Cumbria Strategic Partnership

The following glossary of terms is grouped into categories of: Local Government, Central Government, Regional Bodies, National Agencies, Local Area Agreements and Definitions. Where available a link has been put to where you can find out further information on a subject on this site. You can find useful links on the CSP Partners page of this website

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

ABC - Allerdale Borough Council

BBC - Barrow Borough Council

CBC - Copeland Borough Council

CCC - Cumbria County Council

CCC - Carlisle City Council

EDC - Eden District Council

SLDC - South Lakeland District Council

LDNPA - Lake District National Park Authority

LSPs - Local Strategic Partnerships. Seek to involve public, private, voluntary and community sectors in the regeneration of local areas. There are five LSPs in Cumbria: Carlisle, Eden, Furness Partnership, South Lakeland and West Cumbria Partnership.

CLF - Cumbria Leadership Forum

CEG - Cumbria Chief Executives' Group

JCG - Joint Thematic Partnership and LSP Joint Chairs Group

CENTRAL GOVERNMENT

AC  - Audit Commission. The Government's inspection and assessment organisation which oversees Best Value and Corporate Area Assessment.

CLG - Communities and Local Government. CLG sets policy on local government, housing, urban regeneration, planning and fire and rescue. 

DCMS - Department of Culture Media and Sport responsible for government policy on the arts, sport, the National Lottery, tourism, libraries, museums and galleries, broadcasting, film, the music industry, the press, licensing, gambling and the historic environment.

DEFRA - Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs working to provide Government policy and advice on environmental, agricultural and rural issues.

DfES - Department for Education and Skills aims to create opportunity, release potential and achieve excellence for all.

DH - Department of Health aims to improve health and well-being for the people of England. 

DTI - Department for Trade and Industry works to create the best environment for business success in the UK.

DWP - Department for Work and Pensions is responsible for the Government's Welfare Reform Agenda.  Delivering support and advice to people of working age, employers, disabled people, pensioners, families and children.

EP - English Partnerships is a national regeneration agency helping the Government to support high quality sustainable growth in England.

IDeA - Improvement and Development agency supports improvement and innovation in local government. They work with local authorities and their partners to develop and share good practice.

HCA - Homes and Communities Agency -  provide funding for affordable housing, bring land back into productive use and improve quality of life by raising standards for the physical and social environment. The single conversation is their new way of doing business and will transform the way they deliver housing and regeneration. 

LGA - Local Government Association  which promotes the interests of English and Welsh local authorities - a total of just under 500 authorities.

LGiU - Local Government Information Unit - an independent think-tank and a resource for local government

Urban Policy Unit - An agency of Communities and Local Government (CLG) responsible for the implementation of regeneration policies.

REGIONAL BODIES

Government Offices  for the Regions. There are nine Government Offices, each working with regional partners and local people to help deliver the government's key aims at regional level.

GONW - Government Office North West  covers the five areas of Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Cumbria and Lancashire

NWDA - North West Regional Development Agency  provides strategic leadership, programmes and funding to ensure the sustainable economic development and regeneration of England's North West this area covers Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.

4NW -The regional leaders board for the North West of England 

NWIN - North West Improvement Network - the regional improvement partnership

NWCE - North West Centre of Excellence

NWEO - North West Employers Organisation

NWeGG - North West e-Government Group

CfLG - Centre for Local Governance

LOCAL AREA AGREEMENTS & THEMATIC PARTNERSHIPS

LAA - Local Area Agreements  Local Area Agreements (LAAs) set out the priorities for a local area agreed between central government and a local area (the local authority and Local Strategic Partnership) and other key partners at the local level.

CYP - Children and Young People Thematic Partnership 

EDE - Economic Development and Enterprise Thematic Partnership. 

HCOP -Healthy Communities and Older People Thematic Partnership

SSCTP - Safer and Stronger Communities Thematic partnership. 

Environment Thematic Partnership

DEFINITIONS

ABG - Area Based Grant  is a general grant allocated by central government directly to local authorities as additional revenue funding. Local authorities are free to use it as they see fit - it is not ringfenced - to support the delivery of local, regional and national priorities in their areas. This includes local area agreement (LAA) targets.  

ALMO - Arm's Length Management Organisation. A separate but wholly owned company set up by local authorities to manage social housing.

Baseline -  The starting point of a project against which the project's success will be measured to assess improvements and successes.

Beacon Councils - A government scheme which acknowledges excellence and innovation in local government. 

Best Value -  A framework, based on a set of nationally determined indicators to help local authorities measure, manage and improve their performance. 

