The Council agreed an organisational vision for itself in 1998, following in-depth community and stakeholder consultation. The vision is long-standing, ambitious and forward looking. It is based on partnership working for progressive change and focuses on Lewisham as a place to live, work and learn within the broader London economy.
The Council’s vision is a well-known ‘purpose statement’ throughout Lewisham and, because of this, in 2003, it was included in the Community Strategy as the vision statement for the Lewisham Strategic Partnership (LSP): together we will make Lewisham the best place in London to live, work and learn.
Local Public Service Agreements (LPSA)
The Public Service Agreements (PSAs) are partnership agreements between individual authorities and the Government. They bring together national and local targets creating a performance agenda that focuses on key priorities and difficult challenges.
Lewisham’s first PSA was signed in March 2001 and ran from April that year until March 2004. The Council had 12 targets organised under three themes:
- making Lewisham a better, safer and cleaner place to live
- building the future through young people
- implementing electronic service delivery, good governance and cost effectiveness as a means to deliver service improvements.
The Council met nine (75%) of the stretch targets and will receive £5.35 million, out of a potential £7.25 million reward grant. The performance for each of the individual targets was reported in last year’s performance plan.
In cooperation with its partners, Lewisham is in the process of agreeing a Second Generation LPSA that commenced in 2005 and will run until 2008.
The 12 new targets will be set out under five headline priorities which are:
- sustain and improve the health and well-being of local people
- raise educational attainment, skill levels and employability
- crime reduction, community safety and anti-social behaviour
- secure the sustainable regeneration of Lewisham – its housing, transport and environment
- reduce welfare-dependency, promote independence and increase life chances of vulnerable members of the community.
Local Area Agreement
Local Area Agreements (LAAs) are intended to give localities greater control over determining priorities and delivering outcomes in their areas. Through LAAs, partners will be able to pool existing area based funding streams together and target resources, where they are needed most.
Under the ‘safer, stronger communities’ mini-LAA, Lewisham and its partners have agreed to increase the targeting of resources on the following priority outcomes:
- reducing crime, reassure the public, reducing the fear of crime and anti social behaviour and to reducing the harm caused by illegal drugs
- cleaner, safer and greener public spaces
- increasing the capacity of local communities so that people are empowered to participate in local decision making and are able to influence service delivery
- improving the quality of life for people in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods and ensure service providers are more responsive to neighbourhood needs and improve their delivery.
Lewisham at a glance
This is a series of charts providing an overview of performance across a number of areas that impact on the lives of Lewisham's residents.