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Our work on local area agreements

What are Local Area Agreements?

Local area agreements (LAAs) were launched in July 2004. They are intended to deliver improved local service outcomes through better co-ordination between central government and local authorities and their partners. While central government will continue to set high-level strategic priorities, the aim is for central government departments to devolve detailed day-to-day control of programmes and funding streams, and move towards stronger partnership working with local authorities. The LAAs are agreements negotiated between local partners and government offices (GOs) (on behalf of central government), specifying a range of agreed outcomes shared by all delivery partners, with associated indicators, targets and funding streams.

  • I&DeA Knowledge: Local Area Agreements Network. The I&DeA network provides a comprehensive and extended support service for lead officers, specialist officers and their partners who are engaged in developing, negotiating and delivering LAAs.

 

Local Area Agreements Research: Evaluation of the process negotiation of Round 2 LAAs and early progress in Round 1

see http://www.communities.gov.uk/
publications/localgovernment/localareaagreements2

OPM was commissioned by the DCLG (formerly ODPM) as part of a consortium with the University of the West of England and the Local Government Centre at Warwick Business School) to carry out an evaluation of the negotiation and early implementation of local area agreements (LAAs).

Our report on a process evaluation of the first 21 local area agreement pilots (download the first evaluation report (opens new window)) was published in 2005. The partnership was subsequently commissioned to conduct a process evaluation of the 66 round 2 LAAs and an impact evaluation of the implementation of the round 1 LAAs; the report of this work has been published (October 2006). See the link above.

As the policy on LAAs has developed, the second generation of local public service agreements (LPSAs) have been integrated into LAAs as the stretch and reward element. OPM had previously been commissioned to evaluate the first round of LPSAs, and two interim reports have so far been published [these will be on the DCLG website soon].

Twenty-one LAA pilots were announced on 4 October 2004, and 20 LAAs were signed off by the Deputy Prime Minister on 22 March 2005. In June that year, the Deputy Prime Minister announced a further pilot phase of 66 agreements to be in place by April 2006; these were signed off in March 2006. The final round of agreements, which will provide coverage across the whole of England, was signed off in 2007.

Evaluating the pilot process

The team from OPM, UWE and Warwick Business School studied the process of developing an LAA, and the impact of LAAs through case-studies, extensive interviews, meeting observation and document analysis, to examine the effectiveness of the negotiation process and draw lessons to inform the roll-out of LAAs. This second report builds on the earlier report. It presents the latest research team's findings relating to the following, and highlights a number of issues which we believe merit further exploration in order to maximise the chances of successful implementation of LAAs. These include:

  • The aims and purpose of LAAs and the range of interpretations across stakeholders.
  • The development of LAAs in localities - including leadership and management of the process, partnership working, governance and performance management.
  • The experience of government offices - including the GO role, the internal structures different GOs have adopted, their capacity and resources, and co-ordination across the GO network; in addition the report considers the GOs' relationships with local areas and how they have dealt with performance management, the negotiations over enabling measures, and the stretch element.
  • The experience of central government - including the management of the policy and process within DCLG, cross-government working and the management of LAAs in other government departments.
  • The contribution of LAAs to improved outcomes in terms of governance, efficiency and effectiveness in the short term, as well as medium and longer term outcomes.

For further information please contact Gillian Gillanders or Sophie Ahmad at OPM