Government signs off excellent Local Area Agreement

BARNSLEY’s ambitious new-style Local Area Agreement (LAA) has been signed off by Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Government sign off of the LAA was the final step in the approval process and now formalises the agreement, which is a cross-partnership plan to improve services and the quality of life in the borough.

In a letter to the council’s chief executive Phil Coppard, Ms Blears states that: “Negotiations have progressed well over the last few months, resulting in an excellent LAA tackling some of the most difficult and cross-cutting challenges in your area.

“The focus now moves to delivery of the LAA and how you and partners will use it to make a difference to public services and the quality of life for people in your community.”

Local Area Agreements are developed by the council, working along with partners, and are about providing a framework for delivering local priorities in response to circumstances and needs, as well as  identifying innovative solutions to bring about improvement that is most appropriate to that individual area. These solutions have to be measured against set targets and reported back to government. Barnsley has a total of 89 targets in order to address the borough’s priority areas identified by the public in the sustainable communities plan, of which 30 are government-set and correspond with national targets.

Among the targets are: Increasing community cohesion, reducing re-offending of young people, reducing obesity among schoolchildren, reducing carbon emissions, reducing the proportion of children in poverty, increasing the number of vulnerable people achieving independent living, reducing and avoiding road congestion, and much more.

Targets will involve working with a number of partners both locally and nationally, including the police, Primary Care Trust and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive, as well as a large number of others who have formally signed up to deliver on a particular target.

The LAA will be subject to ongoing monitoring and an annual review process, with some targets subject to measurement via a place survey, which will be sent out in the autumn.
 
Cllr Steve Houghton, Leader of Barnsley Council, said: “The new-style LAA heralds a new relationship between central and local government and partnership working with others to deliver local improvement priorities over the next three years. The council is committed to working with others to deliver on these targets.”

• Barnsley's Local Area Agreement 2008-2011

ENDS