Contact: Frances Martin, Community Strategy Officer ext 5122

[email protected]

1. Summary

1.1. The following decision was taken:

That subject to the inclusion of a number of textual amendments, the revised Community Strategy and the Development Plan be endorsed and recommended to County Council in May for approval.

2. Reasons:

2.1 This decision support all the 6 key aims of the Corporate Strategy and in particular Aim 4 (Building Strong and Safe Communities) by working together with local people to build strong and safe communities for everyone.

2.2 The document has been through an extensive consultation period with the Hampshire Strategic Partnership partners and district Local Strategic Partnerships as well as a total of 800 county wide organisations. Further to this the document has been to all PRCs and all departments have had an input to the document through the Corporate Community Strategy Group and departmental meetings.

2.3 The draft Community Strategy for Hampshire has now been revised to take into account the results of the consultation. The development plan has also been revised and strengthened with the help of representatives from each department on the Corporate Group. The draft Community Strategy is also currently being designed for publication.

3. Other Options considered and rejected: Not to approve these allocations

4. Conflicts of Interest declared by the decision maker or executive member consulted - Not applicable.

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee - Not applicable.

6. Reason(s) for the matter being dealt with if urgent - Not applicable.

Approved by: Date: 26 April 2004

Councillor T.K.Thornber

Contact: Frances Martin, Community Strategy Manager, Ext: 5122

E-mail: [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 Members will be aware the Community Strategy for Hampshire has been prepared by the Hampshire Strategic Partnership (HSP) and undergone various consultations. The final draft was approved by the HSP at its meeting on 14 April.

1.2 Cabinet is asked to consider and endorse the revised draft Community Strategy and Development Plan for consideration by County Council in May, with a view to publishing in May.

2. Background

2.1 The Local Government Act 2000 placed a duty on all principal local authorities to prepare a community strategy for their area with guidance on the overall objectives as being:

· giving a voice to local communities aspirations, needs and priorities

· co-ordinating actions and results across all agencies

· focusing on activities that meet legitimate community expectations

· improving local social, economic and environmental quality of life and well being and contributing to sustainable development.


In addition the Act introduced the power to promote well being which gives local authorities the power to deliver services more effectively and to be community leaders, underpinning the duty on community strategies and giving freedom to work in innovative ways.

Community planning is seen as a multi tiered approach across all councils, with County, District and Borough councils collaborating and involving local public, private, voluntary and community organisations with communities to identify priorities and agree and implement actions.

Although councils are responsible for facilitating the preparation of community strategies, taking the community leadership role, the strategy itself should be owned by and result from the relevant bodies working together and involving the public.

The community strategy is a long term vision, providing a framework and priorities for local, shorter term action plans. It is a statement of shared commitment to implement actions in support of economic, environmental and social objectives and must include outcome related targets, information on how progress and results will be reported and aim to involve local communities and their representatives (e.g. Town and Parish Councils).

2.2 Local Strategic Partnerships

This approach has led to the development of Local Strategic Partnerships (LSP) as the most effective vehicle for managing the partnership working necessary to develop and deliver community strategies, recognising that the process of community planning is as important as the production of a community strategy.

Although LSPs are non statutory bodies, they are increasingly regarded by the Government as the delivery mechanism for neighbourhood renewal and sustainable community work and as a consultee for local authorities in the preparation of local public service agreements (LPSAs). The community strategy is also increasingly seen as the basis for the development of many of the other plans and strategies which are required of the public sector agencies, including the second generation of LPSAs and proposals for the new planning system of local development frameworks. It is also likely that, even in areas not eligible for neighbourhood renewal funds, funding from central government will be increasingly directed through LSPs and related to community strategies.

2.3 Hampshire's position

In Hampshire, over the last 3 years, LSPs have been established in all 11 districts with a county level partnership, the Hampshire Strategic Partnership (HSP), operating at the more strategic level. Most, but by no means all, are chaired by local elected members from district councils.

