www.wiltshire.gov.uk
Wiltshire Local Area Agreement Newsletter - Issue 5
Introduction
Time is marching on with the first submission date of the initial draft to GOSW being 30th November. The block leads are working hard with their respective groups to ensure that their Outcomes and Sub-Outcomes are owned by specific agencies, have measurable targets and identify the activities that will enable successful delivery. These work groups span across the public, private and voluntary sectors. It is vital that the LAA contains achievable goals and is realistic about its impact especially within the first year. Also, named officers and councillors have been put forward by each district council to take the lead for one of the six blocks.
WiSB Conference – Wednesday 18th October 2006
WiSB’s annual conference was attended by over ninety delegates from many different agencies, again spanning across the aforementioned sectors. The morning comprised of a series of presentations about the LAA, after a welcome given by Jane Scott, Chair of WiSB.
Huw Lloyd-Jones gave a GOSW overview
Keith Robinson, Chief Executive of Wiltshire County Council presented, “A view from the statutory sector of the LAA.”
Margaret West, Chief Officer, Voluntary Action Kennet gave a presentation on “Why the LAA is important to the Voluntary Sector, and how the process could contribute to building stronger communities.”
Andrew Pate, Chief executive, West Wiltshire District Council presented some ideas on how Governance might be managed under the new agreement. This was part of the ongoing work of the Wiltshire Improvement Partnership (WIP).
A plenary discussion then took place where several points were made and questions were raised. The following is a summary of the comments and questions;
More attention needs to be given to impaired 60-65 year olds.
Equalities and diversity is missing
Is the LAA philosophy driven or money driven?
How can un-elected bodies dictate or influence elected bodies?
Where is affordable housing?
Local area’s – what does this mean?
Are the current WiSB priorities correct?
Local Government White Paper – will this conflict with organisational targets?
Should not the outcomes be reduced to a manageable amount?
After refreshments delegates were split into six work groups and asked three questions:
What would you expect to see happening in a ‘strong’ community? How would we recognise such communities?
Can you identify three critical success factors of the LAA (e.g. communications, governance, resources, trust, Government flexibilities) and suggest how we can maximise their success?
For each of the LAA blocks, is anything missing or anything you think is a lower priority?
Consultation and getting involved
Detailed feedback from these groups can be found on the WiSB website by following the link below. A number of people have requested to be kept update with the progression of the LAA (via newsletter and the like) and others expressed an interest to be more involved. We would welcome your feedback on the developing LAA and the community strategy. A draft framework for the revised Sustainable Strategy for Wiltshire 2006-2016 was agreed, as a basis consultation, by the Strategic Board at its September meeting. The document, and guidance on how to respond, has been circulated and is available on the Wiltshire Strategic Board area of Wiltshire County Council website www.wiltshire.gov.uk under WCC Partnerships All partners are encouraged to stimulate as wide a debate as possible on the draft Strategy Framework over the next few weeks. The consultation ends on 21st November 2006.
The consultation results, along with the agreed Local Area Agreement, will be used to prepare a final version of the Strategy for the Board to discuss at its meeting on 5th March 2007. It is intended to use the skills of a journalist to produce a version that is easy for the general reader to understand. Contact: davidmaynard@wiltshire.gov.uk.
If you would like to contribute to any of the LAA blocks, please use the contacts shown at the end of this newsletter.
Government White Paper
It was no surprise that the Government White Paper “Strong and Prosperous Communities” mentions LAA’s as key for improvement to service delivery in the coming years. In particular, chapter 5, page 93 is devoted to LAA’s and the role of LSP’s. Volume one can be downloaded via this link: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1503999
Next Steps
The draft LAA is now being formed and will be submitted for consideration to the Project Board on the 15th November. Once agreement on format and content is reached the draft LAA will then be submitted to the next meeting of WiSBex on the 30th November and then as stated above, once approved the first submission to GOSW will be made. There then follows a period of negotiation and further development work. The final submission to Whitehall will be in March 2007.
Contact details
By Post
Paul Bright
Partnership and Performance Manager
Chief Executive's Office
County Hall
Trowbridge
Wiltshire
BA14 8JF
By Telephone
01225 713094
By Email
Opening hours
Monday - Friday 9am to 5pm
