Scottish Government

THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND ACT 2003
COMMUNITY PLANNING: ADVICE NOTE 2

Partnership Models and Structures

MARCH 2004

Introduction

As outlined in Statutory Guidance (paragraph 2.1) a local authority, in its facilitation role, will be expected to establish a Community Planning partnership comprising all relevant public, private, voluntary and community bodies in its area. Other partners with a duty to participate should assist the Local Authority in this role.

There is no single model of Community Planning partnership and it is inappropriate to be prescriptive about the structures, or composition of partnerships that should be adopted. This note outlines some key considerations that partners may wish to take into account in developing their structures at a strategic and local level. The particular models and structures adopted relate closely to issues of effective partnership working and this note should be read in conjunction with Advice Note 4: Effective Partnership Working.

Research for the Community Planning Implementation Group has provided a snapshot of progress and has shown that there is considerable diversity in terms of the size and composition of Community Planning partnerships, reflecting different stages of development and local circumstances). However, there are some common elements that can be identified:

• Partnership Groups - usually comprising senior representatives, either Chief Executives, Directors, from partner organisations.
• Implementation Groups - involving less senior officers from partner organisations. These groups are usually charged with responsibility for taking forward Community Planning between meetings of the main Partnership Group.
• Thematic Groups - most partnerships have established or are in the process of establishing thematic groups with responsibility for developing the key strategic themes outlined in the Community Plan (in some areas these groups build upon existing groups which have been brought into the wider Community Planning process).

Partnership structures will evolve as Community Planning develops and different structures may be necessary as partnerships move from the initial visioning stage towards action planning and implementation. Whatever structures are adopted partnerships should ensure they are clear about their roles and tasks (as outlined in paragraph 2.1 of the statutory guidance). There also needs to be clearly defined and accepted operational rules. Essentially as structures develop there will be a need for clear lines of accountability and delegation to ensure that the structures are working effectively.

Partnerships should also regularly review their structures for effectiveness ( see also Advice Note 4: Effective Partnership Working).

Links / other reading

• Research on progress http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/uscp-00.asp

Corporate Body Status

As Community Planning evolves and partnerships mature they may wish to consider a more formal arrangement. Section 19 of the Act allows Community Planning partnerships to apply to Ministers to establish the partnership as a legally distinct body (see Statutory Guidance - paragraph 13). Ministers have made it clear that the intention of this provision is to allow a corporate body to be established to secure better co-ordination in taking forward Community Planning, not to become a body that substantially delivers services in itself.

An incorporated Community Planning partnership could potentially offer a number of benefits, although these benefits are not necessarily exclusive to an incorporated body. For example:

• Corporate support services of the various agencies comprising the Community Planning partnership could be drawn together on behalf of the partnership - for example, research, statistical information, support and administration, and procurement. This would ensure best value in the use of existing resources.
• Employee development, or elements of this, could be pooled which may help with the breaking down of any cultural barriers between organisations.
• The body could act as a conduit to receive cross-cutting funding from the Executive, with responsibility for distributing and ensuring effective use of funding.

Partnerships may wish to consider the option of becoming an incorporated body as part of their review of partnership effectiveness and structures, although the decision to apply to ministers to become incorporated must be agreed by the Local Authority and one or more of the bodies participating in Community Planning in the area. The Act sets out the procedures for an application which must specify the functions of the corporate body, details of the consultation undertaken and the outcome of the consultation.

Who should be involved in Community Planning partnerships?

To make Community Planning effective there will need to be involvement and participation from a wide range of public, private and community bodies. The Act sets out the requirement of local authorities as facilitators to encourage community and other bodies in the Community Planning process (see Statutory Guidance - paragraph 5). This section focuses on involving other public sector bodies while Advice Note 5 covers the involvement of communities and Advice Note 3 covers private sector involvement.

Many public bodies as well as Local Authorities, Health, Enterprise and Voluntary Sector are already participating in Community Planning, for example tourist boards, environmental bodies such Scottish Natural Heritage, Registered Social Landlords, Local Biodiversity Action Plan Co-ordinators, UK bodies such as Job Centre Plus, and further and higher education establishments. Research for the Task Force has shown that where partnerships involved partners outwith the main public sector agencies their involvement was generally seen as providing a fresh perspective.

