Pass another element to ng-click

I want to create a list of items, which are simple clickable text. Each time you click on an item it tranforms to an input (textbox) and you can edit it. I have done this already. The only thing I am missing is to set the focus on the input element when I click on the item. My HTML code is the following:

<div ng-repeat="item in items">
  <span ng-if="!valueIsEditedForItem(item.id)">
    <a href="" ng-click="editValueForItem(item.id)">
      {{ item.value }}
    </a>
  </span>
  <span ng-if="valueIsEditedForItem(item.id)">
    <input ng-model="edited_value"
           ng-keyup="onValueInput($event, item.id, edited_value)"/>
  </span>
</div>

The <a> element and the <input> element are two different elements. So, my idea is to pass the input element somehow to the ng-click="editValueForItem(item.id). It should look something like this:

<a href="" ng-click="editValueForItem(item.id, inputElement)">
  {{ item.value }}
</a>

Then I would be able to set the focus to the input element by doing this:

inputElement.focus();

I know that the $event variable holds the element of the event in $event.target. But my event is on <a> and not on <input>. How can I reference the <input> element into <a>?