Should you have any queries relating to this page, please contact Katie Hazelton:
Email: katie.hazelton@suffolkcc.gov.uk
Direct Line: 01473 265778

Background
Prior to 2001, Suffolk acted as a "pathfinder" for the Government's New Commitment to Regeneration Scheme. Drawing on this experience, the Suffolk Strategic Partnership (SSP) was officially created in 2001 in order to improve the quality of life of the people in Suffolk, streamline existing partnerships, and agree common aims and joint priorities and work on delivering these throughout Suffolk.

Components and Membership
The SSP operates an open door, inclusive policy and is always keen to develop ways to effectively engage the many organisations and people involved. There are two mutually influencing and equally important components of the SSP: the SSP Board and the Chief Executives' Panel. The membership of these two bodies comprises of a wide range of organisations across the public, voluntary and community, and private sectors; further information can be accessed on the SSP Board and Chief Executives' Panel individual webpages.

Role and Responsibilities
The primary aim of the SSP is to set the long-term vision for Suffolk, focussing on strategic issues that need to be delivered or co-ordinated at county level. The SSP complements, and is informed by, local and thematic plans with success being dependent on influence rather than authority (for example: influencing the distribution of SSP partners' mainstream resources). By streamlining previous partnerships, the SSP aims to improve partnership working by (for example) reducing duplication of workloads and encouraging the sharing of useful information, thus promoting and increasing efficiency and effectiveness. The SSP's emphasis will be on the implementation and delivery of its vision, aims and priorities and at all times will be inclusive, community driven, and informed by local strategies.

Suffolk's Community Strategy
The Local Government Act 2000 placed a duty on all local authorities to draw up a Community Strategy, to promote the wellbeing of local communities. The Government advice is that this should be drawn up by a Local Strategic Partnership (LSP). LSPs are cross agency partnerships which bring together all sectors at a local level, and the SSP is considered the countywide LSP for Suffolk. There are six other LSPs in Suffolk, all of which work alongside the SSP: Babergh East, Mid Suffolk, One Ipswich, Suffolk Coastal, Waveney and Western Suffolk. All of these individual LSPs are also responsible for creating their own Community Strategies; for further information, visit the Suffolk LSPs webpage.

In 2004 the SSP launched their first Community Strategy which set out the SSP's vision for Suffolk and detailed how this would be taken forward. This formed the basis of Suffolk's pilot Local Area Agreement. In 2006, the SSP agreed that it was necessary to review these priorities and, on 7th November 2006, the revision of the Community Strategy was officially launched with a stakeholder event. All consultations and research relating to the SSP's second Community Strategy have now been completed and, though not yet officially launched, the latest version of Suffolk's Community Strategy has now been completed. This new Community Strategy will also influence Suffolk's second Local Area Agreement. To download or view Suffolk's Community Strategy and its annexes, visit the Suffolk Community Strategy webpage. For further information on Suffolk's Local Area Agreement, visit the Suffolk LAA webpage.

Resources
Though one of the key aims of the SSP is to influence the distribution of the partners' mainstream funding programmes (for example: health, crime prevention, education) towards locally determined and agreed priorities, in the past the SSP has also received certain specific resources which have been duly awarded across agencies in Suffolk for meeting particularly challenging targets. In 2006/2007, the SSP received £1.7 million which was awarded to projects which aimed to meet local priorities. For more information on past and current resources, contact the Partnerships Team.