Developing a Common Approach to Local

Economic Assessments - Update

Lorna Gibbons, South West Observatory

LEA Evidence Coordinator activity to date

Questionnaire sent to LA’s to get a clear picture of ‘where we are now’ (July 2009) . Aimed to provide information on any capacity issues, what action has already been taken, to identify best practice and to discover any obvious gaps.

The questionnaire responses highlighted a number of issues:

Highlighted issues

Capacity concerns:A common response was that there is no money to recruit for a

new post to complete the LEAs. Other responses indicated that consultants may be brought in to

provide this function Concerns about if the LA has the correct skill sets

“With so many areas to cover in the LEA it will be a tremendous task to access the data and be able to meaningfully analyse it”

Difficulties around selecting the correct geographyIf there are to be joint assessments – who will do what and who

will pull the evidence together at the MAA levelSelecting Functional Economic AreasComplexities of delivering the duty in a two tier environment

Highlighted issues

Data availability concerns “There is some concern that data on the economy and labour

market is difficult to break down below the county level and info below county level is usually more unreliable”

An agreed cut off date for data will be necessary to enable comparisons. Could this be agreed nationally to enable comparisons outside of the region?

Without expert support LEAs will be too much about past trends rather than future prospects

Timescales Will the timescales of the SRS allow the LEAs to meaningfully

feed into this process

Quick win outcomes from the questionnaire:

Website resource suggestion

Getting key contact information

Encouraged dialogue within and between LAs

Website example

Website example

What else?

Sharing best practice nationally Presentation given to the Local Government Information Unit on

6th September on: Co-ordinating Local Economic Assessments in the South West Region

Working with ONS regional presence team. They are able to offer training (if appropriate) and have been working with IDeA on their guidance.

Informal links made in these regions:North East

South East

West Midlands

East Midland

As a result a copy of the proposed core indicators for three of the four regions above has been obtained. The North East is taking a different approach.

What have you been doing?

Lead Contact Local Authority LEA position

John Cox BANES A pilot LEA will be commissioned towards the end of 2009.

Gwen Brennan-Barrass

Borough of Poole There is a meeting arranged on 9th October between Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole to discuss how best to undertake the LEA.

Chris Kelu Bournemouth Borough Council A meeting is arranged on the 9th October between David Walsh, Dorset County Council, and Gwen Brennan Barrass from the Borough of Poole, Steve Garrett Principal Planning officer and I to discuss the LEA and a way forward.

Chris Hackett Bristol City Council Initial meetings and planning has commenced.

Katherine Byfield

Cornwall Council Work plan for the LEA is developing. Existing Economic evidence review is being shared and tweaked to make suitable for LEA requirements. Working with Economic Development service to establish a plan for business and stakeholder engagement.

Craig Dryden Council of the Isles of Scilly Capacity issues being resolved.

Sofie Ruggieri Devon County Council We are currently on schedule with preparations for our Local Economic Assessment in line with the statutory timetable. We have begun scoping several potential studies to feed into our LEA and are studying the recently published DCLG guidance with which we are aligning our aspirations. We aim to consult with our District Council colleagues over the Autumn to ascertain their views on issues and datasets and highlight any crosscutting themes and local circumstances that need to be addressed in our evidence and analysis.

David Walsh Dorset County Council We have arranged an initial meeting for the MAA lead Councils to discuss how we undertake the LEA across Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole.

Karen McDonald

Gloucestershire County Council We now have a Research Officer in place to help with the LEA. The first meeting with partners regarding the methodology and outcomes is scheduled for early October.

Simon Gregory North Somerset Council NSC arranged an initial scoping meeting with sub-regional partners. Draft guidance reviewed. Will shortly be identifying who can provide information/statistics/evidence in line with emerging guidance & will begin to meet various teams/organisations to raise awareness of the new duty & scope out what information is available and gaps.

Jeffery Kenyon Plymouth City Council Initial meetings held and planning commenced. Still in very early stage.

Paul Hickson Somerset County Council The position in Somerset is that we will be commissioning work through the second half of this financial year to refresh and expand our evidence base prior to the development of an initial assessment in 2010.

Antony Merritt South Gloucestershire Council Key officers met from across the West of England to discuss options prior to publication of guidance. No decisions reached at that stage on the best way forward for the LAs in our sub-region. Draft economic assessment for sub-region prepared some time ago. The subject will be on the agenda for West of England Heads of ED meeting next month (October). In South Glos – not yet agreed requirement and/or process needed at LA level to fit in with sub regional plans. No plans or resource in place yet to develop an individual LA LEA.

Tiso Fiaola Swindon Borough Council Our (pilot) LEA was positively received by our Economic Partnership board and created a desire to engage further around what we can do with this document. We hope to get a group of stakeholders together to ask the 'So what?' question. We hope to start consultation for the 2010 LEA in November.

Alan Denby Torbay Development Agency Early research commissioned, outline programme developed to be presented to Council management team and Cabinet in early October. Capacity needs identified.

Tim Lansley West of England Partnership A draft Sub-Regional Economic Assessment was prepared in autumn 2009 in support of the West of England MAA. The role of a sub-regional economic assessment in the context of economic assessment work to be undertaken by the unitary authorities of the sub-region will be clarified through discussion with UA colleagues later in 2009.

Debby Skellern Wiltshire County Council Recruitment exercise for Senior Economist underway. Internal recruitment completed with post now being advertised externally, closing date 23rd September 09.

BDP have formed an LEA steering groupWest of England have also met and will be working

together on their LEA’s

lorna.gibbons@swo.org.uk01823 447 397