On Thursday 29th November 2007 we hosted a seminar looking at the implications of the new National Indicator set for the development of Local Area Agreements (LAAs).
The event had a particular focus on economic development issues and brought together economic development practioners from across the West Midlands.
The event was part of the Learning 2 Deliver programme coordinated by the West Midlands Local Government Association.
The event was split into five sections:
- Sharing experience
- Understanding the National Indicator set and target setting
- Which indicators best match priorities
- How to use the indicators for target setting
- Next steps
Lessons and issues from previous Local Area Agreements
The delegates started by considering the lessons and issues from the first round of LAAs. Full feedback is available in the seminar presentation slides from the event (see downloads) but key issues were related to data quality, timeliness and confidence limits.
Workshops
Within their workshops delegates considered four main questions:
- What are the gaps in the Indicator Set in relation to local priorities?
- Do some indicators have more power than others?
- Which indicators are most reliable and worth using for target setting?
- What information, clarification and advice is needed?