Community Strategy

What is a Community Strategy?

A community Strategy sets out a vision of how the county borough as a whole, specific parts of it or local communities, will develop in the next 10/15 years ie a strategy to inform medium and long term  planning and priorities. The overall goal is to improve the quality of life for local people.

 

A community Strategy must be more than just wishful thinking. It has to be based on what is possible given local constraints, such as availability of funding, and linked to action plans which explain how the different parts can be implemented and who will be responsible for ensuring that this happens.

 

The Welsh Assembly guidance states that a Community Strategy will fulfil a number of purposes, namely to:

• Enhance the quality of life of local communities to improve thier economic, social and environmental well-being;
• Contribute to the achievement of sustainable development;
• Provide a machanism to debate locally the needs, opportunities & aspirations of local communities & establish priorities;
• Provide a focus for continuous improvements in joint working & resource planning between local authorities, the voluntary & Business sectors and other agencies to ensure that they effectively meet community needs and aspirations;
• Help councils develop their corporate priorities;
• Identify how the Assembly's priorities relate to local priorities and how they can be implemented at local authority level;
• Challenge and test the contribution of services, policies and practises to current and future well being; and
• Underpin applications to the National Assembly and other bodies for funding & Support.

 

Why do we need a to produce a Community Strategy?

 

The Local Governement Act 2000 places a duty on local authorities to prepare, in close partnership with other organisations, a community Strategy for promoting the economic, environmental and social well-being of their areas and contributing to the achievement of  sustainable development.

  

Key Characteristics of the Community Strategy

 

A Community Strategy should focus on priorities for action arising from the specific needs of authority's area as whole and the different communities within it.

 

It should provide a means of co-ordinating the provision of services and initiatives and tackling cross-cutting issues in a coherent and integrated way.

 

It should also provide the overarching strategic framework for all other plans and strategies for the local authority area, so that people can can see the relevence of those plans to the improvement of an area's overall quality of life.

 

The community Strategy Should also be reflected in the plans and strategies of bodies operating on a regional or national basis.

 

Some Principles for Community Strategies

 

Sustainable Appraisal - the analysis of needs and the proposed outcomes should integrate

economic, social and environmental considerations.  The strategy strategy should promote sustainable development, develoment that meets the  needs of the present without comprimising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

 

Equality of Opportunity should also be applied throughout the development of the community

strategy. Partnerships should ensure that they involve different sectors of the population from

the earliest stage and that the process enables all communities to participate in on an equal

basis by taking account of their different needs and interests.

 

Social disadvantage should be tackled by ensuring that the needs of the most disadvantaged

communities are taken into account in authority-wide strategies, thus supporting more localised or specific initiatives.

 

What is the purpose of the Community Strategy Partnership?

 

Local Authorities and their partners are encouraged to set up Community Strategy Partnerships to prepare and oversee the implementation of the strategies. They provide a forum in which differences of views on priorities can be discussed and resolved and a mechanism for taking forward the priorities identified in the Community Strategy.

 

In setting up Community Strategy partnerships, councils and their partners should seek to build on existing arrangements, which have worked well rather than starting from scratch. Community Strategy Partnerships should be diverse bodies which are representative of the area. They should not be dominated by one sector. It will be for local authorities to determine who should be included in the partnerships.

 

Community Strategy Partnerships provide an opportunity to rationalise existing partnership arrangements by bringing them under a single strategic umbrella.

 

Who else should we involve?

 

As the purpose of a Community Strategy is to improve the quality of life of local people, it is essential that Community Strategy Partnerships involve the public, local voluntary and community groups in preparing the strategies. This will ensure that strategies reflect real concerns and views on how citizens would wish to see their county area and their local communities develop over the next 10-15 years. The Partnership will need to determine how the different communities can be identified and involved in the process, including the so-called " hard to reach" groups, such as the young, disabled and ethnic groups.

 

It is unlikely that Community Strategy Partnerships will be able to meet all of the communities’ aspirations. They should, however, ensure that they communicate with their communities and the public, explaining why particular decisions or actions were taken (or not taken) and keeping them informed of progress in implementing the community strategy. The method used for engaging with community groups is a matter for individual partnerships. Consideration should be given to using a variety of techniques such as focus groups, community forums, citizens’ juries, and questionnaires to encourage discussion and debate on competing options before deciding which would be most beneficial for the future of the area or parts of it.

 

In Summary

 

There are four main objectives of the Community Planning process:

• To articulate the community's aspirations, needs and priorities;
• To coordinate the actions of public, private , voluntary and community organisations;
• To shape and focus existing and future activities to meet community needs; and
• To contribute to achieving sustainable development.

 

The key features of a community strategy are:

• A long term vision for the area;
• Action plans detailing short term priorities;
• A shared commitment to implement the action plan monitoring, review and reporting progress;
• Based on a clear assessment of needs and resources;
• Integrates the three strands of economic, social and environmental well-being; and
• Involves local communities

 

The development and implementation of the community strategy will involve a wide range of organisations, bodies and groups. This will not only include the Council but also other bodies in the public, private and voluntary sectors in addition to the local community and its representatives.