Looking to the Future The Role of RCCs as Partners in the RDAs Vision and Delivery Plans Ian Piper D

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Looking to the Future- The Role of RCCs as
Partners in the RDAs Vision and Delivery
PlansIan PiperDirector of Sustainable
CommunitiesSouth West RDA

24 January 2008
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Three Areas I Want to Cover

• Co-operation between South West RDA and the Rural
  Community Councils in 2005-08 (where we have come
  from)
• Development of the RDAs Corporate Plan for
  2008-11 (where we are going)
• How we would like to work with RCCs in future
  (how do we get there)

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• Where We Have Come From
• Joint work with the RCCs 2005-8

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2005-8 Corporate Plan Leading the Way

• Six Areas for Increased Emphasis, including
• Rural Economy
• Sustainable Communities
• Defra Rural Strategy 2004
• PSA target
• To reduce the gap in productivity between the
  least well performing quartile of rural areas and
  the English median and improve accessibility of
  services for rural people

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Areas of Co-operation With RCCs

• Capacity Building
• to strengthen SWANs leadership role amongst RCCs
  in the South West
• to raise skills of staff in RCCs
• to promote and disseminate best practice in
  delivery of services in rural areas
• to strengthen links between Community Planning
  processes and higher level statutory plans and
  strategies

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Capacity Building (2)

• Successes
• BDOR Report on Community Planning leading to
  the development of a Regional Framework
• Professional Development (RCC Networking Groups)
• Development of Warming Up for Change proposal
  on Climate Change
• Community Land Trusts Conference to be held in
  March 2008

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Areas of Co-operation with RCCs

• Crossmead Project
• To strengthen the capacity of RCCs to engage with
  local partnerships
• To facilitate development of projects that
  address access to services
• Successes
• Improved RCC engagement with Local Strategic
  Partnerships
• Quality access to services projects brought
  forward by RCCs

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Areas of Co-operation with RCCs

• Rural Retail (The Store is the Core)
• Regional project, led by Community First,
  together with SWAN, Business Link, RISE, Plunkett
  Foundation and Rural Shops Alliance
• aimed at arresting potential closures of existing
  village shops, encouraging the establishment and
  development of community owned shops, and helping
  to provide benefits to small communities
• Research phase close to completion
• Receiving expressions of interest from rural
  retail businesses

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Areas of Co-operation with RCCs

• Training for Community Engagement
• Funding approved in December 2007
• Training sessions will be delivered by
  experienced trainers from within the Rural
  Community Councils and their partner
  organisations, or approved Consultants and
  Trainers, focussing on
• Skills for engagement and communication
• Local Leadership
• Governance
• Financial Management and budgeting
• Project development and delivery

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• Where We Are Going
• Development of the RDAs Corporate Plan 2008-11

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Timetable Discussion
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Stakeholder Discussion Document

• Introduction
• Executive Summary
• The Givens our operating context
• Choices and Decisions our core strategy
• Key Areas of Work the most important things we
  will do
• Measuring Our Progress

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Our Operating Context

• Regional Economic Strategy defines the scope
• Sub-National Review of Economic Development and
  Regeneration stronger, broader strategic role
• Our budget limited financial flexibility in
  short-term due to existing commitments
• The Economy
• Climate Change

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Choices and Decisions

• Core Strategy
• Productivity led growth
• Growth within environmental limits
• Priority places

A more productive and efficient RDA
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Productivity led Growth

• Focus on peoples skills, innovation, the
  environment, enterprise, transport and
  communications infrastructure
• Increasing labour productivity by investing in
  techniques, equipment and skills
• Increasing resource productivity by investing to
  reduce the materials and energy content per unit
  of output

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Growth within Environmental limits

• A zero carbon investment portfolio by 2013
• Responsibility to lead the regions
  transformation towards a low-carbon,
  resource-efficient economy.
• Corporate commitment to address the challenge of
  climate change
• South West England well placed to become a
  leading region for best-practice

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Priority Places

• Make key places more productive
• Focus more of our efforts and investment in
  specific places
• Based on clear rationale about where RDA
  intervention is likely to have the greatest
  impact for the region as a whole

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Key Areas of Work

• Vision, Direction Leadership
• People Skills
• Science Innovation
• Business Enterprise
• Low Carbon Economy
• Sustainable Communities
• Regions Infrastructure
• Regional Networks

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Delivery

• Commissioning Approach
• Delegating Delivery - support the principle of
  delegating different responsibilities for
  delivering economic prosperity to the most
  effective level.
• LAA / MAA focus effort in and around LAAs and
  MAAs that coincide with our priority places

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Discussion with partners stakeholders

• 7th January 15th February
• www.southwestrda.org.uk
• plan11_at_southwestrda.org.uk

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• How Do We Get There?
• How we would like to work with RCCs in future

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RDA Delivery in Rural Areas Will be Mainstreamed
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• . So important that RCCs continue to play a
  proactive role in Local Strategic Partnerships

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Delivery of Rural Development Programme for
England

• Local Action building on the success of RCCss
  role in developing Community Planning models
• Social Enterprise developing a regional Social
  Enterprise service in collaboration with RISE.
  RCCs will be key partners in rural areas

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• Any Questions?