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Developing partnerships

Joint working by key public agencies at the strategic level in Local Strategic Partnerships is required and supported by a range of legislation and will get a further boost through the proposals in the Darzi report 'High quality care for all' (2008). It is essential for developing 'joined up' strategies to address key issues affecting the community and it is needed to address specific issues on the ground. Implementation of service delivery can also be enhanced through greater involvement with local neighbourhood partnerships for health and wellbeing. All ten of the challenging questions can help you in the process of developing partnerships. The following questions are particularly important:

  • Which agencies have the most potential for collaboration and development of synergy?
  • What are the areas in which you should be working in partnership with them and what are the areas where you should work separately?
  • What arrangements do you need to make with your partners for collaboration, both at a strategic level and at a local or project level?

Here are some examples of how agencies work effectively in developing partnerships:

Blackburn with Darwen has a multi agency forum to co-ordinate services for asylum seekers and refugees. The forum organises welcome events, information provision, meetings with Police, Education department and the PCT asylum seekers health team. People are given a tour of the town and the library service has developed a 'Story teller' initiative to enable asylum seekers to talk about their life experiences, improve their English and build confidence. This initiative sits within the more strategic level partnership which uses the phrase 'Belonging to Blackburn with Darwen - many lives, many faces' to emphasise the inclusive values that the partnership wants to promote.

See 'Community cohesion action guide' (LGA, 2004).

Coventry's Local Strategic Partnership board demonstrates the importance of including representatives from the voluntary and community sector. The board developed a Community Engagement Strategy which was significantly rewritten in response to community sector representation. Coventry uses a system of Neighbourhood Management which ensures all neighbourhoods have a voice but they found that this was tending to overshadow interest groups that are dispersed across the city meaning that their voices were less well heard. In response to this, the Coventry Ethnic Minorities Action Partnership was set up to facilitate democratic representation from BME groups in local structures of governance including the Local Strategic Partnership. It has organised several very successful consultation events with over 100 groups participating. In addition, Coventry New Communities Forum was set up to enable the voices of people from new communities to be heard more effectively. The forum links about 45 informal networks and acts as a channel of communication for the council and other agencies, providing information about access to services and a voice for people from new communities.

There are many examples of community cohesion being developed through multi faith forums (Leicester Council of Faiths, Leeds Faith Community Liaison Forum, Southwark Multi-faith Forum, West Midlands Faiths Forum and many others). The Oldham Inter-faiths Forum was important in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in USA and the London bombings in 2005, when there were fears about attacks on local Muslim communities. It became a powerful focus to promote community cohesion, linked to the Local Strategic Partnership by a catholic priest who was on both organisations. The forum organised a number of key events including prayers for peace, a festival of light and a show of unity attended by hundreds of people. Off shoots of the forum have emerged including a women's interfaith network and young peoples interfaith network. Oldham also has a youth council which was set up in 2006 in response to civil disturbances involving young people in the city. Young people now have a voice. They were involved in the appointment of the council's Executive Director of Children and Families. In 2007, over 4,600 young people voted in borough wide elections for youth council members.