​Councillors discuss new Community Partnership for Inverness

Members of The Highland Council’s City of Inverness Area Committee have discussed the work underway to create a new Community Partnership in the Inverness area to support local planning arrangements.

The Highland Community Planning Partnership Board agreed at its meeting on 30 June to establish 9 local partnerships across the Highlands, one of which will cover Inverness. These partnerships will provide a focus for local discussion, engagement with communities and identifying priorities for the local area.

Under the terms of the Community Empowerment Act, community planning is to become a shared duty facilitated by Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, NHS Highland and The Highland Council.  Along with representation from the Third Sector, community planning will also involve a further 10 partners including SNH, SEPA, the Scottish Sports Council, HITRANS, Skills Development Scotland and Visit Scotland.

The Community Partnerships will replace the current District Partnership arrangements and the first meetings in Inverness will take place from the end of October/November this year onwards.

The core remit for the new Partnerships will be to:

• develop local plans for children and adults;
• develop locality plans/community learning and development plans focusing on communities facing the greatest level of inequality as a result of socio-economic disadvantage and
• identify local actions and priorities.

A Members’ workshop will be held before the first Inverness Community Partnership meeting to explore how the Council can best support the development of the aims and priorities of the new partnerships along with the roles and responsibilities. The workshop will also consider how communities can be encouraged to engage in the community partnership.