What are Social Inclusion Partnerships?
There are currently 48 Social Inclusion Partnerships (SIPs) operating around Scotland with different origins and focus. However  a number of common factors inform their work.  Broadly speaking SIPs are multi-agency partnership bodies which include local authorities, health boards, further education providers, the private sector and, crucially, the local community and voluntary sector.  The Scottish Executive and Communities Scotland have indicated on numerous occasions that they expect local communities and the voluntary to be at the heart of SIP decision making processes.

SIPs are tasked with the coordination of activities to promote social inclusion, prevent social exclusion and develop innovative models of working and are funded from the Social Inclusion Partnership Fund which replaced the Urban Programme in April 1999. The relatively modest amounts allocated to each SIP by the Scottish Executive are viewed as a lever to pull down resources from public bodies - the ‘bending’ of mainstream budgets towards local SIP priorities.

The Scottish Executive’s social justice agenda outlined in the report - Social Justice…A Scotland Where Everyone Matters and the subsequent annual reports-  also emphasise the key role of SIPs in delivering a range of targets.

SIP Transition Arrangements
The Regeneration arm of Communities Scotland currently has responsibility for the SIP programme www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk  However it is envisaged that over the next few years Social Inclusion Partnerships will be ‘mainstreamed’ into evolving local Community Planning structures.  The Scottish Executive’s Community Regeneration Statement, ‘Better Communities in Scotland Closing the Gap’, published in June 2002 provides more detail of the rationale behind this.

www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/emsjm-00.asp

www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/bcis-00.asp

The framework guiding these transition arrangements was published in August 2003

www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/communities/upload/SIPsCPPs.pdf

Under this framework, control of Social Inclusion Partnerships will be devolved from Communities Scotland to local Community Planning structures. Communities Scotland has indicated that the earliest it expects these transfers to happen is 2004. At present SIPs have confirmed funding at current levels until March 2005 and it allow it is difficult to predict it seems likely that many SIPs will opt not to transfer straight away because of the complexity of managing this process of change. 

As part of the process of integration Community Planning Partnerships must submit a self-assessed Statement of Readiness to Communities Scotland. This should involve all partners, and draw on the experience of SIP boards and communities. The Statement must satisfy Ministers that the Community Planning Partnership meets, or is making real and tangible progress towards, readiness criteria which includes evidence of partnership working, ‘effective and genuine’ community engagement, a focus on the most disadvantaged areas and financial performance and outcome monitoring.

The third element of the integration process is the production of a Regeneration Outcome Agreement (ROA) by the CPP for approval by Ministers. The ROA is  designed to provide a strategic framework which links national and local priorities for tackling disadvantage with spend and activities, through SIP and partners’ mainstream resources. This is aimed at improving outcomes for disadvantaged areas and groups.  From 2005/06, the Agreement will provide the basis for each three-year funding period.

What is Community Planning?
Community Planning is not a new idea. In many ways it can be seen as logical extension of the some of the thinking behind Social Inclusion Partnerships. It is designed to provide an overarching framework to ensure local agencies coordinate and integrate their activities with the ultimate aim of improving public services.  It is also seen as a mechanism for linking national social justice policy to local and neighbourhood priorities. Crucially Community Planning is envisaged as a means of ensuring that people and communities are genuinely involved in decisions about the planning and delivery of public services.

However Community Planning Partnerships differ from SIPs in a number of important respects. Community Planning has a statutory basis. Local authorities have a legal obligation, as outlined in the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003, to ensure that they have a Community Plan in place covering their entire area.

Local authorities are the lead agency in this process and must involve other public bodies such as Health Boards, Enterprise Companies, Police, Fire and Transport agencies. These agencies are expected to participate fully.

The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003, which came into force on 1 April 2003 defines Community Planning as:

“a process by which the public services provided in the area of the local authority are planned and provided after consultation and (ongoing) cooperation …with community bodies and other public bodies.”

The Act also binds all Scottish Executive ministers to a commitment to promote and encourage Community Planning across Government.

Legislative backing and guidance on process underpin Community Planning but the Scottish Executive and Communities Scotland see local people and communities and a shift in ‘culture’ of agencies as the key drivers for achieving improvements in public services.

Community Planning structures, in common with Social Inclusion Partnerships, are clearly going to develop in different ways across Scotland to meet distinct and diverse community needs.

Further information about Community Planning can be located at the Community Planning Task Force’s website  www.communityplanning.org.uk

Links to detailed information about Social Inclusion Partnerships and Community Planning are included in the links section of this site.

Revising the Scottish Deprivation Index
From 2005/06 onwards, the 2004 Index of Deprivation will be the principal means of deciding the distribution of SIP Funds across Scotland. This is part the development of a long term strategy for measuring deprivation, and publication is scheduled for the spring of 2004.  These new measurements will have major implications for the allocation of resources and the evolution of policy priorities. For example shifts in the spatial concentration of deprivation will see a revision of the areas which receive additional regeneration resources. In such cases funding is likely to be phased. 

The Scottish Centre for Research on Social Justice (SCRSJ) has been commissioned by the Scottish Executive to produce recommendations for a long-term strategy for measuring deprivation in Scotland. The recommended measure (or measures) will be used to identify deprived areas (rural and urban) and deprived groups of individuals

Further information is available at-  www.scrsj.ac.uk/deprivation/

Scottish Centre for Regeneration
The Scottish Centre for Regeneration is part of Communities Scotland and is “responsible for developing new and practical approaches to regeneration, and promoting best practice.”

The Centre is based in Govan in Glasgow and has a remit to assist regeneration practitioners and communities to be:

• better informed about regeneration and how it works
• more aware of the roles and perspectives of other practitioners and representatives from the community and the voluntary sector
• more knowledgeable about approaches to regeneration practice and their implementation
• adequately skilled to work effectively in regeneration
• able to examine, introduce and learn from innovative approaches to regeneration. 

Further information is available at-

ww.communitiesscotland.gov.uk/
communities36/Web/Site/SCR/about_the_scr.asp

Other Related Initiatives
A number of other initiatives are also being implemented including the development of Standards of Community Engagement which will offer guidance to statutory organisations on how to involve communities, and various demonstration projects looking at how local communities engage with CPPs, and resources for national voluntary sector intermediary bodies to support them to involve communities of interest in Community Planning.