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Developing Local Outcome Agreements for the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund
Chapter Two
Role of Local Outcome Agreements
2.1 The Scottish Executive is piloting the use of LOAs as a way of developing and delivering better services to improve people's quality of life. The use of LOAs has been supported by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and has been piloted in different ways across six policy areas:
- Educational Attainment (Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian and East Renfrewshire Councils), led by Scottish Executive Education Department
- Education and Children's Services (Highland, Perth and Kinross and Stirling Councils), led by Scottish Executive Education Department
- Adult Literacy (all Councils), led by Scottish Executive Enterprise and Lifelong Learning Department
- Rough Sleepers Initiative (28 Councils) led by Scottish Executive Development Department
- Community Care for the Elderly (all councils), led by Scottish Executive Health Department
- Better Neighbourhoods Services Fund (12 Councils), led by Scottish Executive Development Department
2.2 The decision to pilot LOAs in the BNSF programme came after the decision in January 2001 to set up the programme (broadly designed as the Scottish equivalent of the ODPM's Neighbourhood Renewal Fund). The Scottish Executive had been in discussion with COSLA about LOAs. Both saw LOAs as one way of linking Ministers' national policy priorities with local service outcomes whilst allowing Councils and their community planning partners the flexibility to develop local solutions to local problems. In the BNSF programme, pathfinder authorities would be given greater freedom about how they used resources, while at the same time being expected to demonstrate accountability in terms of the outcomes achieved with this funding. The Executive indicated in the BNSF Guidelines for Implementation that this approach was being piloted in partnership with COSLA.
2.3 Accountability was to be shown not just in relation to the inputs or even outputs of BNSF services and projects; there was an increasing focus on outcomes 1 - the objective was to demonstrate that the project had changed people's lives or life chances in a measurable way. The use of outcomes emphasises what difference funding has made to people's lives rather than what the money was spent on.
2.4 A distinctive feature of the BNSF programme in relation to previous programmes is the fact that rather than providing ring fenced funding, it increases the level of Revenue Support Grant (RSG) to local authorities - albeit within the terms of an agreed LOA. RSG has advantages for local authorities in terms of the flexibility it gives them and partners about the timing of expenditure and the ability to carry funding forward from year to year.
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