Scrutiny of Local Strategic Partnerships

Effective Overviewand Scrutiny

Programme

10 minsIntroductions

20 minsPresentation: Understanding Local Strategic Partnerships

30 minsActivity: Understanding your Local Strategic Partnership

20 minsPresentation: Partnership and scrutiny

20 minsActivity: Partnership scrutiny in practice

10 minsReview and evaluation

Learning outcomes

• Understand the main elements of Local Strategic Partnerships and related sub-partnerships, including local arrangements

• Understand the main elements of Local Area Agreements, including local arrangements

• Relate the main roles of overview and scrutiny to the scrutiny of LSPs

• Identify key challenges for scrutiny of LSPs

Understanding Local Strategic Partnerships

• A single, multi-agency partnership body matching council boundaries

• Includes council(s), other public services, private, voluntary and community sector

• Provides co-ordination, liaison and agreement of joint priorities, including Sustainable Community Strategy and Local Area Agreement

• Often has Board plus wider membership which meets less often

• Not required by law

Sub-partnerships

• LSPs generally have a structure of thematic partnerships

• Examples likely to include: Children’s Trust, Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, health partnership

• Others could include: environment, culture, economic development, transport

Main roles of LSP

• Supports development and implementation of Sustainable Community Strategy, creating vision and identifying key priorities for the area as a whole

• Develops Local Area Agreement and co-ordinates achievement of its aims

• Co-ordinates sub-partnerships, and possibly area/neighbourhood links

Sustainable Community Strategy

• A long term vision for the area, backed with action planning to achieve it

• Should promote the economic, social and environmental well-being of the area and contribute to sustainable development

• Should be agreed by the council and the LSP

• Should relate to Local Development Framework

• Needs widespread community and partner involvement in development

Other key strategies involving the LSP and its sub-partnerships

• Crime and Disorder Reduction Strategy

• Children and Young People’s Plan

• Strategic needs assessment for health and social care

• Could be others such as transport plan

The new Local Area Agreements• Local Area Agreements: a plan at the centrepiece of

partnership working, implementing your community strategy, partner organisations with a new ‘duty to co-operate

• New statutory framework: Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007

• New Local Area Agreements to run from 2008-11

• Councils knowing what you want to achieve for your place; influencing others to help make this happen: community leadership

• A ‘single conversation’ with government: the only place targets can be negotiated with local government

• National Indicator Set: 198 issues which must be measured, up to 35 where targets are agreed

The council must . . .

• This is the role of the county council in two tier areas

• Prepare and negotiate a draft LAA• In preparing it, consult partners who have a duty

to co-operate, plus others• Negotiate local improvement targets with

partners and government, some to be designated by government

• Co-operate with partners to implement the LAA• Exercise powers of scrutiny in relation to LAA

targets (with districts in two tier areas)

The partner authorities . . .

• The partner authorities have a duty to co-operate with the council leading the LAA and must:– Negotiate and agree improvement targets– Have regard in exercising its functions, to any

relevant improvement target– Take part in council scrutiny in relation to

relevant improvement targets

The organisations with a ‘duty to co-operate’

• Arts Council • The Broads Authority • Chief Officer of Police • District authorities • English Heritage • The Environment Agency • Fire and rescue authorities • Health and Safety Executive • The Highways Agency • Jobcentre Plus • Joint Waste Authorities • Joint Waste Disposal Authorities • The Learning and Skills Council in

England • Local Probation Boards • Metropolitan Passenger Transport

Authorities

• Museums, Libraries and Archives Council

• National Park Authorities • Natural England • NHS Foundation Trusts • NHS Health Trusts • Police authorities • Primary Care Trusts • Probation Trusts and other providers

of probation services• Regional Development Agencies • Sport England • Transport for London • Youth Offending Teams• Any other added by the Secretary of

State, by Order

The engagement of councillors in Local Area Agreements

• Leadership: of the council, the place, and the partnership

• Strategy development: How can the Local Area Agreement be used to tackle the area’s top priorities?

• New scrutiny powers in relation to LAA• Community and neighbourhood

representation: building up from local needs

Understanding yourLocal Strategic Partnership

Activity 1

Partnership and scrutiny

• Vital that the work of scrutiny adds value and improvement

• Better outcomes: improve the work of the partnership, find new ways to tackle problems, improve strategies through wider engagement

• Better processes: improve how the LSP works, enhance LSP openness, improve councillor engagement with LSP

Scrutiny powers and Local Area Agreements

• Scrutinise local improvement targets (LAA targets)

• Require information from partner organisations signed up to LAA targets

• Require them to ‘have regard to’ scrutiny recommendations which relate to a relevant local improvement target

• Police covered by different legal framework for scrutiny, but engagement in LAA can still be scrutinised

Main roles of overview and scrutiny

• Holding to account

• Performance management

• Policy review

• Policy development

• External scrutiny

These roles can be applied to scrutiny of LSPs

Holding to account

• Provide democratic input into non-council services

• Create greater openness of partnerships

• Scrutiny can provide a means for community and user engagement with partnerships

• Ensure LSP structures and working is fit for purpose

Performance management

• Review implementation of Sustainable Community Strategy and other partnership strategies

• Investigate performance failures from LSPs

• Scrutiny of implementation of Local Area Agreements

• Scrutiny of the council’s contribution to partnership work including LAA

Policy development and review

• Contribute to the development of the Sustainable Community Strategy, Local Area Agreement, and related strategies

• In depth investigation of topics involving partnership work

• Reviewing particular problems of partnership work

• Reviews of LSP work from a particular perspective such as sustainability

Legal basis for partnership scrutiny

• Local Government Act 2000: can look at any matter which affects the area or its inhabitants

• Health and Social Care Act 2001: gives power to scrutinise NHS services

• Police and Justice Act 2006: gives power to scrutinise Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships: not yet implemented

• Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 gives powers to scrutinise agencies signed up to LAA targets

Key challenges for scrutiny of LSPs

• Enhance the democratic leadership of partnerships

• Help to build, not undermine, effective partnership work

• Add value through scrutiny role

• Improve the performance of partnerships

• Widen community and user engagement with partnerships and services beyond the council

Partnership scrutiny in practice – scrutiny of the Local Area Agreement

Activity 2

Review and evaluation

• In pairs, discuss the main learning points for you from the module

• Complete the evaluation sheet and return it to the facilitator