Weekly update on LAA

Progress with choice of new Local Area Agreement priorities

At their meeting 7 January 2008, the Public Service Board agreed a long list of priority issues to be taken forward in the new Local Area Agreement (LAA2). Each of these issues was linked both to the draft Sustainable Community Strategy priorities and to one or more indicators from the National Indicator Set.

For each of the priority issues, a partnership or organisation was been identified to lead on developing proposals to address the priorities (The partnerships /organisation with responsibility for each set of proposals is shown in the table at the end of this document.)

Completed proposals must be submitted by 28 January 2008, and will be reviewed initially by the LAA2 Steering Group (membership at the end of this document) before discussion at the Public Service Board (PSB) on 5 February 2008.

Each of the proposals must link to a single indicator from the National Indicator Set and include:

• information on the current level of performance and recent trends
• the level of improvement performance that could be expected between April 2008 and March 2011
• an overall plan of the work that will be carried out to deliver the improvement and the resources required to carry out the plans

First formal submission to GOSE

On 15 January 2008, we made the first formal submission to GOSE as part of the LAA2 development process. The document contained:

• the long list of priorities and related indicators agreed by the Public Service Board on 7 January,
• contextual information on the key themes of World Class Economy, Healthy & Thriving Communities and the Environment & Climate Change.
• an overview of priorities identified in the draft Sustainable Community Strategy.

We have received initial positive feedback from the Oxfordshire Locality Manager at GOSE, Di Morrish, and await formal feedback from her at the Oxfordshire Chief Executives’ on 24 January 2008.

Next steps: 6 February 2008 onwards

On 5 February 2008 the Public Service Board will reduce the submitted proposals to a short list (up to a maximum of 35) that will form the basis of the new Local Area Agreement (LAA2). The range of proposals chosen will reflect a balance of the priorities identified in the draft Sustainable Community Strategy and will be the subject of detailed negotiation with Government Office for the South East (GOSE) to agree the level of improvement required for each i.e. the targets.

The negotiations with GOSE must be completed by the third week in February 2008, so that a draft LAA2 can be circulated to the Public Service Board and then the Oxfordshire Partnership ready for their meetings in early March.

All organisations involved in developing and delivering LAA2 will be expected to gain formal agreement for the draft LAA2. As far as the government prescribed process is concerned, the county council is the lead authority and the county council cabinet will need to sign-off the LAA2 final draft at their meeting on 18 March 2008, so that it can be submitted to GOSE before March 31st 2008.

In April and May, further negotiation will take place on the targets with central government departments, with the LAA2 being finally agreed by central government in early June 2008.

Key dates

• 28 Jan Deadline for submission of proposals for review by Public Service Board
• 5 Feb Public Service Board - review of long-list of LAA2 proposals
• 4 Mar Public Service Board – agree draft LAA2
• 7 Mar Oxfordshire Partnership meeting – review draft LAA2
• 18 Mar County Council Cabinet – sign-off draft LAA2
• 31 Mar Deadline for submission of draft LAA2 to GOSE
• June LAA2 agreed with central government

Feedback

Please let us know if there is any other LAA2 related information that you would like to see covered in future weekly updates by contacting the Oxfordshire Partnership.

LAA2 Steering Group membership

• Andrea Young, Oxfordshire PCT
• Peter Sloman, Oxford City Council representing district councils
• Shaun Morley, Thames Valley Police
• Di Morrish, Government Office for the South East
• Stephen Capaldi, Oxfordshire County Council

 Lead officers for developing LAA2 proposals