This discussion paper produced by the Department of Communities and Local Government (CLG), sets out proposals for improving its engagement with the third sector. It takes account of related government policy initiatives including the joint Office of the Third Sector and HM Treasury review; the Local Community Sector Taskforce; Making assets work – the Quirk Review of community management and ownership of assets, and advice from a sounding group of key stakeholders and individuals, which met during early 2007 to help inform the shape of the strategy.

The following sections set out how CLG proposes to improve its relationship
with the third sector, by:

• improving how it works with the sector;
• enabling the sector to be an effective local partner in place shaping;
• moving to a more strategic partnership and funding relationship with the sector;
• supporting sustainable investment in community anchors

Local Partnerships In Place-Shaping

The Local Community sector taskforce highlighted the need to reinforce the contribution the community sector can make to improving local quality of life through Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and Local Area Agreements (LAAs).

LSPs are the main vehicles for developing a vision – the Sustainable Communities Strategy – for transforming a place and for tackling hard, cross-cutting issues. LSPs are the forums where local partners contribute their own strengths to the shared task of building prosperous and cohesive communities and improving local services. LSPs also provide the forum for agreeing the priorities of LAAs, which will secure better outcomes for each area. LAAs will become the central delivery contract between central Government and local Government and its partners.

In the discussion paper, CLG proposes that it will provide support for the third sector in building effective partnerships with local partners, including:

• Work with the Audit Commission to develop proposals for Comprehensive Area Assessments that judge the effectiveness of local partnership working, including the involvement of the sector.

• Develop a national improvement strategy for local authorities as part of the new performance framework.

• Work with the Office of the Third Sector on how to deliver the £80m fund for small grants for local community organisations announced in the Budget 2007.

• Work with national umbrella bodies to consider principles for how the third sector can organise itself to ensure that it is effectively represented on Local Strategic partnerships, and more widely in public life.

Sustainable Investment

The discussion paper also includes proposals for encouraging sustainable investment through supporting investment in community-owned assets.  In particular they are keen to examine the feasibility of supporting “community anchors” to stimulate and develop enterprise and self-sufficiency as well as providing a base for smaller groups.

Action point Over the summer, CLG wants to hear the views of the community and voluntary and other stakeholders on these proposals including through a discussion forum at: http://forum.communities.gov.uk/thirdsector For the part of the consultation focusing on partnerships and ‘place-shaping’, CLG wants specifically to know in what other ways it could help to improve the effectiveness of engagement with the third sector at the i) regional and sub-regional levels; and ii) local level.  As part of this, AMT is gathering evidence of good examples where town partnerships have been able to engage effectively with Local Strategic Partnerships and represent their communities’ views.  If you aware of such examples, please email the name of the town partnership and a brief explanation to chris.wade@towns.org.uk

Related Resources

To read a copy of the CLG Discussion Paper on the Third Sector Strategy for Communities and Local Government, visit weblink Third Sector Discussion Paper