LAA and advice
ASA has published a briefing on Local Area Agreements and their potential impact on advice agencies.
Local area agreements (LAAs) are three-year agreements setting out local priorities, as agreed between central government and the local area.
Understanding LAAs will enable advice agencies to identify potential local funding opportunities and threats. The briefing, Local Area Agreements, National Indicators and Advice, is intended to help advice agencies find the information they need.
LAAs are structured around four policy areas or ‘indicative themes’:
- Children and young people
- Safer and stronger communities
- Healthier communities and older people
- Economic development and environment
National Indicators
Each of these policy areas has a number of national indicators (NIs) attached to it. There are 198 NIs in total. When developing the LAA, each Local Strategic Partnership will have chosen up to 35 as ‘designated targets’ for improvement to help them meet local priorities over a three-year period.
Most NIs have detailed definitions which provide additional information about the rationale behind the indicator, a detailed description and information about how performance will be measured.
Can advice agencies help meet National Indicators?
NI 116 "Proportion of children in poverty" is an indicator found in 45 LAAs. Many in the advice sector would interpret this as being about ensuring that families receive the benefits that they are entitled to. However, the full definition makes it clear that the intention behind the indicator is a reduction in the proportion of children who live in families receiving out of work benefits - defined as JSA, Incapacity Benefit, Income Support and Pension Credit.
However, it is possible that advice agencies may contribute to achieving this NI target. An advice and information project might ensure that working women are aware of their employment rights on becoming pregnant. Similarly, an agency might seek to support people to manage the transition between benefits and work – often a time when debt problems emerge as a result of uncertain benefit entitlements.
The briefing raises a number of policy issues
- there are no indicators which are specific to advice services. Advice networks need to work with the Ministry of Justice and other government departments to ensure that future NIs explicitly acknowledge the importance of advice
- there has been low take up of many indicators which are of interest to advice services. Advice agencies and networks need to work together to prepare for the next round of LAAs
- advice networks need to work with central government through government regional offices to emphasise the importance of advice
- advice networks need to continue to work with agencies to demonstrate the value of advice and lobby for advice outcomes to be recognised more explicitly in the LAA framework.
