Local Area Agreement

Local area agreements (LAAs) are three-year agreements, based on the local sustainable community strategy, setting out the priorities for a local area, as agreed between central government and the local area. LAAs are about 'place-shaping', a term coined in the March 2007 Lyons Inquiry report and defined there as 'the creative use of powers and influence to promote the general well-being of a community and its citizens'.

In Essex, the LAA is a joint project between the county's thirteen Local Strategic Partnerships. It represents a real agreement between partners and is designed to bring a step-change in the collective effectiveness of the whole public sector in Essex.

The primary objective of LAAs is to deliver genuinely sustainable communities through better outcomes for local people.

Secondary objectives of LAAs are to:

• Improve central and local government relations
• Enhance efficiency
• Strengthen partnership working
• Offer a framework within which local authorities can enhance their community leadership role.

LAAs are intended to devolve decision making from Whitehall to the local area and reduce bureaucracy.

Successful LAAs:

• Simplify central funding
• Join up public services more effectively
• Allow greater flexibility for developing local solutions and targeting funding towards local priorities.

Following the 2006 local government white paper, Strong and prosperous communities, new LAA delivery will be measured by a single national performance framework, replacing the multiple frameworks under which local authorities previously operated.

The New Performance Framework for Local Authorities and Local Authority Partnerships is intended to:

• Strengthen accountability to citizens and communities
• Give greater responsibility to local authorities and their partners for securing improvements in services
• Provide a better balance between national and local priorities
• Improve the arrangements for external assessment and inspection
• Streamline the process for providing improvement support and intervention for authorities struggling to deliver agreed outcomes for local people.

The new framework contains 198 national indicators (NIs). The delivery of LAAs will be measured against all of these, but each LSP will have chosen up to 35 as 'designated targets' to help them meet local priorities over a three-year period. Where there are priorities not covered by the designated targets, LSPs will need to identify additional local targets, which will have equal importance with the 35 designated targets.

In 2007 the Essex Partnership began consulting on the second LAA for Essex - Essex LAA2 and in March 2008 Harlow 2020 formed the Harlow LAA2 task and finish group to examine each of the Essex LAA's targets. The group discussed whether, as a Partnership, Harlow 2020 would be able to 'add value' and make a contribution towards achieving each target. These targets were prioritised and are identified as such in the Essex and Harlow document. For those targets which Harlow 2020 did not prioritise, it was agreed that the Partnership will still have a role to play in monitoring the progress toward achieving the target and offering support and assistance to the relevant lead agency when appropriate.

• To download a copy of the Essex LAA, please click here