Improving services? Have your say on Community Planning

“Community planning is all about how public bodies work both together and with local communities to design and deliver better services that can make a real difference to local people’s lives” – Council leader Cllr Adam McVey

The views of capital residents and partners are being sought as part of a drive by the Edinburgh Partnership to plan and deliver better services for the community.

The Governance and Community Planning arrangements involve councils and public bodies like the police, the fire and rescue service and the NHS working with communities, businesses, charities and voluntary groups to deliver services to local people.

To improve these processes this consultation, which will run until 9 September, is looking to hear views on:

  • How communities and community groups can more effectively influence decisions about their community
  • How the governance arrangements can be improved to:
    • Make it clear how decisions are made, and who is making them, by improving the groups and structures involved
    • Make partnership working stronger
    • Make better connections between the different levels of partnership working in the city.

Views gathered through this consultation will help to inform the new community planning governance structure which will be considered by the Edinburgh Partnership in October. When approved it will be used to shape the arrangements going forward.

City of Edinburgh Council Leader and Edinburgh Partnership Chair Adam McVey, said: “It is really important that we review the way the partnership of organisations work together for the good of the city to ensure it is up-to-date and reflects what our residents and communities want.

“Community planning is all about how public bodies work both together and with local communities to design and deliver better services that can make a real difference to local people’s lives.

“We have been reaching out to key stakeholders and having detailed discussions with them to obtain their views but I would encourage anyone interested to fill out our easy to use questionnaire to maximise public input in the process. This consultation is relevant in different ways to different organisations and would greatly benefit from a wide range of respondents.”

In Scotland, the law says a range of public bodies must take part in community planning. This is set out in the Scottish Government’s Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. The act was designed to strengthen the influence communities have in making decisions about their area – this is known as community planning.

A Community Planning Partnership (or CPP) is the name given to all those services that come together to take part in community planning. There are 32 CPPs across Scotland, one for each council area – The Edinburgh Partnership is the community planning partnership for Edinburgh.

Community planning partnerships have to produce a three-year community plan for the Scottish Government. This shows how they will tackle some of the big social, economic and environmental issues in their area.

Partners include

  • NHS Lothian
  • Police Scotland
  • Scottish Enterprise
  • Neighbourhood Partnerships
  • Skills Development Scotland
  • The City of Edinburgh Council
  • Armed forces based in Edinburgh
  • Scottish Fire and Rescue Service
  • Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce
  • Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council
  • Edinburgh College and universities in the city
  • South East of Scotland Transport Partnership
  • Edinburgh Association of Community Councils
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davepickering

Edinburgh reporter and photographer