Local Area Agreements
Doncaster’s Local Area Agreement (LAA) sets out the priorities that the Council, its partners and Central Government have committed to deliver for Doncaster people over the next 3 years. The LAA is the short term delivery plan for the Borough Strategy and provides a focus for co-ordinated, multi-agency action across the public, private and third sectors.
Our handy leaflet provides a brief introduction to the Borough Strategy and Local Area Agreement.
A revised LAA for Doncaster for the period 2008/9-2010/11 was formally agreed in May 2008 following consultation with all stakeholders. The LAA priorities were formally ‘signed-off’ by the Government on the 1 July 2008. The LAA comprises:
- 27 Shared Priorities – the key objectives we will focus on over the next 3 years.
- Performance Indicator Targets – to measure the impact that the Shared Priorities are having across Doncaster.
The issues Doncaster’s LAA will tackle include:
- Increasing educational achievement
- Balancing economic-led regeneration and reducing deprivation and social exclusion
- Protecting the environment
- Realising the full potential of the neighbourhood model
Click here to view the Borough Strategy and Local Area Agreement.
LAA funding
There are various finance streams that can be used to achieve the outcomes in an LAA:
- Mainstream funding of partner organisations, used for providing core services
- Area Based Grant — a grant provided by the Government according to specific policy criteria e.g. level of local economic deprivation
- Funding from Non-Government Public Bodies, e.g. Sport England
One of the principles of LAAs is that greater flexibility should be given to local areas when it comes to deciding how (and how much) money should be spent to achieve each of the local priorities. To do this, mainstream funding and the Area Based Grant detailed above are not ring-fenced. This means there are no restrictions on how the money is spent; previously grants often had criteria attached to how and where they could be spent.
A large majority of the money available to fund achievement against the LAA in Doncaster remains mainstream funding. However, the Government has now announced the Local Government Finance Settlements for 2008/09 to 2010/11. Doncaster will receive around £110m of Area Based Grant between 2008 and 2011. This money could be used to:
- Fill any gaps where mainstream services do not address all of the shared priorities
- Complement existing activities to achieve the shared priorities
The DtS Board will give it's opinion on how this funding should be used, although it is the Council which is the accountable body for the money and is therefore responsible for ensuring it is spent properly.
The LAA and the third sector in Doncaster
Local Area Agreements are particularly important to the community and voluntary sector for a number of reasons, including:
- LAAs determine what the local priorities should be and help shape places
- LAA funding will be targeted particularly towards achieving LAA priorities
Third sector organisations have some of the best local knowledge and experience of ground level issues. They often see trends changing first, work most closely with communities and have evidence which may not be available to public or private sector organisations. If this knowledge is not fed into the LAA, vital opportunities will be lost. This could mean that issues your organisation knows to be important in helping Doncaster move forward as a borough could be missed and not prioritised. In addition LAA funding is targeted at addressing shared priorities through work undertaken by public, private and third sector organisations. The funding therefore provides potential opportunities for community and voluntary organisations to continue or develop activities which support Doncaster's LAA.
