Our Local Area Agreement

Lambeth’s Local Area Agreement 2008-2011 (LAA) is a three-year action plan for improving Lambeth.

The LAA was developed by Lambeth First, Lambeth’s Local Strategic Partnership, and helps us to deliver the priorities outlined for the first three years of our Sustainable Community Strategy - Our 2020 Vision.

What is an LAA?

LAAs are three-year agreements between central government and the local area (represented here by Lambeth First) that set out the priorities for the community and how these are to be addressed.

LAAs help reduce bureaucracy by simplifying some central funding, joining up public services more effectively and allowing greater flexibility for local solutions to local circumstances.

The goal of an LAA is to:

• Ensure organisations such as public service providers and community groups work in partnership to achieve common solutions and objectives for the community
• Recognise that 'one size does not fit all' and local services should reflect what local people want
• Give more flexibility to local authorities and other public sector organisations in the ways they deliver services for local people
• Make local authorities and other public services more accountable to local people
• Reduce red-tape and improve value for money
• Enable local people to get more involved in decisions about local services.

Lambeth's LAA

Lambeth First developed the Lambeth borough’s LAA in consultation with central government. The LAA is important because it is the three-year delivery plan for the Sustainable Community Strategy, which sets out the specific areas of focus for Lambeth First over a three year period.

Lambeth’s LAA contains 35 national performance indicators, plus four local performance indicators, which are being used to measure how successfully Lambeth First is progressing towards the vision set out in its Sustainable Community Strategy.

It also focuses on issues affecting worklessness, skills and barriers to employment, and targets issues that can make the borough a less attractive place to set up business and a difficult place to live and work, such as high levels of crime.

Some of the LAA indicators core to the Sustainable Community Strategy are:

• The overall employment rate and the take up of work benefits in worst performing areas
• 16-18 year olds, as well as young offenders, not in education employment or training
• Take up of formal childcare by low-income working families
• Offenders in employment at the end of their order or licence
• Achievement of a level 2 qualification by age 19 years old and among the working age population
• Perceptions of drug use and local concerns about antisocial behaviour
• Migrants’ English language skills
• Number of children in poverty, children involved in positive activities and stability of placements of looked after children.

The LAA considers in earnest what it means to really involve people in both local decision making and local delivery. For example, a local indicator on the level of volunteering has been included and the LAA includes performance indicators from the new ‘Place Survey’ that measures levels of satisfaction among local people for a variety of local issues, including how much they can influence decisions locally.

Lambeth’s LAA is being delivered by a variety of partners from Lambeth First through existing and new working arrangements that cross organisational boundaries.

There is no additional funding associated with the LAA, rather an expectation that the statutory and voluntary partners of Lambeth First will pool existing resources effectively in support of shared objectives and common outcomes for residents of the borough.

Useful documents

• For a full list of indicators and targets see the LAA submission to GOL - http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/aio/8621645
• Our Local Area Agreement fact sheet
• Our 2020 Vision: Lambeth’s Sustainable Community Strategy
• Lambeth First fact sheet Our 2020 Vision: Lambeth’s Sustainable
  Community Strategy
• LAA story of place
• Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities Statutory Guidance by Department of Communities and Local Government, published in July 2008