Edinburgh Partnership News

Neighbourhood Partnership Review

A review of the work of the Neighbourhood Partnerships in the city has been completed and aims to develop ways in which they can be strengthened and developed. Residents and representatives from the public and voluntary sector actively collaborated to identify the improvements needed. Members of the Communities and Neighbourhoods Committee considered the options presented in a report on 7 May.

Community Planning progess

The Partnership continues to focus all actions on delivering its vision for the city. Key examples of partnership action include the Edinburgh Business Gateway Partnership which, through its one to one support services, is making it easier to do business in the city. This support is focused on business growth, access to finance and developing entrepreneurship amongst women and young people, the sharing of facilities to improve the accessibility of services and the launch of a new Entrepreneurial Spark hatchery.

Local IT/training initiatives are helping mitigate issues faced by residents affected by Welfare Reform.  We have also secured the support of financial institutions in schools to ensure our young people have access to bank accounts.

The Family Nurse Partnership supports young first-time mothers to develop skills as competent, confident parents, engage in activities to support bonding with their child, delay weaning and become more physically active.

These are just some of the ways the Edinburgh Partnership is making a real difference to our communities. See Single Outcome Agreement.

Edinburgh is 'Getting it Right' for children

The Edinburgh Children's Partnership - one of our key strategic groupings for delivering the Single Outcome Agreement - has been praised in a new report by the Care Inspectorate. The report highlighted the visionary leadership and direction of the Partnership and its commitment to prevention and early intervention to keep children and young people at risk of abuse and harm safe.

Total Neighbourhood East

The East Neighbourhood area, which covers the wards of Portobello & Craigmillar and Craigentinny & Duddingston, is now the focus for developing a 'Total Neighbourhood' approach. This aims improve to public services for the communities in East Neighbourhood. Read the easy guide for more details.

New Armed Forces (Libor) Fund

A fund to support the delivery of the armed forces covenant is now available. The AF Covenant (Libor) fund derives from the decision of the Chancellor to transfer £35 million from fines levied on the banks for attempting to manipulate the LIBOR interest rate to the MOD for use in supporting the armed forces community. You can access the application form and the criteria for applying for funds. This is a completely separate fund to the Community Covenant Grant Fund.

Building Social Value

Community planning partners considered the linked concepts of Social Value and Community Benefit, and how these relate to our joint work, at a Building Social Value event on 14 November 2012. Hosted by the Compact Partnership, this informative and engaging session gave delegates the opportunity to explore the meaning of Social Value and to take part in a practical exercise to build it by applying Community Benefit Clauses to contracts. Read a brief report of the event.

Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill

The Scottish Government consulted on the proposed Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill in 2012. The Bill is concerned with the role of asset transfers in empowering communities, and the reshaping of public services with communities at the heart of their design and delivery. The consultation focused on:

• Strengthening participation
• Unlocking enterprising community development
• Renewing our communities

Read the Edinburgh Partnership's response to the proposed bill.

National group offers strategic direction to community planning 

A national group is acting as guardian of the overall Community Planning and Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) process, offering strategic leadership and driving the process forward.

In March 2012, following a review of community planning, the Scottish Government and COSLA published a shared Statement of Ambition. This put community planning at the heart of an outcome based approach to public services in Scotland and made clear that effective community planning arrangements will be at the core of public service reform.

The review recognised that coordination and collaboration at the national level has an important role in bringing partners together to deliver the Statement of Ambition locally. A national group has therefore been established to play a pivotal role in implementing and communicating the overarching vision for community planning and Single Outcome Agreements, identifying and addressing issues that have a national dimension and building the skills and capacity of partnerships.