Agenda item

            The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director, Corporate and Policy which outlined the progress made towards meeting Local Area Agreement targets at the end of the first year of the Agreement.

            The Board was advised that the revised Local Area Agreement (LAA) was signed off by the Secretary of State in June 2008. The purpose of the LAA was to agree a set of targets for Halton with Government and local partners. It was noted that named partners had a duty to co-operate in striving to achieve those targets. There were 34 indicators in the LAA, together with statutory education and early years targets. The agreement covered the period April 2008 to March 2011.

            The Board was advised that the Agreement was refreshed in March 2009. The indicators and targets were reviewed with Government Office and there were a number of gaps and estimates in the original agreement, therefore the principal changes were to fill these gaps using information that had become available between June 2008 and March 2009 such as the results of the Places Survey. A summary of the changes were attached as an appendix to the report for Members’ consideration.

            It was further advised that the economic downturn would inevitably have an impact on the likelihood of achieving some targets relating to the economy and housebuilding, and the Government had identified a list of indicators for which targets would be reviewed before the end of March 2010, by which time the impact of the downturn would be clearer.

            Outlined in the report for consideration was progress over the first year of the Agreement which covered the indicators that fell within the responsibilities of the Children and Young People’s Policy and Performance Board. It was noted that this was based on the targets in the refreshed agreement. Members were advised that in reading the report it should be noted that all the national indicators were built into the quarterly service plan monitoring reports and certain indicators were only reported some time after year end, therefore in those cases no progress report was yet available. There were also some survey based indicators for which no further data would be available until the survey was repeated in 2010.

            The Board was advised that LAA reflected the priorities in our community strategy for improving the quality of life in Halton. It was the main mechanism by which Government would performance manage local areas and it was therefore important that Council monitored progress and that members were satisfied that adequate plans were in place to ensure that the improvement targets were achieved.

            Arising from the discussion the Board discussed the need to tackle high teenage pregnancy rates in the Borough. It was noted that following a visit from the National Support Team it was reported that the Council was actively doing everything possible to tackle this issue.  Members also queried the number of pupils under the age of 16 who had not reached level 1 or 2.  It was advised that this information would be forwarded to Board members.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.