Community Planning is about organisations and communities working together to plan services and improve the way they are carried out. This fairly new way of working aims to make sure that services truly meet the needs of the people who use them or who are affected by them. This way of working should bring real improvements to the quality of people's lives. There are two main aspects to working in a Community Planning way:
- Enabling organisations that provide services to improve the way they work together. Some examples of these services are: care services, working with young people or the range of services provided in a ward area.
- Making sure that local people are at the heart of this work and that they have real opportunities for getting involved and influencing decision making on the services that are important to them.
What are we doing in East Lothian?
The East Lothian Community Planning Partnership (ELCPP) is responsible for community planning in East Lothian. ELCPP is a broad based organisation which enables us all to work together in a community planning way. Our partnership has representatives from public, private and voluntary organisations, community networks and partnerships and groups and forums operating throughout the county. The partnership is chaired by a Councillor as East Lothian Council has the statutory responsibility to lead on Community Planning in East Lothian. This is the way community planning is organised in East Lothian - Structure Diagram (pdf) and Remit &Roles (PDF). Find out more about who is involved here - Meet the Partners.
ELCPP recently agreed this Statement of Intent for East Lothian: We will work in partnership to build an East Lothian where everyone has the opportunity to lead a fulfilling life and which contributes to a fair and sustainable Scotland and wider world.
To achieve this partners agreed new priorities, a set of local outcomes or changes we want to achieve for our communities and environment and what we will do together to make this happen. This is the plan for the future of East Lothian, which all partners contribute to. It is called the East Lothian Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) 2009.
Local Community Planning
Local Community Planning operates on the same broad principles as Community Planning overall and brings this way of working to issues and services that affect people at a local level so that:-
- people and communities are genuinely engaged in the decisions made on public services which affect them
- there is a commitment from organisations to work together to continually improve the way services are delivered for local communities
Local Community Planning in East Lothian is organised around 6 local areas - corresponding with the 5 multi -member wards in the East of the county and a combined area covering the 2 Musselburgh wards. Local Community Planning began in October 2009 in the Musselburgh and Dunbar areas and will be implemented over 3 years. Community profiles have been produced to help identify the key issues for each area which will contribute to the shared vision.
Musselburgh Area Community Profile (pdf) | Dunbar Area Community Profile (pdf)
Local Community Planning is focused around a Local Area Forum in each area. These forward looking planning groups bring together a wide range of community representatives and public service providers to look at key issues facing their locality. Their first task is to develop a shared vision for the area and produce a Local Community Plan to guide their ongoing work.
Meeting 4 times a year the Local Area Forums:-
- explore issues affecting their communities
- plan what needs to be done to make a difference in their area
- establish task groups to take the work of the Forum forward.
- receive reports and monitor progress towards the goals identified in their Local Community Plan
Here are a set of Community Planning information sheets which help clarify the context and structures:-
1-Community Planning.pdf
2-East Lothian SOA.pdf
3-Local Community Planning structures.pdf
4- Local Area Forums.pdf
5- A community plan.pdf
You can find out more about this work and how you can get involved through the key contact person for each theme and by visiting East Lothian Council's SOA webpage
Would you like to find out more about what is happening in community planning in your area or in general?
Then please contact Veronica Campanile elcpp@eastlothian.gov.uk