Partnership working: are churches missing out?
Partnership working is high on the public agenda. The government has recognised that many social problems and challenges will not be solved by simply throwing money at them.
The only answer is to get as many different groups – statutory and voluntary – to cooperate and beaver away at them together. In pursuit of this, the Government set up Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in 2001, which operate both at county (or unitary authority) level and at district (or borough) level. Partnerships deal with a wide variety of problems; e.g. affordable housing, crime reduction, improving health and climate change. Since 2004, Local Area Agreements have also attracted government money to help achieve the targets they have agreed.
A Local Strategic Partnership is a single non-statutory, multi-agency body, matching local authority boundaries, which aims to bring together at a local level the public, private, community and voluntary sectors. LSPs were set up to address local issues and improve the quality of life and governance in an area.
According to the guidelines, each LSP should have representatives from the voluntary sector and, in particular, from faith
communities. In some places faith communities have grasped this opportunity; elsewhere they have been left behind. One reason for this is that the government is concerned that faith representatives are elected and accountable. This has proved easier in urban
areas, where there are formally- constituted interfaith bodies. In rural areas, however, where typically there are few people from non-Christian faiths, some LSPs have been willing to accept representatives who have been elected or nominated by Churches Together.
The reason for such interest in churches is that we have a presence in virtually every community. In some smaller communities there may be no other body on the ground. Partnership working is not about overt or even covert evangelism, but it is a practical way for Christians to immerse themselves in local issues and make “gospel connections”. My own role as chair of a countywide partnership has allowed me to contribute to discussions about the values and concerns that I believe should undergird our
communities. I have been able to explain the many ways in which our churches are already involved (which had sometimes been totally overlooked by some in the partnership). I have also been able to feed back information about resources and initiatives to our churches.
Cumbria is served by the Cumbria Local Strategic Partnership and five local area LSPs: Barrow-in- Furness, West Coast, South Lakeland, Carlisle and Eden (chaired by Rev’d David Emison, who is also chair of the Cumbria Methodist District). Each has at least one official church representative. These appointments are ratified by Churches Together in Cumbria. Three of the five local area LSPs are now chaired by the church representative.
Judith Quigly and David Emison of Eden LSP receiving the Eden District Area Profile
Torridge LSP in Devon has a faith representative elected by Bideford Christians Together. Rev’d Penny Dobbin was the chair of the Torridge LSP for 3 years. At one stage it had five local community partnerships reporting to it, each chaired by an active Christian. North Devon Christians in Partnership has recently been formed. It is open to church members and people who sit on partnerships, for both support and theological reflection.
Alan Smith, Bishop of Shrewsbury
Chair of the Shropshire Local Strategic Partnership
www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk
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