District Partnerships
District Partnerships
What are they?
There are 6 District Partnerships for the Borough of Oldham, based on the following areas:
ii) East Oldham (St James, St Mary's, Waterhead Wards)
iii) West Oldham (Alexandra, Coldhurst, Medlock Vale, Werneth)
The primary role of the new six District Partnerships is in setting priorities and taking decisions. Within the Borough wide framework, they will develop a plan for their area and allocate resources in support of this. It is intended to increase over time the level of influence that the District Partnerships have over services and budgets. The District Partnerships will act as champions for their area in discussions about Borough wide priorities, and listen to the views of local people and feed back to them through the Partners and Communties Together (PACT). In the future, District Partnerships may consider delegating decisions to smaller groups.
Reflecting the emphasis on planning and decision making, District Partnerships will be partnership meetings held in public, rather than public meetings like the current Area Committees.
The primary role of the Partners and Communties Together (PACT) (which will replace the existing Area Committees) is community engagement. They will provide a regular mechanism for residents and businesses to meet representatives of the Council and its partners. It is intended that, in a normal Municipal Year there should be a maximum of one meeting every two months (therefore excluding April and August there will 5 meetings per ward each year). However District Partnerships can decide how best to organise these so that they are relevant to local people. They could be organised in different ways to better involve local people – for example, sometimes they could be meetings or workshops; sometimes drop in sessions; or they could be organised alongside other local activity – such as by having a stall at a local festival.
PACTs will replace other local engagement mechanisms to avoid duplication
PACTs will provide a mechanism for listening to the views of residents, and feeding back to them about what is happening – “You said, we did”. They are effectively the communications and influencing arm of the District Partnerships.
Who does what?
Councillors will be members of the District Partnership within which their ward lies. They will also be members of the Ward Forum for their ward. They therefore play a key role in the area working structures, with involvement in both decision making and the engagement with residents.
The Councillor Community Champion will be appointed by Council, and will chair the first meeting of the District Partnership. Once established the District Partnerships will then appoint their own chair.
The Council will allocate a lead Executive Director or Assistant Executive Director to each District Partnership.
Senior representatives of partner organisations will also be members of the District Partnerships. It is anticipated that the Police, Primary Care Trust, First Choice Homes Oldham and Oldham Community Leisure Ltd would be involved in each district, but that beyond this each District Partnership would identify the key partners needed to support the delivery of the local priorities. For example Jobcentre Plus, Oldham College, Oldham Sixth Form College and particular schools might be members of the District Partnership in some areas.
Partner organisations will also participate in the Ward Forums sending along representatives at an appropriate level (for example the Police might send the local Police Community Support Officer). Neighbourhood Managers will work with partners to ensure the attendance of relevant organisations as required.
Co-opted members will continue to have a valuable role, though they will not be members of District Partnerships. As a minimum they will automatically be members of the Ward Forums for the ward in which they live and/or work for the duration of their existing term of office, and can then seek re-election. They can help the Ward Forums become an effective conduit for the views of residents, organise local events and activities, and sit on Working Groups and/or Task & Finish Groups set up by the District Partnership. The District Partnership may also specifically seek their views on issues – for example in developing the District Plan.
The Council’s Neighbourhood Managers will co-ordinate the operation of the District Partnerships, Ward Forums and Area Action Teams. District Partnerships will be serviced by Constitutional Services
Lets Talk Money
In 2009/10 the following Council resources will be allocated as delegated budgets to District Partnerships:
District Partnership budgets - the allocation for these is £6,000 per ward, which is multiplied by the number of wards to give a total allocation to the District Partnership. Decisions on this are taken collectively by the Councillors after consulting with partners on the District Partnership.
Councillor budgets - each Councillor has an individual allocation of £3,000 on which they take the decisions themselves. Councillors are individually accountable for the decisions they make about how they allocate their budget and will give updates at each District Partnership meeting. Councillors may however choose to pool their individual budgets with the District Partnership Budgets or agree with other Councillors to jointly fund projects out of their individual budgets.
Safe, Clean & Green funding - This is new funding for 2009-10. A total of £190,000 has been allocated to the District Partnerships, on the basis of £9,500 per ward though District Partnerships can decide how they want to allocate this. Decisions on this are taken collectively by the Councillors after consulting with Partners on the District Partnership but can only be spent on improvements to make the district safer, cleaner or greener.
Once the District Plans have been developed, these will provide a framework which District Partnerships use to inform the allocation of funding.
Chadderton and East Oldham have each been allocated an additional £100,000 in 2009/10 of District Partnership Pilot Area Funding to assist with the implementation of the new Area Working model. Decisions on this are taken collectively by the Councillors after consulting with partners on the District Partnership. It could be used, for example, to fund particular priorities in the district plan, changes in staffing to support area working, or costs of reorganising the way services are delivered.
District Partnerships:
- Chadderton
- East Oldham
- Failsworth & Hollinwood
- Royton, Shaw and Crompton
- Saddleworth and Lees
- West Oldham