Local Public Service Agreement Round Two

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Local Public Service Agreement Round 2

Introduction
What is a Public Service agreement?
The Tameside Targets for 2007
What are the Financial Benefits?
What flexibilities have we been given?
What will the money be used for?
What's next?
Summary of Performance
PSA document in full 442.95 KB

Signing the Local Public Service Agreement

Tameside taking the lead in new Government Scheme

Tameside has become the first council in England to sign a second Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA2) with Government.

Following the successful completion of the prior pilot agreement, (where we achieved 10 of our 12 targets) Tameside has now been chosen by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and HM Treasury to trail blaze the next round of agreements.

Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford MP signed the agreement on behalf of Government on the 29th November, at the Ash Road Educational Recycling Centre, with PSA lead Member Cllr Margaret Oldham and Chief Executive Janet E. Callender signing on behalf of the Council.

What is a Public Service Agreement?

Local PSAs are a partnership agreement between individual local authorities and the Government.

They are intended to improve key outcomes more quickly and/or to a higher level than would otherwise be the case, for people living in the authority's area.

The Second Generation LPSA’s are fundamentally different to Round 1 because Councils have the opportunity to identify priorities and targets that reflect the needs of their communities, rather than picking targets from a set Government list. Tameside’s LPSA2 is based upon our Community Strategy, with a focus on increasing cohesion and inclusion. The Council together with the LSP Board agreed 12 targets with the Government, encompassing four main themes: Educational attainment, reducing crime, improving the environment, and increasing independence.

The agreement is expected to run for three years from 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2007, and from 1 April 2004 to Summer 2007 for the education targets.

Note: the original LPSA2 agreement included 13 targets. One of these measured the number of incidents of youth nuisance in Tameside recorded by Greater Manchester Police (GMP). Due to the re-coding of antisocial behaviour by GMP it was not possible to continue this target within Tameside’s LPSA2 and the Government agreed it should be withdrawn.

The Tameside Targets for 2007

Improving Educational Attainment

We will:

Work with five schools in Tameside to boost performance from 41% of pupils achieving 5+ A*-C grades in 2003, to 48.5% on average during 2004-07.
Work with all primary schools to move from 83% of pupils achieving Level 4+ at ICT in summer 2003, to 91% and 93% by 2006 and 2007 respectively.
Work with five schools in Tameside to increase performance from an Average Points Score of 213.9 in 2003, to 254.2 on average during 2004-07.
Work with all mainstream schools to improve the proportion of statemented Special Educational Needs children who make ‘adequate’ progress from 50% in 2003, to 80% by 2007.

Reducing Crime Across the Borough

We will:

Reduce the number of burglaries in Tameside from 3,201 in 2003/04, to 8,403 during the three-year period 2004-07.
Reduce the number of young offenders who re-offend within 12 months from 41.2% in 2002, to 34.6% and 32.1% in 2004 and 2005 respectively.

Improving the Environment

We will:

Increase the amount of waste which is recycled or composted from 8659 tonnes in 2003/04, to 14,000 tones by 2006/07.
Improve the cleanliness of streets in areas of high density housing and low density social housing sites, by reducing streets classified as below ‘Grade B’ from 47% and 33% in 2003/04, to 30% and 24% by 2006/07.
Reduce the number of vulnerable households in Tameside living in non-decent private sector housing by 90 during 2004/07.

Increasing Independence

We will:

Eliminate the use of Bed and Breakfast accommodation for more than one week by 16 and 17 year olds in Tameside, from 59 in 2003/04 to zero by 2006/07.
Increase the number of older people who use Direct Payments from 10 in 2003/04 to 82 by 2006/07, and increase the number of older people who use ‘sub-threshold’ services from 1801 in 2003/04, to 3301 by 2006/07.
Increase the number of: pension credit claimants in Tameside from 10,500 in Feb 2004, to 14,000 by March 2007; attendance allowance claimants from 5,900 in Feb 2004, to 6,500 by March 2007; and Council Tax benefit claimants aged 60+ from 11,794 in Feb 2004, to 12,750 by March 2007.

What are the financial benefits?

The Council will be given £962,819 in 'pump priming' money to help achieve the enhanced targets.

If we achieve these, the Government will also provide the Council with an additional grant of up to £6 million, although the receipt of this money will be some way off.

What flexibilities have we been given?

As well as receiving additional money, in return for achieving the PSA targets, the Government has agreed to cut unnecessary, centralised bureaucracy that gets in the way of us improving services.

Some of those flexibilities include:

The DfES has agreed that Tameside will be involved in any review of the Code of Practice on LEA-Schools Relations.
Support in setting up community safety accreditation schemes.
The Pension Service has agreed that Tameside Council will continue to be a member of the Partnership Against Poverty Forum through which it will consider suggestions made by the Council and others of ways to reduce pensioner poverty and social exclusion.

What will the pump-priming money be used for?

Key Features include:

Provide consultancy for schools designed to promote collaboration and develop the leadership of those responsible for raising attainment
Development of software to improve information between schools at transfer, marketing to improve the profile of ICT skills, and advisory teacher to develop strategies and provide training
Develop strategies to reduce underachievement, eg MCFC "City in the Community", and provide consultancy to target support
Develop and promote software to enable teachers to record and monitor progress, and support schools in its application. Promote the use of PIVATS and using P-scales.
Enhance alleygating schemes through improved levels of lighting; target hardening work; and raising awareness amongst older residents.
Work to improve the mentoring given to young people within the Criminal Justice system
Targeting youth diversionary schemes within the worst areas of the borough, and targeting this work at the prolific perpetrators of youth nuisance in those areas.
Purchase of 4,000 wheeled bins for green waste collection and associated promotion
Purchase of sweeper and marketing and promotion initiatives to reduce litter
Employment of an officer to promote an agency service which will co-ordinate the range of services and advise on financial assistance with home energy efficiency measures and equity release loans provision.
Funding to develop work with agencies to identify young people at risk of homelessness, to achieve planned moves and reduce number presenting as homeless, including a prevention officer.
Develop contract monitoring arrangements with new service providers, monitor outcomes, and implement new performance measures. Develop and promote public information for older people about the available services.
Development of IT systems that enable mobile access to back office systems and completion of on-line claim forms.

What's Next ?

The Agreement will run for 3 years. Bi-monthly progress meetings will be held for the duration of the agreement, and quarterly monitoring reports will be taken to the Executive Team and Board meetings. If we achieve the targets we will get an additional grant of £6 million, equivalent to 2.5% of the Council’s budget.