Dilemmas of Community Planning
| Published date | 01 October 2008 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0952076708093250 |
| Author | Stephen Sinclair |
| Date | 01 October 2008 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Dilemmas of Community
Planning
Lessons From Scotland
Stephen Sinclair
Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
Abstract Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) are a central feature of a programme
of local government modernization and public service reform in Scotland. CPPs
are intended to ensure that local authorities, other local public agencies, the
voluntary, community and private sectors develop a shared vision for their area
and work in partnership to implement this. CPPs therefore have much in
common with similar initiatives in other parts of the UK, such as communities
strategies, Local Strategic Partnerships, and proposals contained in the 2007
Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Bill in England. This
article discusses how the development of CPPs relates to devolution in
Scotland. It identifies systemic dilemmas, if not contradictions, encountered in
implementing community planning in Scotland. Tensions exist reconciling
partnership working with local authority leadership; between community
planning as an additional or core duty of public agencies; between community
engagement and the practical demands of policy making; and between central
government direction and local partnership autonomy.
Keywords community planning, devolution, local governance, partnerships
Introduction
The term ‘community planning’ has various meanings. In its most general sense,
it refers to methods of public engagement and participation in local planning,
particularly public involvement in local environment planning (Department of
Communities and Local Government [DCLG], n.d.). A more specific meaning
refers to the development of joint strategies and partnership working between
local agencies (Improvement and Development Agency [IdeA], n.d.). In Scotland,
DOI: 10.1177/0952076708093250
Stephen Sinclair, Scottish Poverty Information Unit, School of Law & Social Sciences,
Glasgow Caledonian University, K. 315, Buchanan House, City Campus, Glasgow G4 OBA, UK.
[email: Stephen.Sinclair@gcal.ac.uk] 373
© Public Policy and Administration
SAGE Publications Ltd
Los Angeles, London, New Delhi
and Singapore
0952-0767
200810 23(4) 373–390
more emphasis has been attached to this second meaning: community planning
(CP) north of the border refers to a statutory Community Planning Partnership
(CPP), comprising the local authority, the other local public service providers, and
representatives from the voluntary, community and private sectors. The
Community Planning Working Group (CPWG) established by the pre-devolution
Scottish Office and Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) in 1997
proposed three aims for CP: to improve local services through coordinated work-
ing between local public service providers; to establish a process through which
public agencies and the voluntary, community and private sectors could agree a
strategic vision for their area and the measures to implement this; and to create a
means through which the views of communities could be identified and delivered
in policy (Scottish Office, 1998: para. 7). The statutory guidance issued by the
post-devolution Scottish Executive set out two further principles for CP: that CPPs
should become the overarching partnership coordinating other initiatives within a
locality, and CPPs would become a principal connection between national and
local priorities and policies (Scottish Executive, 2004a).
CP in Scotland represents an important experiment in organizational integration
and community involvement, but it is far from a unique development in the UK.
Multi-agency local partnerships are a common feature in the changing landscape
of local governance in each of the four UK nations. For example, the Local
Government Act 2000 required local authorities in England to produce a commu-
nity strategy, similar to the community plans required of Scottish CPPs, and Local
Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) have become an important mechanism for the co-
ordination of local services (Bound and Skidmore, 2005). In Wales, Community
Strategy Partnerships and the Community First programme resemble other aspects
of CPPs, such as partnership working and community engagement (Welsh
Assembly Government, 2006); and in November 2005 it was announced that
Local Strategy Partnerships in Northern Ireland were to be developed into CPPs
along Scottish lines (Blake Stevenson and Stratagem, 2005). ‘Community plan-
ning contains the seeds of a fundamental change in the ways of working at a local
level’ (IdeA, n.d.). CP in Scotland has developed in parallel to and shares many
features with similar local governance reforms elsewhere in the UK, and the
Scottish experience is relevant both to these and comparable developments out-
side the UK (McKinlay, 2006). These parallel reforms include developing joint
local decision-making and policy-making processes, delivering ‘seamless’ and
customer-centred public services; debates over new localism and ‘double devolu-
tion’; the duties of local authority councillors, the role of the voluntary, com-
munity and private sectors in local governance, and other measures contained in
the Local Government and Public Involvement Bill in England.
However, the institutional and political culture in Scotland provides a distinc-
tive background to this shared agenda. This article discusses the development of
CP in Scotland and outlines some of the challenges encountered in implementing
this new local governance partnership. This experience is related to the broader
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