Archived decisions

Contact: Robert Ormerod, Community Strategy Manager, Tel: 01962 845122 email: [email protected]

1. Recommendation

1.1 That the County Council note progress and the process to complete the refresh of the Hampshire Local Area Agreement and delegate authority to the Leader and Chief Executive to finalise the detailed submission with partners.

2. Background

2.1 The County Council agreed the Hampshire Local Area Agreement in May 2008. This is a three year agreement with Government (2008-2011) setting out the key priorities and targets for the Hampshire. The targets relate to 33 indicators drawn from the new National Indicator Set; 13 local performance indicators and 16 statutory targets for education and early years.

2.2 The LAA takes into account the long term ambitions in the Hampshire Sustainable Community Strategy which was finalised and approved by the County Council in September last year, and was prepared in consultation and discussion with a range of statutory and wider partners.

2.3 The Hampshire Senate considered a report on progress of the LAA refresh at its meeting on the 30th January 2009.

2.4 Legislation provides for an annual refresh of the local area agreement. Except for exceptional circumstances, this refresh is not intended to change priorities within the period of the agreement but to deal with any requirements to finalise or amend baselines and targets.

2.5 The final submission for the refresh is required by the Government Office by the 4th March. The legislation stipulates that the approval of LAA submissions and amendments thereto is a function which must be undertaken or delegated by the Full Council. For this reason, this report on progress is being presented to the Council and delegated authority sought to finalise the submission.

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2.6 While this refresh is largely to do with technical issues it does require approval prior to discussion.

The key reasons for refreshing the Hampshire LAA are as follows:

· to review or set baselines and targets to take account of final definitions of some national indicators that have been under development by Government departments.

· to revise any baselines or targets in the light of improved data or changed circumstances (including for example the economic downturn)

· to finalise any outstanding local Performance Indicators (PIs) which it was agreed to develop in lieu of national indicators.

3. Place Survey based indicators

3.1 A number of indicators in the Hampshire LAA are dependent on the outcome of the Place Survey to enable baselines to be established and targets set. It was the original intention that these results would be available in good time for the refresh negotiations, however the weighted results will only be shared with local authorities towards the end of February 2009 and the national comparative results published by the Audit Commission on the 9^th March. The problems this causes for the finalisation of the refresh, and to enable sufficient opportunity to consult partners is being pursued with the Government Office, but every effort is bring made to resolve this aspect of the negotiation.

4. The scope of the submission for the Hampshire LAA Refresh

The scope of the proposed changes is set out theme by theme below. Those with a shaded background are the subject of refresh.

Theme A - Children and Young People

Current priorities and indicators:

Current statutory targets

It is expected that the following NIs will cease since attainment at Key Stage 3 will cease to be measured: NI 74, NI 83, NI 95, NI 96, NI 97, NI 98.

From the third year of the LAA, targets statutory targets will be introduced measuring performance from Key Stage 2 - 4.

It is proposed that all other PIs for this theme , including the baselines and targets remain unchanged.

Theme B - Employment, skills and business support

Current priorities and indicators

It is proposed that NI 151 (Employment rate) be revised to a level which reflects the significant change in the employment market and Hampshire economy in the current national and global economic climate. This level is currently subject to discussions between the Theme Lead (the County Council's Head of Economic Development) and the Government Office following recent publication of DWP guidance to the Government Office on target negotiation. This target is currently broken down to sub-county areas and accordingly these disaggregated targets will also be revised locally.

Theme C - Accessibility and transport

Current priorities and indicators

There are two local indicators which are still in the course of development and subject to local consultation and discussion with district councils and other local partners. Both of these indicators include the construction of indices for strategic and local congestion and for accessibility. This process will not be completed within the timescale of the current refresh but, local targets will be agreed between the partners by the summer. It is not proposed to refresh the baselines or targets for any of the other local or national indicators.

Theme D - Housing and accommodation

Current priorities and indicators

There are concerns around the definition of the national indicator on fuel poverty, the prospects of securing supporting data and the need to ensure that it does not skew activity away from households in greatest need and where most impact can be made to improve health, ease economic pressure and reduce CO2 emissions. Discussions are continuing between the Theme Lead (Chief Executive, East Hants District Council) and the Government Office on how the development of the national indicator can be influenced. At the same time partners are working together to co-ordinate activity to achieve maximum impact. Partners are also discussing how that impact can otherwise be measured.

Theme E - Community Safety

Current priorities and indicators

Anti-social behaviour

Specific baselines and targets for years 2 and 3 will be negotiated for NI 17: (Perception of anti-social behaviour) based on the outcomes of the first Place Survey. In the meantime, this priority includes three other indicators (one national and two local) against which progress can be measured with regularly available data.

Domestic violence

Negotiations are progressing on the setting of annual targets for NI 32 (repeat incidences of domestic violence relating to the subjects of Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs)) led by the Acting Assistant Chief Constable (as the Theme Lead). Data is available due to good MARAC processes having been established in Hampshire and there are good prospects for setting a challenging target and achieving strong results.

