Kent Agreement
What is a Local Area Agreement
A Local Area Agreement (LAA) is a three year agreement between a local area and central government. It is designed to improve local services for local people. The three-year ‘deal’ sets out the priorities and targets agreed by partner organisations in Kent, including the County Council, all district boroughs and councils, the Police, Health and Voluntary sector.
Why do we have an LAA?
Under the Local Government and Public Improvement in Health Act 2007, all local authorities in England have a duty to work with partners to develop an LAA. In two tier areas such as Kent, the County Council is the lead authority and is accountable for the LAA but district and borough councils must be involved at all stages. It also places a duty on specific named partners to co-operate in the preparation of the LAA and to have regard to it in their everyday functions within their own organisation.
What is in Kent’s LAA
Kent’s first LAA was for the period 2005-2008. We called it The Kent Agreement. We are now working to deliver a successor agreement, Kent Agreement 2, which runs between 2008-2011. Kent partners have a long and positive history in developing and delivering Local Public Service Agreements and Local Area Agreements. This is the third such Kent based agreement with Government, each building on the past and each being more embedded across Kent partners. The 2008 KA2 is a genuine multi-agency agreement. All stages of it, from the identification of priority areas through to negotiation of targets and planning for delivery, has been led by the Kent Partnership and involved partners from across all sectors in Kent.
The starting point for developing Kent Agreement 2 was Kent’s Sustainable Communities Strategy called the “Vision for Kent”. The Vision for Kent sets out, within eight themes, how the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of the county will be improved over a 20 year period. The Kent Agreement is the shorter term and more focussed three year delivery programme which takes forward the broader and longer term aspirations within the Vision for Kent.
Kent’s Local Area Agreement reflects the issues and priority areas where we are either already performing well but want to improve even further or where there is an evidenced need for improvement. Kent’s LAA contains 35 targets chosen from a national ‘menu’ of 197 National Indicators.