Based on Sustainable Community Strategies, LAAs cover a three year period and set out priorities for local areas. LAAs are structured around four themes:
- Children and young people
- Safer and stronger communities
- Healthier communities and older people
- Economic development and enterprise (introduced from Round 2 onwards)
Government Offices have been given the leading role in negotiating LAAs. This is because they provide local partners with a single point of contact with central Government, and are better able to respond to local issues because of their local knowledge.
Government Offices work to negotiate clear targets and outcomes with local authorities and their partners, who will then have the freedom to decide locally how best to achieve them. LAAs will also simplify funding streams, allowing greater discretion with the use of funding, and reduce the bureaucracy attached to multiple funding streams.
Both Local Public Service Agreements and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) can also form part of an LAA, with the NRF maintaining its focus on deprived areas and the attainment of targets. Where local partners agree targets that stretch performance beyond what would have been expected, they will be rewarded for the extra performance.
To date, there have been two rounds of LAAs. Further information on these can be found on the Round 1 and Round 2 pages of the website.
The third, and final round - Round 3 - is now underway, with the aim of LAAs being rolled out to all top tier authorities by March 2007. LAAs are becoming increasingly ambitious. Round 2 areas looked beyond funding streams and reflected a wider range of shared social, economic and environmental priorities across localities. Round 3 LAAs will look to build further on the way in which crucial business gets done between partners in a locality and between that locality and Government.
Further guidance on Round 3 and refreshing Rounds 1 and 2 is available on the Department for Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) website listed below.
