Overview

Local Area Agreements (LAA) were introduced by central government in 2005. They are written agreements which set out how public, voluntary and private sector bodies within an area will work together to improve the quality of life for residents over a three year period. The agreements are signed between central government and local government with local government responsible for bringing together local partners through the Local Strategic Partnership. The agreement lays out the priority outcomes (positive changes) for an area, the indicators which measure the achievement of those outcomes (e.g. reduce overall crime) and an explanation of how the outcomes are to be delivered (through services and projects).

Leicestershire’s First LAA 2006 - 2008

An LAA for Leicestershire was signed in April 2006 to cover the period 2006-09. It is arranged into the following seven themes:

Children and Young People, Cleaner and Greener, Economic Development, Healthier Communities, Older People, Safer Communities, Stronger Communities

In aiming to improve the quality of life in those themes the first LAA for Leicestershire had the following ambition:

“…….better co-ordination of service delivery on the ground, better identification and targeting of assistance to vulnerable people and more integrated strategic planning and priority setting between agencies.”

Follow this link to the LAA 2006 - 2008

For performance information on the first LAA follow this link

Changes to the Local Area Agreement Framework

The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 brings in a range of changes to the relationship between central and local government which includes:

• A duty to prepare a Local Area Agreement for upper tier local authorities with new Local Area Agreements required across the country for 2008
• New duties on named organisations to co-operate in agreeing priorites within the Local Area Agreement and the have regard for those priorities in their plans
• An enhanced duty to inform, involve and engage local communities in strategic decisions and service delivery
• A new National Indicator Set of 198 indicators which comprises all central government’s priorities for local government and what it does in partnership.

The following web links contain more information on the Local Government Act  and the new national performance framework

Current Developments in Leicestershire’s New LAA  can be found here: