Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

I hope to give the noble Lord reassurance on both sets of amendments. As regards Amendments Nos. 209CB and 212MB, the noble Lord argued that it is critical that county-wide LAAs are able to reflect the different characteristics of the individual districts. The community strategy, of course, is an expression of local difference and is a vital and accurate evidence base for the local area agreement, which it will reflect to a large extent. Because we want it to be reflected in that way, we have anticipated concerns in regard to district community strategies being represented in the county strategy and we have proposed changes to the way in which a county sustainable community strategy is drawn up in Clause 116 of the Bill to ensure that counties take on districts’ priorities in the county-wide plan. If the noble Lord looks at Clause 116(2), he will see that we are providing that the responsible authority, when preparing the community strategy, must consult each named partner in Clause 106, which will include district councils in two-tier areas. The views and the assessments of the needs of the county’s various districts will be taken into account by the county-wide sustainable community strategy. We stated that in the local government White Paper, and we will reiterate that in guidance. I hope that will be of some help. The noble Lord asked how the designated national targets affect what happens on the ground, which is important. In Amendment No. 210A, he has asked about the scope for targets to address specific geographical areas within the overall county and two-tier authorities. It is absolutely vital that those targets are flexible enough to address particular geographical areas. As the noble Lord said, one size will not fit all, and the example that he used of worklessness is absolutely valid. The characteristics and the needs of districts and of groups of districts will be very different across the country. Therefore, we have made arrangements within the scope of the Bill and the LAAs to set some indicators in the national indicator set to make sure that they are set at the district and neighbourhood level, and they can be picked up in the statutory guidance. The fact that they are designated targets does not mean that they will be national targets that will essentially be applied locally; they can also be set—if that is what the negotiation arrives at—by district and neighbourhood level. I hope that will reassure the noble Lord on both points.