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Local Area Agreement

We have recently finalised our second Local Area Agreement, (LAA) 2008-11. This is an agreement between central Government, us and our partners on how we will deliver a range of goals over the next three years to improve our services.

The role of LAAs has changed considerably since we produced our first LAA in 2006. This is largely shaped by the Government White Paper - "Strong and Prosperous Communities". This places a much greater importance on local communities and councils working together to agree their priorities.

Our LAA sets out specific improvements for the next three years and includes a range of targets for each year. These reflect the themes of our sustainable community strategy,  that sets out a shared vision for the future. The overall vision for Camden is to be a borough of opportunity and we will achieve this through working together to enable individuals and communities to achieve their full potential, in terms of both their work and social life.

The four aims of our sustainable community strategy are:

  • a sustainable Camden that adapts to a growing population
  • a strong Camden economy that includes everyone
  • a connected Camden community where people lead active, healthy lives
  • a safe Camden that is a vibrant part of our world city

We will be working in close partnership with local public sector organisations, voluntary and community groups, businesses and residents, to achieve the ambitious targets in the LAA. In particular, we will be focusing on targets around:

  • encouraging active citizenship and promoting stronger communities, particularly ensuring that people from all backgrounds get on well together
  • equipping migrants with the English language skills to engage with the wider community
  • providing all people, children and adults with the opportunity to improve their health and lead active and independent lives
  • providing people with a safe environment so that they can lead their lives to the full
  • providing opportunities for Camden’s young people and adults to improve their skills so that they can access jobs and be part of our strong local economy
  • improving the life chances of our children and young people and ensuring that they have the best support and opportunities from their parents and schools and become active citizens
  • providing opportunities for people to have a choice about where they live and the space in which they live in
  • providing opportunities for new and existing businesses to be part of our strong local economy

How we will manage and monitor performance of the LAA

The LAA sits at the heart of the Comprehensive Area Assessment, the new performance framework for local authorities. The LAA contains a range of national indicators, including some compulsory education targets, and local indicators to reflect areas of specific importance. We will be judged on our performance against these targets and on how well we work with our partners.

Our LAA is overseen by our Local Strategic Partnership (LSP). The LSP has overall collective responsibility for ensuring that the Local Area Agreement is delivered and its targets achieved.

We will report to our LSP twice a year on how we are performing in respect of meeting our LAA targets. We will monitor and review our LAA on an on-going basis, making sure that we identify and challenge areas of poor performance and take action to address this.

Delivery planning

It is important to plan and monitor how we aim to achieve the goals of the LAA. We have worked with our key partners to develop delivery plans for the performance indicators in the LAA. These show who our key partners are, our targets and the main work areas and activities we will need to achieve to meet these. The plans also show the resources involved and any potential risks identified in delivering the LAA.

Our delivery planning is very much an on-going process, and we will review the plans to reflect any changes which will help us meet our targets. These could include any new initiatives, partnership work or activities.

We intend to make our delivery plans available on the web once they have been signed off by the relevant partnerships.

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