What is the Droitwich Spa Area Partnership?

• An alliance that brings the public, private, community and voluntary sectors together at a local level to deliver real improvements for local people in Droitwich Spa Town and across 28 surrounding rural Parishes;

• One of three identically-resourced Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in the Wychavon District. Unlike other LSPs, each Partnership has a fund to help deliver its objectives, a dedicated manager, and a level of local focus unparalleled in other Local Authority Areas;

• We recognise that we have a unique opportunity: to lead & show the way locally and regionally, to think big but realistically – and most importantly, to make a real & lasting improvement to the lives of local people.

We recognise that we have a unique opportunity: to lead & show the way locally and regionally, to think big but realistically – and most importantly, to make a real & lasting improvement to the lives of local people.

Our Vision

At our Just Imagine Consultation Event in 2005 local people and groups from across the area identified the things that they were most concerned about. These were:

• Activities for young people;
• Improving the environment;
• Rural transport & access for older people;
• Improving health;
• All age leisure & recreational classes;
• Training & improving skills.

This sets out how we are going to turn these priorities into action for local people, businesses and communities over the next three years.

Our Objectives by 2009 are:

A Place for Youth In The Future:

Activities for Young People

• A place for young people to go
• More things to do – music, sport, community involvement

Local Jobs & Opportunities

• The right skills and training
• Creating the conditions for business growth
• More Jobs and opportunities locally

Better Involvement, Better Opportunities for Older People

• An understanding of what older people want, and need, to live full and rewarding lives
• The right facilities and services, accessible by all our older residents

A Healthy Environment & Active Lives for All

• More opportunities for people to get and stay active
• A more sustainable & accessible environment for people to enjoy

Our objectives will be delivered via specific projects set out in our Action Plan

What We Do

We will deliver our objectives by doing the following:

Capacity Building:

We have a fund of £30,000 per year over the next 3 years to help deliver our objectives. This modest ‘budget’ should be used to lever in much more substantial funding for local projects by being combined with other sources, such as Awards for All, Wychavon D.C. Community Grants, Sport England Funding and private investment / sponsorship;
Using our knowledge, we can signpost local people and groups to suitable sources of funding, and support them in their applications and scheme design – and contributions from the Droitwich Spa Area Partnership Fund

Providing Leadership:

Our Objectives and Action Plan are intended to give shape to Action within our area, linking the Wychavon D.C Community Plan and Parish and Town Plans and defining the work and initiatives that the LSP should initiate or give support to

Co-ordination:

• By working together and knowing what each other are doing we can achieve real savings by not duplicating efforts – we can put groups in touch with others doing the same work or working towards the same ends. This pooling of resources can make a massive difference to the impact of what we do, and its cost

Communication & Consultation:

• It is vital that whatever we do accurately meets and reflects the needs of local people, communities and businesses. Our LSP Board is therefore intended to be fully representative of the key groups and organisations in our area

It is the responsibility of each member to cascade information down from the LSP to their colleagues and associates, and feed back to the LSP any issues or concerns they raise

Our Promises

In delivering our objectives, and in all that we do, we will:

• Actively Seek To Influence & Lobby For Local Services & Local Needs – where we cannot deliver ourselves (e.g. large-scale capital developments), we will work to ensure that the needs of local people, communities and businesses are taken into account by those that can

• Think & Act Sustainably (1) – All projects we support or undertake will be demonstrably sustainable and make a lasting contribution towards our objectives – e.g. we will require provisions for participation and promotion of any activities beyond the initial assisted phases

• Think & Act Sustainably (2) – In all our work, we will take bio-diversity, environmental sustainability and liveability into account

• Actively Seek Further Funding – the LSPs own funds are limited and on their own can only go some way to delivering our objectives. There are funds available nationally, regionally and locally to deliver on all our objectives, but only if we think creatively and work in a connected way

• Recognise Diversity & Work Inclusively – In developing and delivering solutions, we will look to include disadvantaged, socially excluded or hard-to-reach groups, and ensure that their needs are identified and met wherever possible to facilitate their full involvement in all our activity

How We Work

Our structure is simple & efficient
We have an LSP Board, which meets every two months. The Board has a strategic decision making role, and effectively ‘signs off’ the work done by the Partnership, and to approve plans for future action
For consultation and delivery we use a Champion & Task Group approach
We have Named Champions on the Board for each of our 4 headline objectives:

• Activities for Young People
• Jobs & Opportunities
• Older People
• Active Lifestyles & The Environment

Each Champion is responsible for the co-ordination of their area, and for Communication & Consultation with their relevant interest groups and stakeholders – cascading information down, and feeding ideas and needs upwards.
We form Task Groups to devise solutions for issues that arise, and to deliver projects. Each group has set, clear objectives – which they deliver, then disband
These groups do not have to only include of members of the LSP Board – they can, and should, include specialists and ‘experts’ that can add value to the project as needed.