Summary of District Council and LSP

Appendix C

Summary of District Council and LSP

Feedbackto the developing draftHertfordshire Local Area Agreement

At 11 January 2006

To date Cllr Derrick Ashley, Sue Nelson, and Keith Shephard have visited ThreeRivers, Stevenage, East Herts, Watford, Hertsmere, North Herts and St Albans Councils and LSPs. Since this has been an iterative process, some of the principles proposed and issues raised at the first meeting at Three Rivers on the 3rd January have been developed further. The table below sets this position out.

The remaining 3 Districts and LSPs will be visited over the next couple of weeks in order to discuss these principles and identify whether there are any ‘deal breakers’ for the Local Area Agreement that we need to know about.

The substance of this table will contribute to the paper to the Hertfordshire Leaders group on the 18th January on LAA, and will ultimately inform the partnership agreement that will be written to underpin LAA working.

Issue / Principle proposed by HCC / Fine Tuning proposed by Districts and LSPs? / Alternative suggestions?
Timing of the agreement / That we go for an agreement from April 2006. / If necessary we will only sign a majority of the stretch targets in 2006, leaving the remaining minority to be worked up and signed the following April 07 (the effects of this will be the reward attached to the later stretch targets will come a year later) / Negotiate a time lapse on the agreement with ODPM- signing the whole thing in October 06
Principle for allocating Pump Priming Grant
(£1.8 million available in April ’06 on signing of the agreement). / £180,000 already ‘top sliced’ for Voluntary and Community Sector (target development) and Stevenage Borough Council (block coordination).
£1.62 million remaining to be split across the Block partnerships based on proportion of stretch target that each block is responsible for. Principle that this money is used to cover costs of partners in delivering stretch targets. The ‘block lead’ to inform discussion within each block partnership about best allcation of resources, having first sought views of partners who will be actively involved in delivering targets. / Need clarification from Go-EAST that application for £180,000 to be ‘top sliced’ is acceptable.
Principle for allocating Performance Reward Grant
(£27 million potential, payable in 09/10 and 10/11). / Split 50% to 4 countywide partnerships via Herts Forward, and 5% to each District based LSP.
This funding split is not based on assessing or weighting the relative performance of individual institutions or partnerships (but is subject to the checks and balances of the performance management and accountability arrangements set out below).
Principle that this funding will have no strings attached – can be used by partnerships to meet needs identified by them in 3 years time, once the ‘reward’ is made available. / Consider different split if less than 100% Performance Reward Grant is achieved, on the basis that devolution of reward and local delivery of services is a priority. For example, at 50% reward achievement, the proportion allocated to LSPs might be 8% (80% of the total reward). / Consider a more complex allocation method where ‘effort’ is measured and rewarded. Others believe this will be too complex and potentially divisive for the emerging partnership.
Decision making and accountability / Principle that decision making should be transparent and devolved, with a clear ladder of responsibility.
LSP/District Council policy officers and and Block/target leads to meet quarterly to discuss progress on targets, issues/disputes initially dealt with at this level, then referred to Chief Executives Coordinating Group and after to Herts Forward as appropriate. HCC as accountable body, is the ultimate arbiter of dispute.
Annual ‘refresh’ of the agreement will involve all LSPs, District Councils and Herts Forward partners (including the 4 blocks) – via the (new) Herts Forward Conference. This will incorporate learning and new ideas (for targets and freedoms and flexibilities).
Performance Management and scrutiny / HCC’s existing performance management (“SAP”) system will be the host system.
Target leads will be responsible for ensuring that information is fed into the system (supported by partners actively involved in the delivery of each target).
Transparent system – published on Hertfordshire Observatory quarterly in arrears. / Some districts may have the capacity to support this work – but others may not. Need to look into the potential for some districts to input data, with arrangements to be agreed.
Make sure Performance Indicators are the same as those already being collected as much as possible – don’t want a new industry around this
Delivery of stretch targets / There are three levels of involvement in each stretch target.
1 - Each target has a ‘lead’ organisation, responsible for coordinating effort on the delivery of each target.
2 - Other partners will actively support the target by supporting the delivery of services and collection of data at a local level
3 – Everyone else in the agreement is a ‘sleeping partner’ for that specific target i.e. will not necessarily be asked to contribute at all unless they have expertise they can offer to support to the county targets, and ensuring maintenance of levels of current performance where relevant to the stretch target. / Districts and LSPs want to be clear that they are able to deliver on targets – so need as much clarity as possible now. Block Leads will be asked to consider how to provide the maximum information to partners in February. Partners to respond to the information offered in the same month i.e. before the agreement is sent to ODPM on the 27th February.