Helping to secure proportional outcomes for rural communities through Local Area Agreements
- Posted on:
- Wednesday, 15th October 2008 at 11:52am
We're working with Essex Partnership, Cumbria and Devon county councils to analyse the extent to which the National Indicator set can, in a practical way, be disaggregated to below the Local Area Agreement (LAA) geography level.
This will enable local authorities and their partners to monitor and performance manage delivery within their areas to ensure that all localities and communities are served proportionately and fairly.
This could also help councillors and communities by providing them with information about performance at the local and neighbourhood level.
Comments
The development of approaches that will enable rural areas to secure proportional outcomes within the LAA process can only be a positive step in the right direction. However, the development of disaggregated data is only one component of a complex array of processes that need to occur to ensure that rural areas are not disadvantaged through the LAA.
In both East and West Sussex, Action in rural Sussex (the RCC) has been working closely with the County Council's and the Rural Partnership's to ensure that a comprehensive array of elements are in place with regard to the baseline for the LAA, its delivery and ongoing assessment. These include: assessing National Indicators and their effects on rural areas (when compared to urban areas), the datasets they are based on (inherent weaknesses, strengths and biases), and the implications of rural delivery (quality, location and equity).
Hopefully all of the best practice findings related to the LAA from the various activities occurring around the country will become more mainstream and benefit all rural areas.
Thanks Simon, I'll pass your comments onto our Active and Inclusive Representation and Decision-Making team