Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill

This is an important part of our debate. I hope to go some way to explaining how local area agreements will work. I will be as swift as I can in going through the various options. The exclusions are defined by a systematic set of principles, which I will come to. I hope it will be clear to noble Lords that it is by no means a random process. The list was compiled in line with a number of important criteria. Those criteria are essentially based on the notion of key partnerships, which are required to deliver the key elements and characteristics of the place. It was never conceived as an endless list. We all know the difficulties of putting any list into legislation. Apart from the notion of what constituted the key sustainable important partnerships, though, there were other criteria, which would explain some of the exclusions: that the partner was a public body, not a private business; that it would make sense for that body to be involved in strategic negotiations; that in placing the body under these duties we were not imposing an unreasonable burden either on it or on the responsible local authority. When we come to talk about the voluntary sector, we will use that sort of argument. Another criterion is that the body in question had a clear legal identity. Again, when we talk about local strategic partnerships, that will be a factor in that sort of argument. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, that an organisation’s absence from the list does not mean it is not there to be worked with. There is enormous scope. There is clear instruction to local area agreement makers that they have to move beyond the list to ensure that their targets are sympathetic, comprehensive and robust—all those things. We have also listened to the debates in another place about composition. We added some more, particularly health bodies. In doing so, we looked at the balance between overcomplicating things, enhancing partnership working and not imposing any unnecessary further bodies. Achieving the balance of what is necessary to achieve what you want without overloading the system is very important. On her Amendment No. 204HA, the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, has asked me to define what we meant by ““other establishment facility”” in relation to NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts in Clause 106(1)(b). The clause refers to Clause 106(3), which sets out that it is NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts running such hospitals and other establishments or facilities. It relates to public sector health providers such as GPs and so on. There are other examples I could give. That is how it ties in; it is a comprehensive definition that would pick up what the noble Baroness is concerned about, so her amendment is not necessary. There are a series of reasons why different parts of the education establishment fall into different categories, either because of the nature of the partnerships they already hold or because of what it would mean to bring a school into a direct relationship, with the potential burden not only on the school but also on the area if, for example, it has 300 schools. Sixth-form colleges and FE colleges are incredibly important local organisations for education, skills and learning. The noble Lord, Lord Smith of Leigh, argues that it would be better to have them in because then skills gaps and lifelong learning could be properly addressed. I have no doubt that he is right to say that they have to be involved in tackling those issues, but most of those colleges already fully recognise the importance of working closely with local authorities, or have a local-authority-nominated member on their governing bodies. Many are active members of the 14-to-19 partnerships within local authority areas. We have made it clear in the FE reform White Paper that the strategic lead for 14 to 19 now lies with local authorities. In the recent changes in the machinery of government we indicated that funding for 14-to-19 learners would be routed through local authorities. We have a network of partnerships that we think will pick up the FE colleges without the need to put them in the Bill. The primary legislation we will need for the new framework for 16-to-19 education will provide an opportunity to determine the breadth of the local authority role and its ability to influence delivery. We must recognise that FE colleges have been transformed in recent years. One of the complications is that they often draw their students from wide catchment areas. For example, Warwickshire has students attending from across the country, and I hear that Plymouth has 30,000 students from across the country attending its courses. We are not looking at traditional models of FE colleges here, but that will not stop colleges from co-operating on a voluntary basis where appropriate. We hope they will, and we will make it abundantly clear in statutory guidance that we expect them to. A special set of circumstances govern regional offender managers and probation trusts. The noble Baronesses, Lady Hamwee and Lady Scott, have rightly argued that the list of partner authorities will need to reflect the proposed legislative changes for probation services in the Offender Management Bill. It is essential, I do not have to say, that bodies commissioned to deliver probation services are fully involved in the LAA targets and take account of them. There is possibly nothing more important than community safety, rehabilitation and addressing all the things that we know contribute to anti-social behaviour in local communities. There must be co-ordination; anti-social behaviour cannot be separated out from reoffending and homelessness, for example. I am pleased to reassure the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, that an amendment to the Offender Management Bill passed in Committee in this House on 21 May will achieve that. In purely legislative terms—it has to be a device, because this is where the legal battle will happen—it will add to the list of partner authorities in the Bill the Secretary of State where exercising her functions for ensuring the provision of probation services. It makes clear that her power to delegate specific functions for specific purposes applies in that case. That means that the duty will rest on the regional offender manager as the representative of the Secretary of State. We cannot name him in the Bill, but he is there. The regional offender manager will delegate that duty to co-operate, which means that the new lead providers—which in most cases will be the probation trust—will be the key partners in that. That will be reinforced by contracts, so that the lead provider will then engage with other partners in the LSP to agree and implement the LAA targets. That is how we have covered the relationship with regional offender management, and it was agreed with the partners, including the LGA. The same argument I made about FE colleges applies with greater force in universities. Every university has a separate charter. We would need to consider whether we needed to name each and every one of them in the legislation. That is one set of issues. The other set is that they draw their students from well beyond the local catchment area. A better solution would be to ensure that responsible local authorities consulted their local universities and equivalent bodies when drawing up their local area agreements. Again, we will put that into statutory guidance to make clear that that is the expectation.