Area Partnerships - next steps

Overview

Local Area Partnerships are an opportunity for you to participate in discussion and debate about the challenges and opportunities you see affecting your area.

Area Partnerships, established in 2017, seek to bring together key organisations, groups, businesses and individuals from across the public, private and third sectors and from within local communities to collectively work together.  The main aim of the Area Partnerships is to develop and review priorities for their area.  They are a way in which the Council and other partner organisations, such as NHS Borders and Police Scotland, can involve and consult with communities at a local level. There are five locality based Area Partnerships in the Scottish Borders.

Area Partnerships were set up in response to the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 as one way that people can influence and get involved in the decisions that affect their areas.  The Act was put in place by the Scottish Parliament and gave community organisations new rights to help have their voices heard.

The Act requires each local authority area to produce a Community Plan as well as more local plans that address issues and identify ways to improve things.  Each Area Partnership has developed their own Locality Plan and actions that need to be taken to make things better.  The Locality Plans, actions and what is happening in each area are reported on at Area Partnership meetings.  Links to the each area’s Locality Plan are included in the relevant section of this consultation.

Area Partnership boundary map

In 2019 Scottish Borders Council commissioned the Scottish Centre for Community Development (SCDC) to undertake an independent review of the Area Partnerships and the Community Fund.  Nearly 200 people took part in the review and, following nine weeks of public engagement, SCDC produced 41 recommendations for us to consider as part of their wider report.

At its meeting on 27 August 2020, Council agreed that each Area Partnership should establish a way to review the findings of the SCDC report.  Each Area Partnership has established a working group that has proposed changes that they recommend to be made to the partnership in their area. 

This consultation asks for your views about the changes that are being considered, and how each of the five Area Partnerships develop.

What happens next

The results and any recommendations for change will be presented at future meetings of the Area Partnerships and Scottish Borders Council.