Partnership Checklist for LOIP Development. November 2016

Transcription

1 Partnership Checklist for LOIP Development November 2016

2 Purpose of the Checklist Background This is an ambitious period for community planning, with the Community Empowerment [Scotland] Act 2015 setting out a legislative requirement to improve outcomes and to ensure that: communities are central to the process of improving outcomes; co-operation and joint resourcing amongst partners is essential; there is a real reduction in inequalities, using a robust evidence base to identify areas of need. The focus of the Act is not a new approach but a natural progression in the development of public service reform that gained added impetus with the publication of the Christie report in In particular, CPPs are being handed a new set of powers, and increased expectations, designed to raise ambition around reducing inequality and enhancing community participation. Focus of the Checklist The Partnership Checklist has been reviewed to support CPPs to critically review their own performance against these expectations and have a clear understanding of the nature and the extent of improvement support required to make these ambitions real. The purpose of the checklist is to: help partnerships self-assess their current arrangements against the new expectations arising from the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015; identify areas where there may be scope for improving the operation of the partnership and the impact it has. The checklist acts as a can opener for identifying potential areas for improvement in the partnership. The areas for improvement identified act as the basis for discussion in the Consensus and Improvement Planning Workshops. The checklist leads partnerships to explore the following areas: Local Outcomes Improvement Plan community participation leadership, governance and accountability performance management and reporting participation requests and asset transfers 2

3 Practical Use of the Checklist Stage 1 Issuing of Checklist Normally following a brief awareness session, the checklist is issued as an electronic survey to all members of the partnership that is being reviewed. The survey should be completed by each individual involved in the partnership. The checklist contains 32 statements and should take approximately minutes to complete. The checklist leads respondents through a sequence of statements relating to partnership working. Respondents are asked to rate the extent to which they agree/disagree with each statement. Each statement in the checklist should be scored against the undernoted scale: Strongly disagree Disagree Agree Strongly agree Don t know The Don t know option should be used when the respondent feels they do not have sufficient information about the particular statement to enable them to make a judgment. At the end of each section there are two comments boxes one requires you to provide details of evidence that supports your views on how the partnership is performing in relation to the issues covered by the section and the other requires you to provide further details of how you think the partnership can improve in relation to the areas covered by the section. You will not be able to proceed through the checklist without providing input to the comment boxes. All checklist responses are anonymous and non-attributable. Stage 2 Consensus Workshop The checklist findings are analysed and a short report is compiled summarising the responses and key points for discussion. The report will be used as the basis for facilitating a structured workshop with the partnership. The workshop should typically take three hours. The purpose of the workshop is to give the partnership an opportunity to discuss the strengths and issues emerging from the checklist and to support them to agree and prioritise appropriate improvement actions to further strengthen the partnership. Stage 3 Improvement Planning Workshop The workshop will last a maximum of 1½ hours and will focus on the development of an improvement plan, which will cover the following areas: the issues that can be improved upon the actions that will be undertaken to address these issues 3

4 lead responsibilities for driving the actions timescales for implementing the actions resources required to drive the improvement overall impact the improvement/s will make 4

5 1. Local Outcomes Plan (LOIP) Expectations for the LOIP and locality plans for October Key Expectations 1. The LOIP is clearly based on evidence and analysis of the area and its communities (geographical and communities of interest), variations in outcomes between communities and the communities and outcomes where improvement is a priority. 2. The partnership has clearly identified and articulated where partnership working adds value and can genuinely improve outcomes (e.g. by focusing on a small number of complex and deep-rooted challenges which require collective action). 3. The partnership takes all reasonable steps to secure active participation by communities and community organisations, ensuring that the nature of that participation and the resources allocated by statutory partners to enabling participation are documented in the LOIP and locality plans. 4. The partnership has identified smaller areas within the local authority area which experience the poorest outcomes and has developed locality plans to improve outcomes on agreed priorities for these communities. 5. The partnership has agreed with communities the actions that will need to be undertaken (by partners and communities) in the short and medium term to deliver the commitments in the locality plans. Resources and Prevention 6. The partnership is specific about the preventative work required and how resources (funds, skills and other resources) will be used in new ways to support prevention. The evidence and analysis identifying where prevention is necessary and the particular preventative approaches adopted are clearly set out within the LOIP. 7. The partnership is clear about the resources (funds, skills and other resources) necessary to deliver the planned improvements and how they will be provided by statutory partners. 8. The locality plans demonstrate how partners are deploying resources in support of the agreed outcomes, especially in ways which promote prevention and the reduction of inequalities. Assessing Impact 9. The partnership is precise about the level of improvement and the timescales for each improvement commitment in the LOIP. There is clarity about how progress towards and achievement of agreed outcomes will be measured. 10. Partners can link to evidence that agreed commitments in the LOIP have been built into their own individual corporate and resource plans. 11. Partners have a sound understanding of expected future demand for public services in the local authority area over the next 5 to 10 years. 5

