Community Planning is a process which helps public agencies to work together with the community to plan and deliver better services which make a real difference to people's lives.

The aims of Community Planning in Scotland are:

• making sure people and communities are genuinely engaged in the decisions made on public services which affect them; allied to
• a commitment from organisations to work together, not apart, in providing better public services.

There are two further key principles in addition to the two main aims outlined above:

• Community Planning as the key over-arching partnership framework helping to co-ordinate other initiatives and partnerships and where necessary acting to rationalise and simplify a cluttered landscape;
• the ability of Community Planning to improve the connection between national priorities and those at regional, local and neighbourhood levels.

The Concordat agreed in 2007 sets out the terms of a new relationship between the Scottish Government and local government, based on mutual respect and partnership. It underpins the funding being provided to local government over the period 2008-09 to 2010-11.

As part of the Concordat package, all 32 local authorities agreed a Single Outcome Agreement (SOA) with the Scottish Government in June 2008, setting out what they will achieve through the services they deliver. The SOAs are based on the national outcomes and indicators and, under a common framework, local outcomes to take account of local priorities. The SOAs cover all local government services in each local authority area as well as a significant range of the responsibilities of Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) where local authorities have a significant part to play. Community Planning Partnerships are involved in around half of the initial agreements.

It is planned to develop the scope and detail of the agreements over the next two years. One of the key developments will be that all of the Single Outcome Agreements will be expected to include the full engagement of Community Planning partners from 2009-10 onwards.

Read more about Community Planning in the About Us section and in the Document Library and check here for the latest documents added to the library.