Prolific and priority offenders (PPOs)

There are currently reviews of the PPO schemes underway by the Local Criminal Justice Board and the Constabulary. The concern is to see that these schemes are focusing on the most appropriate offenders so that reduced offending will have the greatest impact for communities. The Theme Lead is concluding negotiations on targets for years 2 and 3 with the Government Office in the light of these reviews.

Tackle drug related offending

The partnership agreed to include in the LAA, NI 38 as a measure of the priority on drug related offending. It now transpires that little progress has been made nationally on finalising the national indicator. The guidance has only been made available at the end of January and the view of the Chief Constable is that the early signs are that this is a most unsatisfactory measure, focusing on anticipated offending rates and it is unclear how this can be used constructively to develop partnership improvement in this area.

The Theme Lead has therefore canvassed views from the range of community safety partners on proposals to have this dropped from the LAA and replaced with a local PI on offences brought to justice for the supply of Class A drugs with a challenging target up to 2011. This PI can already be measured by routinely available data down to a local level.

First time entrants to the youth justice system

The definition for NI 111 (first time entrants to the Youth Justice System) has now been finalised by the Youth Justice Board. Annually, the Department for Children Schools and Families will calculate the rate of First Time Entrants per 100,000 of the 10-17 population. This then allows for cross authority calculations as part of the National Indicator Set. This will be generated from Police National Computer records. Targets have now been agreed with the GOSE Children's Services Advisor. The position of Hampshire against a group of most similar areas is:

Hampshire 1,520 (per 100,000 of 10-17s)

Kent 1,660

Essex 2,040

Oxfordshire 1,420

Bedfordshire 1,370

Warwickshire 1,730

Cambridgeshire 1,740

The negotiated LAA target is for a 2% reduction over 3 years with an overall target of 1410 First Time Entrants to the youth justice system by 1011. This is not a cumulative target so the figure of 1410 needs to be hit in year 3. The targets have been agreed as follows.

Additional proposal - public confidence

The Home Secretary has recently written to Chairs of Police Authorities and Chief Constables to outline the proposals in the Policing Green Paper to rationalise the central performance management of Police Forces with a single top-down target "to improve public confidence that crime and anti-social behaviour issues that matter locally are being dealt with by the police and their partners". This is an established indicator in the national set (NI 21). Since this is a partnership measure and of particular importance to the Police as a National Measure, the views of community safety partners have been canvassed by the Theme Lead on the inclusion of NI 21 in the refreshed LAA (and given the proposal to remove NI 38 on the basis that it is replaced with a Local Target on drug related crime as outlined above). This is consistent with Objective 4 of the County Strategy for Community Safety agreed with partners.

Theme F - Health and wellbeing

Current priorities and indicators

Emergency hospital admissions and length of stay.

The LAA sets a target to reduce the number of emergency bed days in Hampshire. Half year monitoring demonstrated an increasing trend, which is under investigation with Hampshire Primary Care Trust and appears, in part, to be due to the ageing of the Hampshire population. It also suggested that the final figures for the baseline year (2007/08) were higher than had been estimated when the target was set. Formal end of year figures are not now due to be published until February 2009. This indicator has been addressed under the refresh process so that a more accurate baseline and reflection of the increasing trend can be recognised in targets for future years. These changes will also be reflected in the refresh of the National Health Vital Signs VSC 20. Negotiations are well advanced between the PCT and the Government Office.

Information and support to enable independent living

The Place Survey weighted results, when available, will be used as the source of the baseline against which targets will be negotiated for local indicator F1.

Smoking cessation

Local Indicator F2 (number of smoking quitters has been renegotiated by Hampshire PCT consistent with Department of Health requirements to reflect the update to population forecasts for Hampshire. As actual population numbers become known, it is necessary to re-calculate quitter numbers for areas on this basis to ensure that the number of quitters per 1,000 population target is set at the right level. This will affect the Hampshire overall target rather than any of the individual disaggregated targets for Rushmoor, Gosport or Havant.

The proposed revised targets for the Hampshire 4-week quit target 16 + per FY (PSA 18, NI 123) are as follows:

Alcohol related hospital admissions

It is proposed that the target for National Indicator F4 (based on NI 39: Hampshire admissions per 100,000 pop. PSA 25, NI 39) is refreshed to take account of a range of technical national data recording changes:

The negotiations have been led by the Joint Director of Public Health and the following revised targets have been agreed.

Theme G - Environment

Current priorities and indicators

There are no specific proposals to amend the LAA targets but discussions are on-going with the Government Office and the Centre of Excellence to establish an improved baseline and agreed measures of progress towards achieving local contributions to CO2 reduction.

Theme H - Strong communities

Current priorities and indicators

Draft proposals have been developed by the Hampshire Voluntary Sector Consortium with input from statutory sector partners on a local PI for "an environment for a sustainable third sector" (as an alternative for NI 7). Further work is being undertaken to complete these proposals.

NI 4 and NI 6 will be negotiated as the Place Survey results provide the baseline position.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB: the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

The Hampshire Sustainable Community Strategy

The Hampshire Local Area Agreement

Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007

LAA Operational Guidance 2007

Creating Strong an Prosperous Communities - Statutory Guidance 2008