Partnership working brings results

Successful completion of our Local Agreement Area (LAA) has resulted in the North Somerset Partnership achieving over £2.5m of performance reward grant.

The Local Area Agreement was a three-year agreement between central government and the partnership. It was a key piece of partnership work contributing to delivery of the shared aims and improvements set out in the Sustainable Community Strategy. 

Achieving over 96% of the challenging targets set out in the LAA, the North Somerset result is the best in the South West.

But the LAA was not just about numbers and achieving targets it was about making a difference to people's lives in the area, such as:

• In 2010 52% of 16-18 year olds achieved 5 A*-C GCSE results including Maths and English, a rise of 4.7% since 2007
• An additional 50+ schools are now signed up to the national Health Schools programme
• More people are volunteering
• Over 180 obese people have lost at least 5kg through personalised weight management programmes
• Increasing numbers of people have been encouraged to take regular exercise
• 348 more adults and older people have self directed care packages
• More than 1500 people have stopped smoking thanks to the NHS Stop Smoking Service
• More incidents of domestic violence have been tackled
• There have been less drug related deaths
• There were 1145 fewer criminal damage offences in 2010 than 2007
• 260 lone parents or people on inactive benefits have been helped into sustainable employment

We are keen to build on and sustain the improvements for local people so the performance reward grant will be used to fund a number of projects across the area over the next two to three years.