Frequently Asked Questions
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What is Cambridgeshire's LAA?
Local Area Agreements (LAAs) are where local authorities and partner agencies work together to improve the area they serve.
Cambridgeshire's LAA is a partnership agreement between the county's public agencies. It was launched in April 2006 and is led by a board of local authority members and senior decision makers from the County Council and five District Councils, the police, health, business representatives and the vountary and community sector.
The LAA Board is called Cambridgeshire Together, to emphasise the importance of joint multi-agency working in implementing the LAA's actions and improving service delivery. A reference group of officers supports the LAA Board.
Why have an LAA?
It improves co-ordination between central government, local authorities and partner agencies working through our Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs). This is particularly important given the challenges and opportunities of the Growth Agenda.
It maps around £400 million of resources for the county, with £5.2 million centrally pooled in 2007/08.
It brings together targets from key plans and strategies.
How does it work?
Cross-cutting themes have been identified within Cambridgeshire's Community Strategies to set the basis for the LAA's strategic outcomes and priorities.
What is a Local Strategic Partnership (LSP)?
An LSP is a partnership between the public, private and voluntary sector organisations. They are set up within Cambridgeshire's five districts - South Cambridgeshire, Fenland, East Cambridgeshire, Cambridge City and Huntingdonshire.
Established in 2003, LSPs serve the local area by linking in with the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership and a number of themed groups.
What is the 'new' LAA?
The new LAA is much more focused towards empowering local people. Its about giving local leaders and people the opportunity to determine the priorities for their area.
It's also an important method of delivering national and local priorities as well as driving improvements. The new LAA will use strong local evidence to help negotiate with Government and focus resources where it matters.
Partners are encouraged to be ambitious in their aspirations whilst identifying blockages and providing solutions for the community.
New style LAAs will not ‘prescribe' the main objectives. It will be up to local partnerships to choose the themes they want to work around. This flexibility means targets can be set for small geographical areas based on need rather than countywide targets.
The Cambridgeshire Together Board has now agreed on the 34 improvements priorities with central government; 16 statutory education targets and five locally negotiated.
The new LAA acts as a delivery plan for Cambridgeshire's Vision, the sustainable community strategy.
LAA timetable - what happens when?
15 September 2008 - Board meeting
20 November 2008 - Board meeting
20 January 2009 - Board meeting
20 March 2009 - Board meeting
27 May 2009 - Board meeting
23 July 2009 - Board meeting
22 September 2009 - Board meeting
25 November 2009 - Board meeting
To see who's on the board, go to the who's who page.
Where can I find out more?
The LAA Board meets regularly and all agendas and minutes are posted onto Cambridgeshire County Council's website click here to view.
What is a Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA)?
LPSAs are voluntary agreements between upper-tier local authorities and government. Their aim is to improve the delivery of local public services by focusing on targeted outcomes with support from Government. They allow local authorities and their partners to tackle local improvements for local people.
In Cambridgeshire, the LPSA has been a means of successfully stretching performance in many of the LAA topic areas initially negotiated with central government.
The LPSA has secured over £6 million to-date. Payment will be stretched over two years with a split of 50 per cent revenue and 50 per cent capital.
Most of the LPSA reward grant is evenly distributed to the five Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs). A partnership agreement was signed in 2003 setting out how this distribution would work.
The Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA) offers substantial funds to invest into the county, and great opportunities to make a lasting impact on Cambridgeshire's Vision.
What is the Chief Executives Liaison Group?
The Chief Executive's Liaison Group (CELG) brings together the Chief Executives of key partner organisations in Cambridgeshire to include the County and five District Councils, the Primary Care Trust, Cambridgeshire Horizons, and Cambridgeshire Constabulary.
It meets on a regular basis and it provides a useful local network for key decision makers to discuss issues affecting our communities across organisational boundaries.
As part of the on-going review of LAA partnerships and governance arrangements, CELG will be revisiting their terms of reference with a view to formalising their role in relationship to the Cambridgteshire Together Board.
Recent news from CELG
CELG met on 7 July with four items dominating discussions:
- the review of countywide partnerships in the County
- proposals for the use of the 9 million pound Local Public Service Agreement reward grant; and,
- attracting resources to the County to reflect the pressures on public bodies linked to a growing population
- working with Improvement East on some shared ambitions for making local government work better in the County
The proposals will now be refined and put forward for consideration by the Cambridgeshire Together Board in September.
An approach to the conduct of a survey of residents' attitudes and feelings about living in the County was also agreed and will be conducted in the autumn.
Get involved
To submit a question to Cambridgeshire Together email: theeditor@cambstogether.org.uk
A full copy of Cambridgeshire's LAA can be downloaded from here.