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Local Improvement Advisors: Funding Available to Support Partnerships

What is the Local Improvement Advisor Programme?

The Local Improvement Advisor (LIA) programme is a national programme funded by Communities and Local Government and managed regionally by RIEPs.

LIAs can provide advice, coaching, training and mentoring to support local partnerships to deliver public services through the new performance framework and LAA/MAAs. The LIAs have a primary role in improvement and efficiency activities by helping partnerships to learn how to do things by themselves by offering face-to-face advice. This will help local partnerships to marry their knowledge of problems and solutions with approaches that have worked elsewhere, and help them build their capacity to be self-sufficient.

What can LIAs do?

LIAs have been appointed to the national 'pool' following a recruitment process. Each LIA has expertise in one or more of the following service delivery areas:

  • stronger communities
  • safer communities
  • children and young people
  • adult health and well being
  • tackling exclusion and promoting equality
  • local economy and worklessness
  • climate change and environmental leadership

or the following cross cutting themes:

  • leadership and partnership development
  • performance management
  • building analytical capacity
  • digital inclusion
  • data sharing
  • service transformation methodologies (e.g. systems thinking)
  • support for improved public services at the local level

Examples of LIA support:

Support for service delivery issues could include:

  • Support Gun and Gang harm reduction by bringing together police, voluntary sector organisations, community groups, schools youth workers and others to develop solutions to the local problem.
  • Supporting the development of a worklessness proposal by giving a critical independent review of their draft proposal and overseeing any amendments.
  • Helping a partnership to tackle alcohol abuse by working with block leads to identify difficulties in setting and measuring the outcomes, indicators and targets for inclusion on the LAA.

Support for cross-cutting issues could include:

  • Resolving a Community Cohesion issue through mediation.
  • Supporting the development of an equalities strategy.
  • Improving data collection and analysis by running a training programme for Partnership staff.
  • Supporting an LSP to improve on engagement with maternity services by high risk groups .
  • Improving a partnership's capacity to performance manage delivery by coaching local authority and partners' staff to use an agreed delivery planning process.

What can't LIAs do?

LIAs cannot be used in a consultancy or professional (e.g. legal, accountancy, HR) role. They are not expected to write bidding documents or strategies, or carry out surveys, quantitative or qualitative research or evaluations, or other similar activities.

How can my partnership access the programme?

Requests for support can be submitted by single partnerships or groups of partnerships where there is a common identified problem area.

Partnerships should develop an assignment using the template and following the guidance notes. Assignments must be approved by the LSP Chair and the GONE Place Team to ensure it meets an established need, and a lead officer must be identified for liaison with the RIEP. You can contact Barbara Thomas, RIEP Project Manager (see bottom of page for contact details) for advice and information at any stage of developing your assignment.

Completed assignments should be submitted to Barbara, who will acknowledge receipt within five working days. The assignment must be approved by the LIA Project Board - any queries raised by the Project Board will be discussed with the LSP lead officer for the assignment.

When an assignment has been agreed it will be uploaded onto the national LIA website - the RIEP will endeavour to process and upload agreed assignments onto the website within 15 working days of receipt. In cases of urgent need, assignments will be fast-tracked. Once the assignment has been uploaded, LIAs working in the specialist area(s) identified will be sent an alert. Offers from LIAs to undertake the assignment will be passed on to the LSP lead officer.

What will my partnership have to do?

Although the costs of the LIA's time and expenses will be met by the programme, the partnership must provide adequate support and management resources to ensure the assignment is delivered effectively.

The partnership's responsibilities will include: appointing a suitable LIA (using a transparent process), finalising the delivery plan (to include deliverables and milestones), and submitting a final report at the end of the assignment. Partnerships must also submit an evaluation at the end of the project and again 6-12 months after completion.

Project Board

Barbara Thomas (Project Manager)
Tel: 0191 261 3930, email barbara.thomas@northeastcouncils.gov.uk

Ron Smith ron.smith@gone.gsi.gov.uk