Although the County Council is the designated Accountable Body for all relevant funding in the Local Area Agreement, and is responsible for ensuring that use of funding satisfies the terms and conditions in any grant determination, the County Council will consider and act upon recommendations made by the CSP and its Thematic Partnerships.  Allocations of pooled funding will be agreed by the County Council based on recommendations by the CSP Thematic Partnerships.

Although responsibility for managing the Cumbria Agreement performance will rest with Thematic Partnerships, the CSP Executive will oversee the operation of the Thematic Partnerships.

On a 6 monthly cycle, the CSP Executive will consider performance and risk management reports and will be expected to consider any actions that may be required to bring performance back on track across all LAA blocks and Thematic Partnerships.  The County Council's Cabinet will take an overview of LAA performance and will receive 6 monthly performance reports and recommendations from the CSP Executive.

Governance Framework

The Governance Framework has been developed collaboratively and is jointly owned by all partners working together in Cumbria to achieve the ambitious outcomes in the Cumbria Agreement (Local Area Agreement for Cumbria).  The framework will help partners to implement the Cumbria Agreement and enable all to focus on the critical drivers, initiatives and actions that are necessary to achieve our collective outcomes.

Specifically, the content of the Governance Framework is designed to assist the Cumbria Strategic Partnership and individual Thematic Partnerships achieve their improved outcomes for Children and Young People, Healthier Communities and Older People, Safer and Stronger Communities and Economic Development and Enterprise.

The Framework contains three main sections dealing with:

• Overall performance;
• Performance and risk management;
• Financial management

and is supported by two practice notes that provide more detail on the application of performance and risk management and financial management arrangements.