The Local Government White Paper (published in October 2006) puts in place a new framework for strategic leadership in local areas, bringing together partners to focus on the needs of citizens and communities. It requires the LA and local partners to co-operate with each other to agree the priorities in a Local Area Agreement (LAA) - a new deal between central and local government on funding and what needs to be done in an area.
Monday's event, taking place at the East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, is an opportunity for all the key partners in the region to discuss how they can make this new LAA framework work for the region and deliver real and lasting improvements.
High on the agenda will be ensuring partners understand the future of LAAs and the timetable for change. The event will provide a real opportunity for partners to influence the design of LAAs and any accompanying operational guidance, giving partners a chance to say what has worked well and what needs to be put right for the next "generation" of LAAs, and providing insights into how the new LAA "model" is shaping up.
Phil Woolas, Minister for Local Government, said:
"By the end of April, every area in England will have a Local Area Agreement (LAA), meaning that local leaders have the flexibility they need to drive forward the most important issues in their communities."
"However this is not the end of the story but the beginning. By April 2008 all areas will have moved to a 'new look' LAA, enabling them to work in partnership with even more local bodies with even greater flexibility to tackle local priorities. The new LAA is all about practical solutions for issues which really matter for local people. This is devolution in practice, on the ground."
LAAs have already proved successful in the East Midlands. For example, the LAA is facilitating increased numbers and effectiveness of parenting groups across Leicestershire and increased range of parenting support services. Leicestershire developed an Inter-agency Parenting Strategy in 2004 when parenting support was identified as a priority for all agencies under the Local Preventative Strategy. As a consequence 2 parenting co-ordinator posts were funded in the Voluntary & Community Sector (VCS), one for parents with younger age children and the other for parents of older children.
These posts were funded by the Children's Fund and the Crime Reduction Partnership, ensuring that Leicestershire started from a strong foundation of multi agency commitment and involvement for the running and development of parenting groups.
The main advantage of the Parenting Strategy within the LAA is that this provides security and sustainability of funding. It has also brought in wider partnership commitment to meet the LAA target and through this engaged additional partners to the network of professionals who run parenting groups.
In addition, the LAA identified some under spend which it offered up for matched funding. A Borough Council expressed interest in utilising this funding to run parenting groups with a specific focus on anti social behaviour. The pilot is being progressed through a partnership between the Youth Offending Service and the Borough Council and this approach will be utilised as good practice to encourage other LAs within the Leicestershire LAA to pool funding to develop parenting programmes and appoint a post specific to running programmes with this focus.