BIDs - Business Improvement Districts. A part of an urban area where local businesses pay additional rates to create improvements in services such as street cleaning, landscaping or crime reduction.

BME - Black and Minority Ethnic. 

CAA - Comprehensive Area Assessment -  CAA will consider how partnerships are working to address challenges facing communities and deliver better outcomes. It will seek to highlight best practice and innovation, but also identify any barriers to improvement. CAA consists of two assessments - the Area Assessment and Organisational Assessment. 

The Area Assessment assess the extent to which councils and their partners are delivering improvements on the issues that matter to people within the local area. It will consider whether the priorities set in the area reflect those of the people who live there. Area assessment will also look at how effectively the improvements are being delivered, and will assess the future prospects for improvement. 

The Organisational Assessment will focus on the individual public bodies within an area, to make sure they are accountable for quality and impact. It will involve two assessments: 

• managing performance 
• use of resources, consisting of three themes: managing finances, governing the    

Capacity Building -  Giving individuals or organisations within communities the ability to become more involved in regeneration projects.

Capital Funding -  Money spent on the purchase of fixed assets such as buildings, roads and equipment.

CPA - Comprehensive Performance Assessment. Government inspection and assessment process for councils with a scorecard approach to how well key services and corporate support is delivered. CPA has now been replaced by CAA.

Community - a specific group of people who all hold something in common. Community has tended to be associated with two key aspects: firstly people who share locality or geographical place; secondly people who are communities of interest

Community Strategies -  are designed to set out a vision for an area and defines key priorities for action that will have a positive impact on the well being of the population. In Cumbria, five Local Strategic Partnerships have worked with the six district Councils to create Community Strategies.

ECM - Every Child Matters  is a new approach to the well-being of children and young people from birth to age 19.   The Government's aim is for every child, whatever their background or their circumstances, to have the support they need to: be healthy; stay safe; enjoy and achieve; make a positive contribution; and achieve economic well-being.

Efficiency - The relationship between the outputs from a service and the resources used to produce them. Alongside economy and effectiveness - including public satisfaction and outcomes, efficiency is one of the ways in which value for money (VFM) is assessed.

DAAT - Drug and Alcohol Action Team -  coordinate the strategic action against drug misuse within a local area.

EIA - Equality Impact Assessment is a tool for identifying the potential impact of a council's policies, services and functions on its residents and staff. It can help staff provide and deliver excellent services to residents by making sure that these reflect the needs of the community.

Fuel Poverty - A household is said to be in fuel poverty if it needs to spend more than 10 per cent of its income on fuel to maintain a satisfactory heating regime. That is maintaining 21 degrees Celsius for the main living area, and 18 degrees for other occupied rooms.

IIP - Investors in People - The IIP standard provides a framework to ensure that organisations improve the way they work. They have to meet the same criteria, or indicators, as other organisations, but the standard recognises that each one will meet them in its own way.

Joined up Working - involves working in partnership with others, whether in the public, private or voluntary sector, in order to identify and solve local problems. The government increasingly regards joined-up working as a means of fostering efficiency, effectiveness and community engagement in the improvement of local government performance.

KLOE - Key Lines of Enquiry are detailed questions that help inspectors inform their inspection judgements. They are used by inspection teams, but they are also published to help audited and inspected bodies with their own assessments.

Leverage - The additional money that a programme causes others to contribute.

Local Agenda 21 -  Strategies prepared by local authorities to promote sustainable development.

LPSA - Local Public Service Agreement. Agreements between individual local authorities and the Government setting out the authority's commitment to deliver specific improvements in performance. 

Mainstreaming - Realigning the allocation of mainstream resources - such as the police and health services - to better target the most deprived areas.

Milestones - Key events with dates, marking stages in the progress of a project or programme.

MAA - Multi Area Agreements  follow similar principles to local area agreements (LAAs), but concern a larger geographic area. 

NEET - Not in Education Employment or Training - young people aged 16 to 18 who are not in education, employment and training

NI - National Indicator - The local government performance framework includes a set of 188 National Indicators (NIs). These indicators cover all the national priority outcomes which local authorities will be responsible for delivering. Each Local Area Agreement (LAA) will have up to 35 of these targets agreed as priorities.  Performance against the priorities set out in the LAA will be assessed through Comprehensive Area Assessments (CAAs).

NRF - Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.  Provides public services and communities in the 88 poorest local authority districts with extra funds to tackle deprivation. This fund will be included in the funds distributed through the Local Area Agreement. 

