA project has also been proposed. Currently known as Team Around the Person (TAP), this is a signposting service to give people information and advice on services and opportunities available from across all the LSB organisations.
2.3Executive Board is asked to note these two projects and provide suggestions for the type of areas to be covered by the TAP project.
- RECOMMENDATIONS
3.1Note the proposed projects for the LDA and provide suggestions for what services to include in the TAP project.
REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS
The Local Service Board must have an agreed Local Delivery Agreement (LDA) each year. The two projects included in the LDA for 2009/10 will impact on many Wrexham citizens and have the potential to greatly improve people’s quality of life.
Isobel Garner
Chief Executive
4.BACKGROUND INFORMATION
4.1Each year, the Wrexham Local Service Board (LSB) is required to identify and agree with the Welsh Assembly Government key projects it will undertake, that will have a positive impact on public service customers. These projects form the Local Delivery Agreement (LDA). In 2008/09 there were three projects in the LDA covering Cohesion, Emotional Health and Well-being of Children and Young People and Improving the quality of life for those individuals with Mental Health problems. The first two projects have now progressed to a stage where they no longer need the input of the LSB and their implementation will be passed back to the relevant Partnership Group to manage. The third project on Mental Health is part way through its implementation and still requires an input from the LSB, so will be carried forward into the 2009/10 LDA. Further information on these projects will be provided to all members in an annual report due out in June.
4.2Over the last three months the LSB has been exploring new potential project areas for the 2009/10 LDA. It is important to note that any project that is suggested must meet a set of criteria to ensure that the LSB’s involvement will add value and not just be another layer of bureaucracy. The criteria include:
- Is the project citizen centred? (How many citizens’ lives will it impact on?)
- Is the project complementary to existing work in the field?
- Does the project add value (e.g. unblocking, awareness raising and leadership)?
- Does the project involve at least two organisations?
- Does the resulting LSB work plan generate action plans that can be incorporated into existing organisational/partnership business plans?
- Does the project link to the Community Strategy?
4.3This has resulted in the identification of one new project for inclusion in the LDA for 2009/10. The project called ‘Team Around the Person’ (TAP) is about building on the contact that many organisations have with citizens in their own homes – particularly with vulnerable people. This project aims to help identify other needs or wants that an individual may have or opportunities they could take.
4.4The intention is that during a visit to their home, an employee will work through a short list of questions with an individual and then signpost them to an appropriate wide-range of information and advice services to help improve their quality of life. For example, a person carrying out a fire-safety check could offer information on, or contact details for, other services or support that the individual may not know is available – for example learning opportunities, family support or welfare rights.
4.5This means that any organisation who visits people in their own homes can provide a much wider service and help answer queries or put people in contact with someone who can, providing a much improved personal service to the citizens of Wrexham County Borough. It is likely that this service will be piloted in the first instance, for example, it may cover a limited number of issues, and be carried out by a small selection of staff from the LSB organisations.
4.6To ensure that the services covered by the TAP project are citizen focussed, consultation will take place on a range of services to ascertain what would be most useful – this will be carried out during the Community Extravaganza. Therefore, Executive Board is asked to suggest potential services to be included in this consultation.
5.CONSULTATION
5.1The Local Delivery Agreement projects have been chosen through consultation with reach of the individual LSB members bringing forward the issues that they know are important to the people of Wrexham. In particular the TAP project meets a lot of the areas to improve upon that were identified in the Community Strategy consultation which took place during 2008.
5.2A general LSB update was reported to Corporate Governance and Policy Scrutiny Committee on 1 April 2009. This included information on the two LDA proposed projects as well as the process to be followed on scrutinising the LSB. Minutes of this Scrutiny Committee are reported below in para 6.1.
6.SCRUTINY COMMITTEE COMMENTS
6.1At the Corporate Governance & Policy Scrutiny Committee meeting of 1 April 2009, the Chief Executive submitted a report, (CE/10/09S), to provide Members with information on the proposed Local Service Board (LSB) Local Delivery Agreement (LDA) and further detail on the practical arrangements for scrutiny of the Wrexham Local Service Board.
6.2In giving consideration to the proposed LDA, Members commented as follows:
- Clarification was sought regarding the practicalities of the proposed new project “Team Around the Person”. The Economic Development Manager emphasised the importance of training required for organisations to ensure the success of this project and that it would be necessary to provide training on an incremental basis. The Chief Finance and Performance Officer reported that the aim of the project was to provide Officers of various organisations with a wider knowledge base, thereby enabling them to direct people to the availability of other services, not solely Council services. He reported that apart from training costs, there would be no resource implications.
- Concerns were expressed in respect of the issue of duplication and the need to ensure that TAP would provide added value. The Chair emphasised that as this Council was the project sponsor, investigation would need to be undertaken into measurement of outcomes. The Economic Development Manager reported that it was necessary for any project suggested to the Local Service Board to meet the list of criteria detailed in the report to ensure that the LSB’s involvement would add value.
- Clarification was sought in respect of progress to date on the Mental Health project and the Chief Finance and Performance Officer reported that information would be provided within the Annual Report of the Local Service Board that would be available to all Members in May 2009.
6.3The Scrutiny Committee agreed to note the report and requested that its views in respect of the proposed “Team around the Person” project be reported to the LSB."
7IMPLICATIONS
7.1Policy Framework –This work contributes to meeting the aims of Wrexham’s Community Strategy which was approved by Full Council in December 2008.
7.2Budget–There are no budget implications for the Council.
7.3Legal–There are no legal implications contained within this report.
7.3Staffing –There are no staffing implications contained within this report.
7.4Diversity (Equalities)–An impact assessment will be carried out as part of the development of the Team Around the Person project.
BACKGROUND PAPERS / LOCATION / WEBSITE INFO.CFPO/124/08 – Wrexham’s Community Strategy – Full Council report
CE/10/09S – Local Service Board update – Corporate Governance and Policy Scrutiny Committee report