Cllr David Kirk as the Executive Member on the Cabinet responsible for Community Development and Regeneration chairs the HSP. The vice chairmen are Richard Tulloch, Chief Executive of Community Action Hampshire and Gareth Cruddace, Chief Executive of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Strategic Health Authority.

3. The Community Strategy

3.1 The draft Community Strategy has been revised in light of the responses to the consultation exercises. The strategy needed to be shorter, clearer and follow a `golden thread' from the vision through to the themes and issues and finally actions.

3.2 The Community Strategy is an overarching document that is strategic as well as accessible to the public. The challenge has been in making it a strategic document while also making it relevant and covering the breadth of issues that people feel are important and need to be reflected in it.

3.3 The emphasis has been on the `added value' of the Hampshire Strategic Partnership (HSP) and what it can achieve together that wouldn't otherwise happen, rather than focussing on covering everything that is already happening in Hampshire and all the existing activities and action plans of our key partners.

3.4 The Community Strategy has a long term vision which is: Hampshire will be a prosperous and attractive county for all, where economic, social and environmental needs are met in the most sustainable way and the quality of life and sense of community of present and future generations is improved.

3.5 This is supported by four cross cutting themes:

· Strong and Safe Communities

· Health and Well being

· Economic Prosperity and Lifelong Learning

· Environment, Infrastructure and Transport

3.6 The revised Community Strategy now has a clear `golden thread' running through it. It starts with the vision and themes, identifies the issues facing Hampshire and the evidence to support this. It then highlights some of the things that people have told the HSP they would like to see happen and finally there are some examples of existing activity and the headlines from the development plan which demonstrate the areas that the HSP will focus on in the first instance.

3.7 The Community Strategy provides a three-year framework under which the HSP will operate. The Community Strategy should inform and support the work of the County Council through the Corporate Strategy and Cabinet priorities.

3.8 The HSP approved this version for publication at their Steering Group meeting on the 14^th April.

4. The Development Plan

4.1 The HSP have agreed that the Community Strategy provides a three-year framework within which they will operate. This framework will be supplemented by a detailed development plan that will set out what the HSP is going to do to address the priorities, how and when they are going to do it, how it will be resourced and set out the performance measures to assess how well they are doing and report back to the community.

4.2 It is intended that this detailed development plan will be attached to the Community Strategy as an appendix, and only the top priority actions will appear in the framework document itself. This means that the development plan can be revised more readily on an `as needed' basis, and the published framework document will remain unchanged for three years.

4.3 The HSP has agreed the priority areas for development and is intending to complete the details of this through setting up smaller working groups of experts from across different sectors to challenge silo thinking. This work will be done later this year so the appendix will only be published in draft format. The first draft of the development Plan is attached as Appendix 2

4.4 The priority areas for development which will appear in the main framework document have now been revised and grouped in a more crosscutting and easily understood format and in agreement with the Corporate Community Strategy Group.

4.5 It is important to remember when reviewing the first development plan for the HSP that it is still early days for LSP's and they are still very much in their formative years. In the first instance the HSP believe that the added value in this way of working is truly developing a better understanding what each other does, where each of us is focussing efforts, and the statutory and financial constraints facing us.

5. Implications for the County Council

5.1 Overall there is nothing in the Community Strategy or associated Development Plan that the County Council can't support or isn't already contributing towards in some way. However, there are some particular areas that Cabinet should note, as the county council are identified as the lead agency or there may be some implications in terms of service delivery or resource allocation. These are outlined below and linked to the relevant aims in our Corporate Strategy and the Cabinet priorities:

5.2 Joint Investment Programmes - the areas for which we should focus our attentions on are to be agreed based on the results of a mapping and data sharing exercises and by digging deeper than the traditional ward based indices of deprivation. We need to make sure that we are happy to share our information with partners and align investment to areas where there is a highlighted need. This is likely to match our existing allocations, rather than be about identifying new funds, but there may be slight variations once the broader picture from all partners is achieved. Aim 4 of the Corporate Strategy and all Cabinet priorities

