April 2007

Oxfordshire Partnership website

As many of you will already have seen the Oxfordshire Partnership and the Data Observatory websites have recently been refreshed!

We hope that the website will provide you with all the information you might need about the Oxfordshire Partnership and Local Area Agreement. Initial feedback has been very positive but we welcome any suggestions about what you'd like to see here in the future.

The site is regularly updated with news items and meetings papers so we encourage you to visit it often. If you have any news that you would like to share with the wider partnership please let the Oxfordshire Partnership team know and we can arrange to include it.

Oxfordshire 20:20

This year the Oxfordshire Partnership is working on an ambitious project to produce its new Sustainable Community Strategy, Oxfordshire 20:20. A multi-agency project group has been formed to oversee the development of the strategy on behalf of the Partnership. The timescale for the project is demanding. The aim is for the Partnership to agree the final draft in December 2007 to inform the development of targets in our new Local Area Agreement. Research is currently taking place to gather the evidence for a series of theme papers which will be used to inform debate at workshops due to be held for partners during June. These workshops will in turn inform the options paper that will be consulted upon widely in the autumn.

For further details the project document can be viewed on the Oxfordshire Partnership website, alternatively contact the Oxfordshire Partnership team.

Stretch target focus – Adult skills

At the end of the first year we're on course to achieve the Adult Skills stretch target, part of the Economy and Enterprise block. The target has two elements, one concerned with the number of adults from the most deprived areas in Oxfordshire taking part in learning activities, the other the number of adults achieving a qualification as a result.

This target was developed with the intention of raising skills levels in some of the most disadvantaged areas in Oxfordshire. There are 13 Super Output Areas (SOAs) in Oxfordshire that fall within the 20% most deprived across England and are in Oxford and Banbury. Super Output Areas are very small geographical areas within a ward. There are over 34,000 across England and Wales with an average population of 1500 people in each, making it easier to make accurate statistical comparisons. In some of these areas nearly 1 in 2 adults have no qualifications and no recent experience of formal learning.

It's effective partnership working that will ensure we reach our target. The partnership that manages the SEEDA (South East England Development Agency) Area Programme which is a funded programme of regeneration activity in the 13 priority areas also oversees the Adult Skills target. A strategic partnership of organisations that have a part to play in supporting the development of thriving communities, it naturally includes organisations with an overview of planning and funding issues for adult skills. Underpinning this are locally based partnerships, working in the community and bringing together community-based 'Learning Co-ordinators' and learning providers. The Three Estates Network, covering Rose Hill, Barton and Blackbird Leys, is a good example and after just over a year is already demonstrating its value through linking residents of disadvantaged communities with opportunities for skills development already available. Work is underway to bring together a similar group focussing on Ruscote in Banbury. We will meet this target by raising demand for learning in these communities, supporting disadvantaged people to access learning and articulating needs of disadvantaged communities to learning providers through partnership working.

Future arrangements for LAAs

Government recently set out its initial thinking on the future of LAAs in the publication 'Developing the future arrangements for Local Area Agreements'. This sets out an ambitious timescale for all areas to have a new LAA in place in 2008. Following publication of this document the Government Office for the South East hosted one of several regional LAA road-shows which a number of partners from Oxfordshire attended. The purpose of this event was for partners to discuss in more detail the proposals; and inform government thinking and subsequent operational guidance for LAAs.

A small number of areas are now involved in feasibility testing proposals for new LAAs which will feed into the operational guidance scheduled for later in the summer.

Government has indicated that as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review having been delayed until the autumn the second generation of LAAs should be in place by summer 2008 rather than April 2008 as originally planned.

Further details about the proposed arrangements for LAAs can be found on the Oxfordshire Partnership website. We will be working on a project plan for the development of the next generation of our LAA which will be posted on the Oxfordshire Partnership website.

Annual Review process

The first year of delivering the LAA has just come to end which means our annual review with the Government Office for the South East is on the horizon.

We have to submit a self assessment report on our progress over the first year in advance of the review meeting on 21 June. We will be contacting target leads in the near future to help us compile the report. Block groups will have the opportunity to comment on the report as part of this process.

The Public Service Board will then discuss and agree the report's content before we send it to the government office. For further details of the process please see the Oxfordshire Partnership website.

Following our review meeting colleagues from Government Office for the South East will produce a report for central government on Oxfordshire's LAA which we will have the opportunity to comment on.

Director of Public Health Annual Report 2005-07

The Director of Public Health, Jonathan McWilliam, is jointly appointed by Oxfordshire County Council and Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust. He has recently published his first annual report for the county and sets out a range of recommendations, including many to be taken forward through the Oxfordshire Partnership.

The four main challenges that have to be addressed to ensure long term health improvement in Oxfordshire are:

1. Preventing ill health and providing services for an ageing population. Jonathan describes this as "the demographic time bomb."
2. Breaking the cycle of deprivation for children and families who experience worse health outcomes and poor access to services.
3. Combating the modern epidemic of obesity which is caused by current lifestyles.
4. Ensuring preparedness and response to new and recurrent threats of infectious diseases such as MRSA, pandemic flu and TB.

The recommendations to the Oxfordshire Partnership include setting up a Health and Wellbeing Partnership Board which will take the lead in work to improve health for the adult population of the county, both in preventing long term conditions and in providing appropriate services across our organisations. Preliminary discussions are already underway about the remit of this Partnership Board.

Other recommendations in the report include ensuring specific work to meet these challenges through the new Local Area Agreement from 2008, supported by plans in each organisation and financial provision in public sector budgets.

Health improvement can only be delivered by a range of organisations and partnerships. For example, factors such as economic prosperity, access to transport services, environmental issues and educational attainment are all proven to have an impact on health and can only be addressed by working together. This report calls for work to be taken forward across the groups which form the Oxfordshire Partnership and the Director of Public Health has set us all some clear challenges for the future.

The full report can be found on the Oxfordshire Partnership website or obtained by contacting Ruth Fenning at Oxfordshire PCT on 01865 336726.

Pooled funding

This financial year sees more funding streams coming to Oxfordshire through the LAA pooling arrangements with a total of over £13 million. Funding is received monthly by Oxfordshire County Council as the accountable body for the LAA who will then transfer it to the appropriate budget holders. People that this affects will be contacted shortly about the detailed arrangements for payment of LAA funding and the monitoring requirements.

Detailed arrangements for the handling of pooled funding are outlined in the LAA funding guidance notes (.pdf format, 29 Kb) and accompanying outline of funding streams affected (.xls format, 25 Kb).

If you have any queries about pooled funding please contact Dave Wilkins in the finance section at Oxfordshire County Council.

In the diary

11 May - Economy and Enterprise delivery group
17 May - Healthier Communities and Older People Group
21 May - Safer Communities Officer Group
6 June - Programme Board meeting
12 June - Public Service Board meeting
14 June - Oxfordshire Partnership meeting
21 June - Annual review meeting with GOSE