ABOUT LSPs

A Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) brings together at a local level representatives from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors to develop a vision for an area.  A core role for the LSP is to build consensus on how partners would like to see an area change over the next 10 to -20 years, and to establish priorities for achieving this change.

This vision is then laid out in the Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS), a long-term document, and shorter-term plans such as the Local Area Agreement (LAA) give the details of planned activities, becoming the delivery mechanism for LSP aspirations.

LSPs were first introduced in the Local Government Act 2000. As the links between social, environmental and economic issues continue to emerge, the need for ‘joined-up’ government is increasingly recognised across the political spectrum. The latest statutory guidance,‘Creating strong, safe and prosperous communities’ published in July 2008, reflects an increasing clarity about the role of LSPs and and the mechanisms by which they will be expected to monitor performance and be held to account.

LSPs typically comprise representatives from a core group of organisations – the local authority, the health authority (Primary Care Trust), the police and the fire service – plus representatives from other statutory, business and voluntary sector organisations. Although LSPs are non-statutory, public bodies (specified in the legislation) have a statutory duty to cooperate in developing the LAA, and the obvious place for this cooperation to take place is via the LSP. Partners will also be expected to demonstrate how both the SCS and LAA reflect the needs of local communities, showing how they have engaged and involved residents in the decisions that are taken.

Most local authorities in the south east have their own LSP, although some areas have developed an overarching LSP covering more than one local authority area. For example, the Kent districts of Canterbury, Dover, Shepway and Thanet decided to merge their LSPs to create the new East Kent LSP. The map above (right) links to all the LSPs in the region.

LSPs offer partners a way to be more responsive to what communities really want. They can help rationalise activity to cut down on bureaucracy and waste by jointly funding a new service or introducing new ways of working such as joint consultaion and more effective sharing of information.

The approach required in the Local Area Agreement (LAA), to tackle issues and set targets on a geographical rather than an organisational basis, will encourage collaboration and reduce the chance of perverse outcomes whereby one agency’s activities have a negative impact on another’s.

All local authorities have the statutory duty to produce a Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS), and in addition top-tier authorities are ultimately accountable for the Local Area Agreement (LAA): both documents have to be ‘signed off’ by a local authority. This helps to ensure LSPs will not develop into QUANGOs with no local accountability. There are examples, in the region, of a local authority refusing to endorse a SCS on the grounds that the LSP had not ensured enough democratic input, forcing further discussion among partners about accountability and governance.

Comprehensive Area Assessment, mandatory from 2009, is a new performance management system designed to encourage a collaborative approach and encourage partners to drive their work forward through partnership arrangements.