6 Thinking about the issues covered in this section: A. Please provide details of evidence that supports your views in relation to the progress the partnership is making with the development of its LOIP and locality plans. B. Please provide further details of what the partnership needs to focus on as it develops its LOIP and locality plans to ensure it meets the duties and expectations in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act. 6

7 2. Community Participation 12. Partners have a joint approach to community participation to enable an understanding of distinct needs and complexities within localities and across communities of interest. 13. The partnership is clear about which community bodies in its area can contribute to community planning and actively develop capacity within public services and across communities experiencing poorer outcomes to enable them to participate effectively. 14. Partners work together to build capacity within the community, with activities being led, planned, managed and resourced (e.g. funds, skills and other resources) at partnership level to prevent duplication across agencies. 15. The partnership ensures that communities have access to the information and evidence they might need including advice and support on interpreting the information, comparison between communities and other council areas to enable them to form views about where improvement is necessary or desirable. 16. Effective community participation informs decisions about the partnership s priorities, how services are shaped and resources deployed - this includes working with community bodies on co-production where these bodies wish to do so. 17. The partnership embraces the principles of co-production aiming to combine the mutual strengths and capacities of all partners (including community bodies) to achieve positive change. Thinking about the issues covered in this section: A. Please provide details of evidence that supports your views in relation to how the partnership is performing in relation to community participation. B. Please provide further details of how the partnership can improve its approach to Community Participation. 7

8 3. Leadership, Governance and Accountability 18. Partners demonstrate collective responsibility, leadership and strategic direction of community planning. 19. Partnership governance arrangements are fit for purpose, encourage constructive challenge, review and improvement. 20. The partnership is clear about scrutiny, performance and accountability arrangements for the LOIP, including the role of the CPP Board, the role of partners own corporate governance arrangements and the role of communities and community organisations in scrutiny and performance monitoring, including how the partnership will resource communities to participate in scrutiny. 21. Partners can demonstrate, in particular to local communities, how they are working effectively in partnership to improve outcomes. 22. The partnership understands potential risks to delivering the agreed improvements in the LOIP and it has an effective mechanism in place for managing collective risks, which is regularly reviewed. Thinking about the issues covered in this section: A. Please provide details of evidence that supports your views in relation to how the partnership is performing in relation to leadership, governance and accountability. B. Please provide further details of how the partnership can improve its approach to leadership, governance and accountability. 8

9 4. Performance Management and Reporting 23. The partnership actively uses performance information to facilitate constructive strategic discussion and, where required, instigate corrective action in order to address underperformance against key targets. 24. The partnership use a portfolio of performance information which combines data on local outcomes and service performance with experiences of local communities and service users, including how well local people feel they are involved in local decision making. 25. The partnership ensures a clear performance reporting linkage between individual partner organisations and the partnership board. 26. The long term improvements in outcomes that the partnership is seeking to achieve over the next decade are supported by intermediate outcomes, indicators and targets against which progress can be measured in the short and medium term. Thinking about the issues covered in this section: A. Please provide details of evidence that supports your views in relation to the partnership s approach to performance management and reporting. B. Please provide further details of how the partnership can improve its approach to performance management and reporting. 9

10 5. Participation Requests and Asset Transfers 27. The partnership ensures communities are aware of their entitlement to engage and make a participation request in the outcome improvement process and clearly understand the process for doing so. 28. The partnership ensures communities have administrative, communication and logistical support to arrange meetings, disseminate views, consult on issues, etc. including access to digital or social media support. 29. The partnership ensures that participation events and opportunities are fully publicised, inclusively organised, and meet high standards of participatory practice. 30. The partnership ensures communities have the opportunity to participate in setting out how public funds can be used to address local need. 31. Partners are innovative and radical in their approach to community ownership. 32. There is an approach in place to coordinate asset planning activity across the partnership and to support communities to participate (where the relevant public bodies are part of the partnership). Thinking about the issues covered in this section: A. Please provide details of evidence that supports your views in relation to how the partnership is performing in relation to participation requests and asset transfers. B. Please provide further details of how the partnership can improve its approach to participation requests and asset transfers. 10

11 Improvement Service ihub Quarrywood Court Livingston EH54 6AX Tel November 2016