Update on Local Area Agreements (LAA) for Hertfordshire

Information on the latest LAA developments.

What is an LAA?

An LAA for Hertfordshire was agreed between Hertfordshire Forward (the county’s Local Strategic Partnership) and GO-East, setting targets for improving quality of life in Hertfordshire in the years April 2006 to March 2009.

The first LAA is divided into four areas or blocks: 

• Children & Young People
• Economic Development and Enterprise
• Healthy Communities and Older People
• Safer and Stronger Communities

A new LAA will be signed to start in 2008/09, alongside the final year of LAA1. This will reflect the Sustainable Community Strategy for Hertfordshire, and contain a limited number of targets taken from published national indicators.

In effect the LAA is the delivery plan for Hertfordshire Forward, and the new LAA will be consistent with the Sustainable Community Strategy for Hertfordshire, on which Hertfordshire Forward finished consulting on in March 2008. Like the East of England Plan and Welwyn Hatfield Alliance’s Community Plan, the new LAA looks forward to 2021. Local elements need to be compatible with each District Local Strategic Partnership’s (LSP) Community Plan.

The current draft of the Sustainable Community Strategy identifies nine strands that are designed to be more neatly matched to the priorities and interests of partners than the four blocks, into which some activities looked rather artificially forced. These strands are:

• Jobs, prosperity and skills
• Safer and stronger communities
• Children and young people
• An ageing population
• Health and well-being
• Affordable housing and quality neighbourhoods
• Transport and access
• Sustaining Hertfordshire’s unique character and quality of life
• Promoting sustainable development

The new county-wide strands are a very close fit with the nine Lead Partnerships of the Alliance, which have been active since 2004.

Finance

Rewards come through additional funding in 2009/10 and 2010/11, totalling up to £30m for the county if all targets are met. Half would be paid to Hertfordshire Forward, the rest split (probably equally) between ten district LSPs.  It is likely that the whole of the reward grant for a specific target will be available if 60% of the intended improvement is evident. On that basis HCC currently estimates that the total reward will be between £17m and £21m. This would mean at least £400,000 to the Alliance in each of 2009/10 and 2010/11, to be re-invested in partnership working through the new LAA.

The whole of the “LAA grant” is notionally available for spending in whatever way local authorities think will deliver the agreed outcomes, in contrast to the previous arrangement where funds were ring-fenced against specific blocks.

There is no additional funding attached to LAA until the reward arrives.

Current targets

Good progress is evident on several targets, which are on track to surpass the commitments made and targets declared. Some of the targets, however, appear over-ambitious and even as we approach the final year of LAA1, a few still do not have a robust baseline to work from. The first LAA and its targets did not fully achieve input from all the partners that have endorsed it, nor in some cases from the partners on whom delivery would depend.

National Indicators have been published and partners’ performance will be judged against the new Comprehensive Area Assessment by the Audit Commission.  GO-East will review the new LAA in autumn/winter 2008/09 and then annually, drawing on the Comprehensive Area Assessment, and in parallel with frameworks specific to each sector or organisation.

New targets and indicators

Welwyn Hatfield is specifically singled out on a couple of targets where our starting point makes us a high priority. These mainly relate to young people (such as trying to reduce the number of young people not in education employment or training (NEET)) and education, where WHBC does not have the primary responsibility. We are, however, involved with the District Children’s Trust Partnership, which includes partners better able to serve these interests.

New LAA will include up to 35 indicators from the suite of 198 National Indicators recently published by government. Local partners are free to add additional targets that they think are relevant and helpful.

Accountability

Hertfordshire Forward is not a legal corporate entity, so Hertfordshire County Council is the accountable body. Hertfordshire County Council Cabinet has the ultimate say on the LAA.

The Hertfordshire County Council Strategic Policy Unit is increasingly involving District Council Members in both LAA1 and new-LAA, which helps to localise ownership. The consolidation of the Alliance Community Plan with the WHBC Corporate Plan helps the Borough Council to represent the interests of its partners in speaking up for Welwyn Hatfield. At the same time, making LAA the delivery plan for the Alliance last year ensures we are ready to track LAA policy developments as they occur.

Further information

Hertfordshire Forward website
My Herts LAA website

Or contact the Alliance on alliance@welhat.gov.uk