5.3 Spatial Planning - We need to ensure that the community planning process and the spatial planning process are really joined up or we could end up with two different visions for Hampshire, with two associated action plans leading to greater public confusion, and possibly even contradictory aspirations or targets. It is important that we link the work of the planners with that of the community planners in a timely fashion. Aims 2,3, & 4 of the Corporate Strategy and Transport and Affordable Housing Cabinet priority

5.4 Affordable Housing - this is consistently and by far the top priority for people and stakeholders across Hampshire. We need to make sure we are prepared to review the way we currently support the development of affordable housing and affect change accordingly. We also need to share information on affordable housing with other agencies. Aim 4 of the Corporate Strategy and Transport and Affordable Housing Cabinet priority

5.5 Accessibility (especially transport) - this is also consistently high on peoples list of priorities. We currently do much of this anyway, but need to look at accessibility in its broadest sense, including provision of services, IT solutions, equality of access. We also need to involve other agencies such as the Strategic Rail Authority, bus operators and be more responsive to the issues raised by district LSP's. We should co-ordinate what we do as a County Council with our partner organisations and look at developing innovative solutions to common problems. The accessibility plan should be developed in close liaison with the HSP. Aims 2, 3, 4 & 5 of the Corporate Strategy and Transport and Affordable Housing; Education and Skills and Older people Cabinet priorities

5.6 Reducing Inequalities - We are already doing many things in relation to maintaining the independence of older people as well as work with young people. We just need to make sure we are working with partner agencies to explore as many opportunities as we can. We also need to focus on the public health agenda and look at prevention as well as cure. Aims 1, 4 & 5 of the Corporate Strategy and Education and Skills, Older people and Crime, youth and deprivation Cabinet priorities

5.7 Environment - this area has been highlighted as one of the things people really like about Hampshire and is one of the primary reasons for people choosing to live and visit here.. We need to make sure that we lead by example and don't let complacency ruin what is a major selling point for the county. We need to ensure the environment is protected and enhanced and many of the activities that recreation and heritage and the environment departments are already undertaking support this. Some of the major issues that could threaten the environment are being addressed through other action areas. Aim 2 of the Corporate Strategy and Transport and Affordable Housing Cabinet priority

5.8 Economic prosperity and lifelong learning - the provision of land for economic development seems to be the greatest issue here, which could have implications for us a landowner. Supporting young people through apprenticeships is also a priority and we need to be able to look at the relationship between the county council scheme and those already in existence through the Learning and Skills Council and other agencies so that we have a consistent approach. Aim 1, 3 & 4 of the Corporate Strategy and Education and Skills, Older people and Crime, youth and deprivation Cabinet priorities

5.9 Supporting the work of other partnerships - we are already doing this in many areas such as Community Safety Partnerships for example. We are also aligning the work of the HSP closely with that of the CYPSP by developing data sharing protocols and sharing the information and data gathering exercise to avoid duplication of effort. Aims 4 & 5 of the Corporate Strategy

5.10 Some of the work in the development plan that will be involved with falls outside of our traditional responsibilities and boundaries. It is important for the success of the HSP and the delivery of the Community Strategy that we are responsive to change and adopt a flexible approach in order to develop a truly effective partnership and lead by example. This will also maximise our opportunities for a good CPA result as it is a criteria we will be judged on in the next round.

5.11 The Community Strategy, once approved by the HSP, will be published and disseminated to the partners on the HSP and other interested stakeholders. A public summary leaflet is also going to be published and widely disseminated across the county in liaison with the district LSP's.

6. Conclusions

6.1 The Community Strategy has been revised to take into account the results of the consultation and it is now more streamlined and focussed. This was endorsed by the HSP at the Steering group meeting held on the 14^th April.

6.2 The development plan has also been revised and approved as a first draft by the HSP Steering group. Work on developing this through `task and finish groups' is starting now with timescales waiting to be confirmed.

6.3 The Community Strategy is currently being designed for publication in May. A proof will be tabled at the meeting, but might still need some final editing before publication in May.

Recommendation

That the revised Community Strategy and the development plan be endorsed and recommended to County Council for approval.

Background Information

Section 100D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

File: Chief Executive's working papers Location: Chief Executive's Department