REPORT OF THE

CABINET

HAMPSHIRE LOCAL PUBLIC SERVICE AGREEMENT

1 Members will be aware of the Public Service Agreement scheme under which a local authority may negotiate arrangements with the Government setting out that authority's commitment to deliver specific improvements in performance, and the Government's commitment, in turn, to reward these improvements. The County Council has welcomed the opportunity to negotiate a Local Public Service Agreement (PSA) with the Government as a means of delivering higher standards of service to the people of Hampshire and of benefiting from the financial rewards available for further investment in improving services, and the Cabinet has spent considerable time over the past few months developing and refining the County Council's submission. Following a series of consultation exercises and widespread public opinion research, the Cabinet has identified certain key themes, and outcomes which it wishes to achieve over the course of the current administration, and has developed these to form the framework for the Hampshire PSA. The key themes are:

· life opportunities

· sustainability

· vulnerable groups

· deprived areas


The focus is therefore towards providing life opportunities for vulnerable groups and raising the quality of life and access to services for those groups in deprived parts of the County.

2 Based on the above, the County Council submitted its draft PSA to the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) on 29 October which included 18 targets as follows:-

· 5 education

· 5 social services

· 1 waste disposal

· 2 transport

· 1 casualty reduction

· 1 roads

· 2 cultural/recreation in support of education targets

· 1 cost effectiveness (obligatory target)

3 Following the necessary detailed negotiations with DTLR it is hoped that the Agreement will eventually be signed in time for implementation from the period April 2002 through to March 2005. A copy of the full Hampshire PSA submission may be examined on application to the Chief Executive.

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