To note the progress of the Local Area Agreement (LAA) ‘super refresh’, including the Story of Place, list of key priorities and the provisional list of indicators to be included in the final document.

The Herefordshire Partnership Manager presented the report on the Local Area Agreement setting out the work undertaken since the last Cabinet report and progress to date.  Cabinet was advised of the performance indicators identified by the government office, of which the Council is to select up to 35 indicators.  A revised list of performance indicators selected by the Council was tabled at the meeting.  Cabinet was advised that as part of the selection process officers were working with the Corporate Management Board on relevant performance indicators.  Cabinet was reminded of the weekly updates provided for partner organisations such as the Primary Care Trust and the Police and the next steps were to move towards realistic and achievable targets.

The Director for Corporate and Customer Services advised it was likely that the Government office would bring in more indicators in the future and felt there would be clashes with the Government over some indicators as the Council would not be able to make a difference in the time frame set out.

The Leader stated that the 35 indicators the partner organisations were working on needed to clearly reflect key issues such as highways and children and young people’s services.

The Director informed Cabinet that at some point Cabinet might be required to support and reiterate the points made by the authority that it might be unable to deal with all the indicators.  Cabinet was reminded that although there was engagement with partner organisations over the indicators ultimately the Council was the accountable body

Cabinet discussed the requirement for all Members to attend seminars to ensure they were updated on progress in all areas.  Cabinet expressed concern that some of the data used was not up to date and requested that current data should be used.  Cabinet agreed that weekly updates on the LAA should be forwarded to Cabinet Members, Scrutiny Chairmen and the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Strategic Monitoring Committee as well as partner organisations.

RESOLVED

THAT:

(a)               the Local Area Agreement super refresh process be noted;

(b)               the Story of Place and list of key priorities be approved;

(c)               it be noted that the provisional list of indicators be included in the Local Area Agreement; and

(d)               Cabinet Members, Scrutiny Committee Chairmen and Strategic Monitoring Chairman and Vice-Chairman along with partner organisations, be updated weekly on the Local Area Agreement.