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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