Partnership – the Joint Committee’s Ethos

From day one in 1996, the Joint Committee has adopted partnership as its modus operandi. Whilst ‘Partnership’ is a much-quoted concept, the Joint Committee has given meaning to it in action. The Joint Committee, itself, is a partnership of eight statutory Local Authorities working together in the long-term development planning of Scotland’s largest metropolitan area. Whether in terms of Strategy-making or Strategy-implementation, the Joint Committee has approached them from this partnership perspective, believing it as the only method by which ‘joined-up strategic policy thinking’ and action can be assured. 

The Partners

The Joint Committee identified a wide range of both public and private partners as key to the development of a sustainable development strategy, which could be resourced and delivered. Some of these are listed below.

Scottish Enterprise and its Local Enterprise Network (SEN & LECs)
Communities Scotland (CS)
The Health Boards and Partnerships
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and its predecessor bodies (SPT, WESTRANS)
The Universities
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH)
Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS)
Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
Scottish Water (SW)
Homes for Scotland (HfS)
The Development Industry

The Strategic Futures Group

In order to ‘join up’ thinking and develop a Strategy that would have early ownership by the wider public policy arena bodies and have early ‘buy-in’, the Joint Committee established its key early ‘partnership’ structure – its Strategic Futures group – comprising many of the above bodies, with the aim of developing a common view of and response to the future metropolitan challenges. At its core was the concept of building institutional capacity and ‘joined-up’ thinking whilst still respecting the statutory remits of each of these bodies.

The Action Programmes

In order to give partnerships a set of deliverable outcomes which unite the common aspects of the Joint Committee’s agenda with those of key partners, the Joint Committee and its constituent Authorities, with its partners, together have developed ‘Common Perspectives’. These are in process of being revised and migrated into Action Programmes – e.g.

• An Economic Development Programme – with SEN and its LEC network
  
• A Health Programme – the Glasgow Centre for Population Health (GCPH), and the Health Boards
  
• A Water Infrastructure Programme – with Scottish Water
  
• A Transport Programme – developed around the Joint Transport Strategy and future Regional Transport Strategy
  
• A Green Network Programme – with Forestry Commission Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, Communities Scotland, the GCPH and the Health Boards
  
• A Vacant & Derelict Land Programme – with SEN, the LECs, and the Scottish Executive

Whilst it is more difficult to develop action programmes with regulatory bodies, the Joint Committee and SEPA (Scottish Environment Protection Agency) are in discussion to develop a working protocol which unites the strategic development planning agenda of the Joint Committee and the key regulatory aspects of the impact of development on the environment.

Current Delivery Partnerships

A number of delivery partnerships already have been generated and have moved or are moving into the delivery phase – see the ‘Delivering Strategies’ Section of this site – the Clyde Waterfront Project Partnership Board, the Clyde Gateway Project Partnership – now to be a formal Urban Regeneration Company (URC), Riverside Inverclyde (another URC), Ravenscraig, and the Green Network Partnership Board.