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CAPACITY BUILDING FOR COMMUNITY PLANNING
PREFACE
Community Planning provides a framework for bringing together councils and other local partners to make services more responsive to the needs of communities. Community plans are now in place throughout Scotland, and the Local Government in Scotland Bill proposes a statutory basis for Community Planning.
The Community Planning Task Force was set up in March 2001 to provide independent advice to the Scottish Executive and its partners on Community Planning issues, and we have already had an extensive range of meetings with key politicians, officials and organisations. To support the Bill, we have been developing guidance on Community Planning issues. We have also been engaging people at a local level, through seminars and workshops. And we have been carrying out research to get "under the skin" of Community Planning and identify and act on issues still needing to be addressed.
Of major concern is the capacity of partners to put Community Planning into practice. Community Planning challenges traditional ways of working, by shaping the delivery of services around individual need and the concerns of communities rather than around organisational convenience. The focus of this latest study, commissioned by the Task Force, is on what needs to be done to help break down the barriers to effective Community Planning with reference to the training and other development needs of staff concerned.
The Task Force will be discussing with the Scottish Executive and its partners the issues raised by the study and how these may best be taken forward. Further information about the work of the Task Force can be accessed on: www.communityplanning.org.uk
Willie Rae
Chair, Community Planning Task Force.
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