To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance has been issued to local authorities on taking into account the needs of carers when drawing up local area agreements. (187825)

CLG has issued two sets of guidance on local area agreements (LAAs) as follows:

draft statutory guidance ‘Creating Strong., Safe and Prosperous Communities’, which was published for public consultation on 20 November covering the new legal framework for local area agreements; and

operational guidance ‘Development of the new LA A framework’ covering negotiations of LAAs for 2008-11.

This guidance describes the process for setting targets in local area agreements, drawn from the National Indicator Set (which contains an indicator, NI 135, which specifically addresses the needs of carers). It does not cover how to set individual targets to take into account the needs of carers, as this will be a matter for individual negotiation in each LAA.