Managing the LAA

As part of the management of the LAA there are several areas of work that the central team is responsible for developing. These are performance management, risk management, governance, finance and communications.

Performance management framework

In order to drive forward the LAA it is essential that it is supported by robust performance management arrangements. The PSB has agreed a performance management framework for the LAA. The framework covers:

• Roles and responsibilities of target leads, data owners and those involved in performance management (what they need to provide in terms of performance information
• Monitoring and reporting arrangements, both to the PSB and thematic partnerships
• The type of information that the PSB requires to enable them to make an informed assessment of performance at regular intervals

The Performance and Review Team at Oxfordshire County Council is responsible for

• Overseeing current performance against targets and compiling regular performance reports the PSB
• Developing the performance management framework and supporting thematic partnerships in this work

Risk management

Thematic partnerships are responsible for managing risks (strategic and target delivery). They are supported in this by the performance and review team. Target leads manage LAA target delivery risks and escalate these to the thematic partnership. Any significant risks are escalated to the PSB for high level intervention.

Governance

Clear governance arrangements are essential to an effective and successful LAA. Governance arrangements for the Public Service Board are outlined in the Partnership Governance Framework.

It is important that all thematic partnerships have robust governance arrangements particularly as the LAA develops and financial responsibility increases. The guidelines are set out in the 2009 governance handbook.  

Finance

Pooled funding - Area Based Grant

Government is using the LAA as a way to allocate and distribute area based funding through pooled arrangements. The aim is to give areas greater flexibility on the use of funding and to simplify reporting arrangements.

A number of funding streams are automatically being pooled through the LAA. Over £43m of previous grant funding is coming to Oxfordshire through the LAA in 2010/11. See the Area Based Grant page for more information.

Pump priming grant

For our first LAA 2006-09 we were given £1,198,575 in pump priming money to 'kick-start' the projects to deliver our stretch targets. This money was allocated proportionately to all stretch targets with a further allocation towards the development of an integrated performance management system.

Performance reward grant

In our current LAA we stand to achieve £3.7 million if we achieve all of our targets. Reward will be calculated based on an average of performance on our targets and is payable once we achieve 60% of the target.

There is a potential reward grant of £16,349,425 available for our LAA1 stretch targets. In December 2009 we claimed £8.5 million but we hope to make a second claim for the adult skills target in 2010.

The Public Service Board agreed that 50 per cent of any reward grant awarded will be used to support new and innovative partnership projects. The remaining 50 per cent of the reward grant will be distributed amongst partners involved in delivering the target. The PSB has agreed proposals for distribution of reward grant recommended by the partnership boards.

Communications

The partnership communications strategy outlines the standards for all our communications and partners' roles and responsibilities in respect of communications.

• Local Area Agreement
• Managing the LAA
• Managing the LAA

Oxfordshire Partnership website is hosted by:
Oxfordshire County Council, County Hall, New Road, OX1 1ND