Issue - items at meetings - Local Area Agreement; Final Report

45.1 The Head of Policy and Performance Richard Tuset introduced the final Report on the Local Area Agreement (LAA) that, having been in place for 3 years was now formally ended. Some data was not yet available and some data was no longer available as a result of changes to national arrangements. The LAA included 35 national indicators from 195 in the National Indicator Set plus local indicators. It was cross-cutting between public, private services and the Community and Voluntary Sector and had been led and managed by the Local Strategic Partnership.

45.2 The Head of Policy and Performance referred to the strong joint working between the Local Authority, partners and residents across the City.

45.3 He referred to areas of good progress and some areas denoted ‘Red’ such as NI156 (households in temporary accommodation, affected by change to the definition of ‘temporary,’) NI47 (road traffic accident casualties, where progress had been made although targets had not been met) and L22 (the number of children in organised school visits, where partners had withdrawn but work was on-going.)

45.4 Members discussed the importance of OSC’s role in accountability and performance monitoring and the need for clarity on demonstrating the reasons for collecting data plus the practical use of the information; for example in evidencing need, planning services, securing resources and monitoring outcomes.

45.5 The Head of Policy and Performance set out the move to new performance arrangements and told the meeting that an interim report on the City Performance Plan and Organisational Health report were due to be reported to the next OSC meeting; the current target- setting process was in hand and the Brighton & Hove Local Information System (BHLIS) was a key resource for the LSP.

45.6 Explaining the rationale behind data collection, including areas where direct measurements are not possible, would be looked at for the future together with different approaches to interpretation and analysis such as exception reporting.

45.7 Some Members stressed the need for equalities data, referring in particular to disability hate crime; this would be checked. [It was later confirmed that disability hate crime is included in the City Performance Plan]

45.8 RESOLVED (i) that OSC notes the report

(ii) that the City Performance Plan and Organisational Health report be presented to a future meeting; to include the rationale and approach to data collection  and reporting.