OBC - Outline Business Case

OD - Organisational Development

Outputs and Outcomes -  Outputs measure what was directly produced by the regeneration programme, outcomes measure the longer term changes in an area that were brought about by the regeneration programme.

Outcomes based accountability - is a conceptual approach to planning services and assessing their performance. It focuses on the results, or outcomes, that the services are intended to achieve.

Overview and Scrutiny - a function to enable non-executive councillors to hold local authority executives to account for their performance and the performance of the authority.  

PI - Performance Indicator - A way of measuring how a service is performing against its objectives. Performance Indicators may be collected for local or national purposes

PRG - Performance Reward Grant - A grant offered by the government to encourage partnerships to deliver ambitious LAAs

Priorities - An agreed set of priorities for Cumbria to allow all agencies to work together to improve and enhance Cumbria for those who live, work and study in the County.

PPO - Prolific and other Priority Offenders.

RDA's -  a total of nine agencies who promote regional economic development. They help regions to be more competitive and reduce imbalance both between different regions and within the same region.

RES - Regional Economic Strategy, this aims to set out a clear and measurable vision for the region, and outline clear policies to deliver this vision with the actions required. It will continue to address the key issues that affect the economic performance of the Northwest. 

RIEP's - Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships  are partnerships of councils and other local services working together to deliver excellent services and greater efficiency. The priorities and work programmes of each RIEP are based on and reflect needs and challenges of authorities in the region or sub-region.

RS2010 - The Regional Strategy will be a new and clear strategic investment framework for the region. The Strategy builds on the learning gained in the process of developing the Regional Economic Strategy 20069, the Regional Spatial Strategy and Partial Review and the Regional Housing Strategy.

RSS - Regional Spatial Strategy.

Shared Services - Increased collaboration between councils, and between councils and other local partners is, in some cases, leading to the establishment of shared services. Shared services describe a variety of arrangements whereby a service provider delivers services for a group of councils and or for other public bodies under a service level agreement (SLA) or contract

Social Exclusion - When individuals or areas suffer from  a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high  crime environments, bad health and family breakdown. 

SRS - Sub Regional Strategy.  This Community Strategy for Cumbria was developed in partnership with the groups listed and together with the community strategies of the LSPs represents a Sub Regional Strategy for all of Cumbria.

SRSpS - Sub Regional Spatial Strategy  sets out the spatial planning framework to enable actions that affect specific areas and locations to achieve the outcomes stated in the Sub Regional Strategy.

Stakeholder - A stakeholder is a person or body that is directly affected by an organisation or project and has an interest or stake in it. Who or what the stakeholders are depends on each individual organisation or undertaking

Sustainable Communities Plan - 2001 report by the ODPM.

Sustainable Development - Activity which achieves mutually reinforcing economic, social and environmental benefits without compromising the needs of future generations.

Third Sector: non-governmental organisations with cultural, social and environmental objectives. It includes voluntary and community organisations, charities, social enterprises, cooperatives and mutuals, and housing associations

Total Place is a new initiative that looks at how a 'whole area' approach to public services can lead to better services at less cost. It seeks to identify and avoid overlap and duplication between organisations - delivering a step change in both service improvement and efficiency at the local level, as well as across Whitehall.

Two Tier Local Government - Two-tier local government involves county and district councils working together to deliver services. County councils tend to deliver all-encompassing services, such as education. Districts tend to deliver the smaller, localised services, such as tourism.

Urban Forum -  An umbrella body for community and voluntary groups with interests in urban and regional policy, especially regeneration.

URCs - Urban Regeneration Companies.  Not-for-profit companies set up by local authorities, RDAs, English Partnerships and other partners to promote development in less prosperous areas of English cities by engaging businesses in agreed physical and economic regeneration strategies.

VfM - Value for Money is the term used to assess whether or not an organisation has obtained the maximum benefit from the goods and services it acquires and/ or provides, within the resources available to it.  It not only measures the cost of goods and services, but also takes account of the mix of quality, cost, resource use, fitness for purpose, timeliness and convenience to judge whether or not, when taken together, they constitute good value.  Achieving VfM may be described in terms of the 'three Es' - economy, efficiency and effectiveness

Voluntary sector: groups whose activities are carried out other than for profit but which are not public or local authorities. These organisations would normally be formally constituted and employ paid professional and administrative staff. They may or may not use volunteer help.

Worklessness - a less familiar term than unemployment to describe those who are economically inactive. The economically inactive are people of working age who are not working, not in full-time education or training and are not actively seeking work