Our Local Area Agreement
What is a Local Area Agreement?
A Local Area Agreement (LAA) is an agreement between key partners and central Government to improve the quality of life for local people.
The LAA is a three-year agreement, developed by local councils with their partners in a Local Strategic Partnership (LSP). It can be seen as the short term action plan of the Community Plan.
Our LAA was developed in negotiation with the Government Office for London (GOL) and then agreed and signed off by the Secretary of State. The Local Strategic Partnership oversees the LAA, while the Local Authority (London Borough of Barking and Dagenham) has the statutory responsibility.
Each LAA identifies a number of target indicators from the full set of 188 National Indicators to be improved for the specific area covered by the LAA.
Barking and Dagenham has chosen 29 Indicators (excluding local targets and DCSF indicators) to focus on to improve the lives of residents. Our targets are negotiated through the GOL and subsequently designated by the Secretary of State.
LAAs allow for more collaborative action and service delivery by bringing together partners from the public, private and voluntary sectors.
The LAA is reviewed annually with GOL to ensure they remain updated and relevant to the changing needs of the area.
You can find a list of frequently asked questions on Local Area Agreements on the Communities and Local Government website.
Our Local Area Agreement
Our Local Area Agreement 2008 – 2011 sets out our priorities for improvement as a Partnership in Barking and Dagenham. It identifies those things that, if most improved, will have the largest impact on the lives of residents of the borough.
The LAA details the National Indicators that Barking and Dagenham have chosen to focus on to improve the lives of residents. The LAA Story gives life to these indicators, showing how improving the indicators will make our borough a better place to live, work and visit.
As well as being described in the LAA Story, the full list of our LAA indicators (including local targets and DCSF indicators) can be viewed in Our Performance. This gives an ‘at a glance’ performance view of each of the indicators, arranged by Partnership Board. Each of the indicators is owned by one of the six themed Partnership Boards. More detailed performance information for the indicators can be found under Partnership Boards.
LAA Refresh
We are required to update our Local Area Agreement annually by GOL. The latest refresh was in March 2010. Partners worked together to update our baselines and targets where previously data had been unavailable, and in some cases targets were revised- in negotiation with GOL - to ensure that they remained deliverable as circumstances changed.
Details of the latest refresh are in an interim form, here:
LAA Refresh Report 2010 (PSB 17 March 2010)
Details of March 2009's refresh are also available:
Barking & Dagenham Partnership Local Area Agreement MARCH 2009 Refresh
The following link will take you to the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA). This shows all the new Local Area Agreements by region.