What exactly are Local Area Agreements and Local Strategic Partnerships, how are they changing, and why will they become so vital to the arts at a local level? Richard Erwin-Jones provides some answers.
Local Area Agreements (LAAs) represent a new approach to improving co-ordination between central government and local authorities and their partners, working through the Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs). They form part of the Government's 10-year strategy to build a new relationship between central and local government and are now to be rolled out across the whole of England.
LAAs seek to build a new, more flexible and responsive relationship between central and local government, and ultimately, the residents in an area. Working through LSPs, they will draw into a single funding pot the plethora of funding streams currently available. They will also join up delivery of public services and provide councils and other local delivery partners with greater flexibility as to how they tackle priority issues within their locality. LSPs will have the power to decide which indicators best match the priorities that reflect local circumstances, whilst still contributing to the achievement of national targets. In short, the LSP prepares a Sustainable Community Strategy and then a Local Area Agreement or action plan to deliver the priorities of the strategy.
The agreement is made up of outcomes, indicators and targets aimed at delivering a better quality of life for people through improving performance on a range of national and local priorities. These priorities are grouped around four blocks: Children and Young People, Safer and Stronger Communities, Healthier Communities and Older People, and Economic Development and Enterprise. These blocks provide very wide-ranging coverage of issues in a local area.
However the priorities need not be confined to these blocks. The vision for genuinely sustainable communities is a cross-cutting theme, which should underpin each of the four LAA blocks. LAAs can help tackle some of the key long-term challenges which are faced by local authorities, LSPs and their communities, and which need to be addressed if we are to realise genuinely sustainable communities.
However, just as we get used to one system, change is in the air. New LAAs are being introduced in June 2008, these agreements being the only place where central government will agree targets with local authorities and their partners on the outcomes delivered by local government, either on its own or in partnership with other agencies. The current LAA outcomes framework will be replaced by the new single national indicator set, which will comprise approximately 200 indicators currently being developed as part of the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review. In the future, LAA outcomes will consist of a base set of pre-existing statutory educational and early years targets (presently 18), and up to 35 improvement indicators, drawn partially from the national indicator set and partially from Sustainable Community Strategies.
So what does this all mean to third sector and particularly arts organisations? If you are currently accessing neighbourhood renewal funding, or wish to in the future, you will need to understand what your local priorities are and lobby for the arts as a cross-cutting tool to deliver against these priorities. An area of particular interest to us here at Groundwork is Neighbourhood Renewal. LAAs are expected to be a major tool in neighbourhood renewal, in particular, in overcoming disadvantage and improving the quality of life in areas facing the greatest challenge. Areas in receipt of funding from the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit will have this funding pooled as part of their LAA. They must demonstrate how the LAA will help narrow the gap between the most deprived neighbourhoods and the rest of the district. Outcomes should demonstrate a positive impact within deprived neighbourhoods and for Black and minority ethnic communities and other groups that have been identified as disadvantaged.
Community participation in the planning, delivery, management and maintenance of public spaces can also produce significant community cohesion and sustainability benefits. Generally, such participation results in the provision of more locally relevant facilities, for which the local community has a greater sense of ownership. This is reflected in spaces that are better used, meet the needs of all sectors of the community and are respected. Although not immune, they are much less likely to be the focus of anti-social behaviour and serious vandalism.
A recent example of a community improving a public space is a Groundwork project in West Glebe Park in Corby, Northamptonshire. Two plantations of tree sculptures up to three metres high and made from Corby steel tubing have sprung up as part of the West Glebe Park Heritage Project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Friends of West Glebe Park and managed by Groundwork North Northamptonshire. Designed by artist Tom Grimsey, the trees have been developed with the local community as a permanent reminder of the parks industrial heritage. As Tom said, I want these trees to remind people of the planting of new trees, which heralded the start of West Glebe Park. I have made them from steel tubing to link them to the industry that has been the foundation of Corbys existence, and the ironstone that was extracted from the quarry that has since been developed as West Glebe Park.
Richard Erwin-Jones is Strategic Arts Co-ordinator for Groundwork East Midlands.
t: 0115 942 0448;
e: richard.erwin-jones@groundwork.org.uk;
w: http://www.creativeregeneration.co.uk
For more information on LSPs and LAAs go to http://www.communities.gov.uk. Arts Council England also has a local government section on its site, at http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/subjects/homepage.php?sid=27.
There is also a useful report that details the outcomes and performance indicators for the arts that have been included in the second round of Local Area Agreements (LAAs) http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/documents/subjects/localareaagreements_phpyn3r0b.doc