Local authorities, acting with other partners, should invite and encourage other public bodies to engage in the Community Planning process. In doing so the benefits of being involved should be promoted - they should not view their involvement in the Community Planning process as an additional burden. There will be benefits to the community in receiving services that more closely related to their needs, but there will also be benefits to individual organisations, for example, access to a broader range of skills and competencies, the potential for innovation and leverage of resources. On an individual level potential benefits of being involved include greater experience and professional development.

Involvement and participation of other public bodies can be at various levels and through various means. Whilst it is important to get other public bodies involved representation at the core strategic partnership level may not be appropriate for all bodies. Key considerations will include:

• The balance between maintaining a stable core membership whilst allowing sufficient flexibility for others to make their views known.
• Managing the potential tension between adopting an inclusive approach, which could require a large number of partners to be formally involved and the need for efficient decision making structures.
• The particular focus of bodies and potential contribution they can make, for example, bodies who have a remit that covers a specific community or neighbourhood within a local authority area may find engagement in thematic groups or local or neighbourhood structures more productive (see section below on Local Community Planning).
• The skills and competencies to operate at this level. Where new partners are brought in at the strategic partnership level there may be a need for initial induction and training.

Further education colleges have an important role to play in the Community Planning process, both at the overarching strategic level and also within specific themed partnerships.

Boundary issues can also be an important consideration. For example, a national or regional body such as the Scottish Arts Council or sportscotland will have a role to play in more than one local authority. It will therefore be important that Community Planning partnerships recognise that the capacity of certain bodies may be limited.

Such national and regional bodies will have to balance the contribution they make as local Community Planning partners with their national or regional obligations. Partnerships on a cluster basis may be one way of achieving better partnerships with national and regional bodies. Any such partnerships would have to recognise that individual local authorities may have different needs and circumstances.

Other public bodies may wish to consider how their operating structure can link into the Community Planning framework.

Local or Neighbourhood Community Planning

Community Planning processes at the council wide level are unlikely on their own to sufficiently capture the range of interests and concerns of communities and partner agencies at more localised levels. Community Planning processes will need to be put in place at a local or neighbourhood level if agencies responsible for service delivery on the ground are to work properly in partnership with one another and ensure effective community engagement ( see also Advice Note 5: Effective Community Engagement) .

Local or Neighbourhood Community Planning will be a particularly important instrument for:

• Rationalising the proliferation of partnership activity that exists in many localities (i.e. at a sub local authority area level).
• Ensuring that the vision and objectives at a more strategic level are informed by priorities at a more localised level.
• Ensuring local partnerships feel more engaged with the Community Planning process.
• Adequately assessing needs.
• Maximising community involvement in community planning.

There will also be a particular need to develop an approach to Community Planning that best tackles the difficulties of communities with a concentration of multiple disadvantage, for example, in the areas of SIPs. The Community Regeneration Statement sets out proposals for integrating SIPs into the Community Planning framework. Details of implementation of the Community Regeneration Statement Action Plan were published in early 2003. Communities Scotland has developed, in consultation with stakeholders, a framework for the transfer of SIPs to Community Planning partnerships.

There is a range of approaches to local Community Planning being adopted throughout the country and it is inappropriate to be prescriptive about the structures that should be adopted. Community Planning partnerships will need to give very careful attention in working out with their communities and partners the right structures and means of engagement for each locality. Key considerations will include:

• The scope of Community Planning at a local level - what can and cannot realistically be addressed at a localised level.
• Determining what types of localities constitute an appropriate basis for local Community Planning.
• Existing local partnership structures and how they can fit into the framework.
• Approaches to Community Planning at a localised level - different processes/structures may be required for different localities.
• Capacity building and associated resourcing implications of putting into place particular approaches e.g. staff support in implementing local community plans.
• Striking the right balance between providing strategic direction from the centre while allowing for sufficient freedom and flexibility from the bottom up, having regard to such issues as the delivery of best value and devolution of functions, budgets and decision making.
• Securing proper integration of central and localised Community Planning processes (e.g. priority setting, service planning, resource allocation, performance monitoring).

