Summer 2007

Oxfordshire Sustainable Community Strategy

We are working on the new Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) for Oxfordshire. The strategy will outline a vision for Oxfordshire up to 2030 and the new Local Area Agreement will contain short-medium term targets to achieve these priorities.

A huge amount of work has been done by the expert paper authors and thematic partnerships to develop the 12 theme papers which provide the comprehensive evidence base for the SCS. These papers can be accessed via the Oxfordshire Partnership website.

Three workshops were held in July to look at the evidence and the contextual changes that may affect the county over the next 20 years. Emerging issues in the workshops included: the need for a strategy that could support "engagement and involvement"; volunteering; support for communities to come together and parish planning; alcohol-impact on young people and adults. The report from the workshops will be available on the website later in August.

A draft strategy will be agreed by the Partnership in December prior to public consultation and final agreement in April 2008.

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.

Stretch target focus - waste

Progress on our municipal waste recycling stretch target continues apace.

The basis of the target is to increase recycling and composting county wide to 38% (of all waste produced) in 2008-9. We will earn the reward for this target by recycling 4,875 extra tonnes of non-biodegradable waste from 2006-7 to 2008-9 inclusive.

The target is managed by the Oxfordshire Waste Partnership as part of the 'Oxfordshire Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy'.

Performance

Current performance stands at more than 38.5% which exceeds the target for 2008-9 already. Particular contributions to the strong performance were made by the new recycling collection system introduced by Oxford City Council which was fully implemented by May 2007 and has seen recycling rates rise from 19% to 40%; and by the Waste Recycling Centres, where recycling performance has risen to over 60%. The introduction of new garden waste collection schemes by South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire District Councils have also made a positive contribution, whilst Cherwell District Council's recycling and composting rate has seen them named as the South East region's top recycler.

Performance in recycling of non-biodegradable waste is also strong, figures show that over 6000 extra tonnes of non-biodegradable waste has already been recycled exceeding the target of 4,875.

Approach

The key methodology that is being used to achieve the target is a communications campaign designed to focus on the recycling of glass, plastic, metal etc. It will be advertised all over Oxfordshire using different media at key seasonal times of the year (Easter, summer, and Christmas) to maximise effectiveness. The advertising/marketing campaign will instigate an awareness programme, to boost participation and performance.

The next step for Local Area Agreements – LAA2

Work is beginning on Oxfordshire's second Local Area Agreement, known as LAA2. The LAA2 will be developed through a continuing dialogue and the creation of a "picture" of Oxfordshire that identifies the priorities for improving services and outcomes for people within the county. As the government has defined the LAA2 as a delivery plan for the Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) and we are currently developing an SCS within Oxfordshire, the dialogue on LAA2 has already begun.

Key facts:

• LAA2 needs to be ready for sign-off by the Oxfordshire Partnership in early March 2008
• LAA2 targets will cover the period June 2008-2011 and will include:
  • 18 statutory Children & Young People targets and
  • up to 35 other targets
• Each target must relate to one of the 200 national indicators (due to be announced in Autumn 2007)
• All LAA2 targets must reflect priorities identified within Oxfordshire’s Sustainable Community Strategy (see article above)
• The targets within the LAA2 will be a focus for the Common Area Assessment when it replaces the Corporate Performance Assessment (CPA).

What we are waiting for

• Announcement of the size of the funding pool for LAA2 – provisional figures to be announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review (Oct 2007)
• The 200 national indicator set published – Autumn 2007
• Guidance on how the transition between the current LAA and LAA2 will be managed – Jan 2008

Timetable

A timetable is currently being developed in consultation with GOSE to ensure that we have key decisions scheduled into the Oxfordshire Partnership and Public Service Board agendas. This timetable will change and an up-to-date version will be available through our website.

An LAA2 project team will be formed in September 2007, to maintain an overview of all target development. In the meantime, if you would like more information on LAA2, please contact Jayne Dunn, jayne.dunn@oxfordshire.gov.uk, LAA2 Project Manager or Paul James paul.james@oxfordshire.gov.uk, Head of Partnerships.

Annual review feedback

Our first annual review of performance with the Government Office took place on June 21. Representatives from GOSE met all block leads to discuss performance in the first year of the LAA and focused on targets where there are risks to achievement of the target.

The review went very well and initial feedback from GOSE has been positive. GOSE has submitted a highlight report to the Department for Communities and Local Government which will be made available on our website.

The key areas for further work highlighted by GOSE were:

• Teenage Pregnancy
• Young enterprise and business start ups
• Tourism
• Affordable Housing
• Smoking cessation
• Crime reduction
• Neighbourhood policing

Locally, target leads and block groups will be working on action plans to mitigate the risks to target delivery identified and strengthen partnership working in these areas. These will be presented to the Public Service Board at its September meeting.

NHS Choices website

At recent meetings of the Oxfordshire Partnership and the Public Service Board there have been interesting discussions on health, following the presentation of the Director of Public Health's Annual Report for Oxfordshire. One of the topics of discussion has been how people can access reliable and practical information to help them make the right choices – whether that is about their own lifestyle or about how to access the right health care in the community or in hospitals.

A new health website has been launched which has much of the information that partners have been discussing locally. NHS Choices (www.nhs.uk), aims to personalise healthcare and provide information that will allow patients to make meaningful choices about when and where to receive their treatment as well as about living healthy lives.

Key features of the new site include:

• NHS library: Authoritative information on common conditions and procedures previously only available to clinicians.
• Compare Hospitals: for the most common procedures that enable patients to benchmark services and make informed decisions about where they go for treatment.
• Provider profiles: a space for hospitals to provide authoritative information on their services to their local communities.
• Your Thoughts: an opportunity for the public to comment on and rate the quality of the treatment they receive and to allow providers to reply and identify areas in need of improvement.
• Up to date healthcare information in a range of online magazines targeted at specific groups such as teenagers and parents.

Have a look at the website and see what you think. It will be interesting to hear views in future meetings.

Jackie Wilderspin, Oxfordshire PCT

Progress through Partnerships

Progress through Partnership is a government funded programme to help build capacity of LSPs in the South East of England. PtP is a pilot programme, it will provide new and innovative ways of approaching capacity building (helping LSPs build their skills to anticipate their future roles). It is peer led, taking a lead from and being supported by LSP partners and practitioners across the region.

Each LSP has been allocated £6,000 worth of credits to pursue development activities. In Oxfordshire all six LSPs have agreed to pool £4,000 of their allocation because many of the issues we face locally are the same. Pooling part of our allocation will enable us to develop a wider programme of events.

All LSPs in Oxfordshire submitted a self assessment of their partnership in June and are now working together along with the PtP team to agree what our priorities are. All activities must be completed by March 2008.

Look out for more details on the local events during the autumn. In addition to the local programme of events PtP organise a range of development events open to all LSPs in the South East. The forthcoming seminar, Building Sustainable Communities on 21st September will focus on developing sustainability in local partnerships. We are allocated a limited number of places so anyone wishing to attend the seminar should contact the Oxfordshire Partnership team.

For more information about the Progress through Partnerships project visit their website www.progressthroughpartnership.org.uk.

In the diary

20 August - Safer Communities Officer Group
4 September - Oxfordshire Economic Partnership workshop
4 September - LAA Programme Board
5 September - Public Service Board
7 September - Economy and Enterprise Delivery Group
12 September - Sustainable Community Strategy workshop for Oxfordshire Partnership and district LSP members
13 September - Sustainable Community Strategy workshop for Councillors
17 October - Oxfordshire Cultural Forum

Watch out for more information about LAA2 briefing events happening in early October!