As noted above there will be bodies whose remit covers a specific community or neighbourhood within a local authority area who may have a potentially valuable role to play in local Community Planning structures.

Community Planning partnerships will also need to consider the development of thematic approaches to capture communities of interest, such as low income groups, people with disabilities, ethnic minority and other groups, where these groups are too thinly spread across the population to be effectively engaged through localised Community Planning processes.

Cultural and sporting projects exert a positive cross-cutting influence which can add value to approaches designed to address the needs of a range of different interest groups. For example, the use of cultural projects, with advice from the Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Screen and the Scottish Museums Council, may assist in identifying and developing appropriate responses to the needs of minority ethnic communities and their interface with other local community groups. Such initiatives should be considered by Community Planning partnerships.

For further consideration of these and other issues, see " Local Community Planning: a discussion paper" developed by the Task Force, link below.

Links / other reading

Community Planning Task Force Research
( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/uscp-00.asp).

The Community Regeneration Statement
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/bcis.pdf

Details of implementation of the Community Regeneration Statement Action Plan
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/crsi-00.asp

Communities Scotland framework for the transfer of SIPs to Community Planning partnerships
http://www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/communities/upload/SIPsCPPs.pdf

"Local Community Planning: a discussion paper":
http://www.communityplanning.org.uk/documents/cplocalcommunityplanddiscussionpaper.pdf

Community Planning Partnerships Working Together

As set out in the Statutory Guidance, the Act enables Community Planning partnerships to work together. Partnerships are encouraged to work with each other to address strategic issues, which transcend local authority boundaries, such as transport planning, aspects of economic development, waste management and land use planning.

The Executive has already recognised the importance of developing effective relationships between the core cities and their surrounding regions area for a host of different reasons including economic, social, environmental, fiscal, administrative in the policy statement published in January 2003 entitled "Building Better Cities: Delivering Growth and Opportunities". This statement builds on the findings of the Review of Scotland's Cities ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/society/rsca-00.asp). The Review, launched by the First Minister in December 2000, outlines a framework to address the issues Scotland's cities will encounter as each faces a complex and distinctive set of challenges and opportunities. A key theme of the statement, and of the analysis which underlies it, is the importance of partnership. To implement the Review, the Scottish Executive commissioned each of the city local authorities, and the Highland and Stirling Councils, to facilitate the development of a strategic, 10-year city-region agreement - the City-Vision. Each of the six City-Visions has been developed by the Community Planning Partnership and will form a key component of each local Community Planning framework.

Many of the issues to be addressed - such as transport, economic development and land-use planning - require a perspective spanning the entire city-region. As part of the implementation of each City-Vision, the Executive will look to city-based Community Planning Partnerships to take active steps to draw together the wider city-region view with region-wide partners such as neighbouring authorities and communities. Building on the good work the cities have already undertaken in partnership with the Executive, in July 2003 the Executive approved a 90 million City Growth Fund, which is intended to enable the cities to start work on turning their City-Visions into reality.

Glasgow's vision statement was prepared through a collaborative process which took account of appropriate national strategies, the structure plan and Objective 2 plan at regional level and the community plans and local Economic Forum plans. Meetings also took place at political and officer level and workshops with representatives from other agencies within the city region area. There are 3 central objectives to the Vision - Competitiveness/Cohesion/Sustainable Development. To make improvements across all three there are proposals to use the City Growth Fund for 8 key regenerator projects.

To progress the vision a new Partnership Forum will be established which will have multi-agency representation and will meet at least twice a year. This will include leaders of the surrounding 8 local authorities. Arrangements will be put in place wherever possible to progress the key regenerator projects where they are cross boundary in nature.

For more information see:
http://www.gha.org.uk/gha/html/frame1.htm

It will be important for all Community Planning partnerships to develop strategic linkages at the regional level to maximise opportunities and to minimise the potential for duplication and fragmentation. Links can be established through a number of measures such as:

• Reporting structures.
• Informal networking arrangements.
• Formal lines of communication.
• Partnership agreements and protocols.
• Scrutiny or accountability arrangements.