The Sutton Partnership's vision is to create a sustainable suburb where the quality of life is better than any other part of London.
The Sutton Partnership is the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP). It produces the borough's community strategy, the Sutton Strategy (2008-20) which sets out the partnership's vision for the future of the borough.
The Partnership brings together many local groups and businesses to create and deliver exciting new strategies to boost economic growth and improve our overall quality of life.
The Sutton Partnership’s role is not simply to articulate a vision for the future of the borough through the Sutton Strategy but, crucially, to provide the community leadership that helps to shape its future.
We see promoting equality and preventing discrimination as one of the cornerstones of this community leadership role. The partnership’s vision of a sustainable suburb is predicated upon the belief that Sutton should be a place where everyone is able to fulfil their potential. The partnership provides an excellent vehicle for tackling inequalities and raising the standard and quality of life for all our residents.
The partnership is committed to promoting equality of opportunity and eliminating unlawful discrimination on the grounds of age, disability, faith, gender, race and sexual orientation. This is fundamental to our vision of an inclusive and vibrant borough.
The council’s Deputy Leader, who is an appointed member of the Sutton Partnership Board, chairs the Sutton’s Equality & Diversity Forum. The forum is an umbrella body bringing together councillors and representatives from a number of bodies including the Sutton Minority Ethnic Forum, the Faith & Belief Forum, the Physical and Sensory Disabilities Partnership Board, the Carers’ Forum, Sutton Women’s Centre and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Group. The forum has a pivotal role in taking forward the equalities and diversity agenda in the borough and its work is closely related to the activities of the Sutton Partnership.
There is a strong emphasis in the partnership’s Local Area Agreement on tackling inequalities – be it income related as in the case of closing the gap in terms of the educational attainment of pupils eligible for free school meals, or to do with disability as in the case of adults with learning disabilities in settled accommodation, or targeted at specific groups as in the case of increasing the number of young offenders in suitable education, employment or training.
A second fundamental underpinning the way in which the Sutton Partnership goes about delivery is a commitment to deliver services efficiently, through smarter procurement, joint commissioning of services and the use of competition.
The Sutton Partnership is committed to providing high quality services at the least possible cost. We recognise that after a period in which Government has increased the amount of funding available to public services generally, Sutton now faces a tight financial future. During the three years covered by the Local Area Agreement, we anticipate that in real terms our amount of Government funding will be reduced. Extracting the maximum value from the resources that we have is therefore critical to the delivery of the partnership’s ambitions.
Governance structure
The Sutton Partnership is organised as a network of related partnerships. At its centre is the Sutton Partnership Board which comprises the key players in the borough from the public, private and voluntary and community sectors. Its membership is a mix of people appointed directly to the board and representatives who are elected from one of six Themed Partnerships.
The six Themed Partnerships are:
• Economic & Housing Renewal
• Community Engagement
• Children & Young People
• Safer Sutton
• Sutton Adults
• Sustainable Living
It is the combined activities of these partnerships and the other groups that support them, that collectively comprise the Sutton Partnership. This gives a sense not just of the complexity and breadth of the work that the Sutton Partnership delivers, but also of the huge potential that all these organisations working together brings to implementing the Sutton Strategy.
Should a situation arise where there is a dispute between partners, the partner(s) with the dispute will set it out in writing and submit it to the chair and vice-chairs of the Sutton Partnership Board. They will consider the matter, taking additional evidence from the concerned parties, as necessary, before reaching a decision. The dispute resolution process will be completed within an eight week period.
The six Themed Partnerships are tasked with leading on one or more of the eight priorities which the partnership has identified through consultation with the community. These eight priorities are the work programmes through which the partnership will deliver its vision of a fairer, safer and greener sustainable suburb.
The Economic & Housing Renewal Themed Partnership is responsible for our priorities of encouraging enterprise and employment; and improving housing and managing growth.
The Community Engagement Themed Partnership is responsible for our priority of developing active and inclusive communities.
The Children & Young People Themed Partnership is responsible for our priority of investing in children and young people.
The Safer Sutton Partnership is responsible for our priority of creating safer communities.
The Sutton Adults Themed Partnership is responsible for our priorities of improving health and well-being and valuing older people.
The Sustainable Living Themed Partnership is responsible for our priority of creating a greener, cleaner borough.
Monitoring & Evaluation
The Sutton Partnership is responsible for the overall co-ordination of the Sutton Strategy, and progress against the Local Area Agreement is performance managed using the Sutton Tracker System. Tracker provides a single area-based performance management system. The approach emphasises the importance of taking remedial action where targets are not on-track and enables the partnership to focus on priority areas, so it can use real time data to address under-performance.
Within one week of the end of each quarter, senior managers are responsible for ensuring that data and progress reports against the targets in the Local Area Agreement have been entered. A traffic lights system is used to indicate whether progress and confidence is red, amber or green.
Each of the Themed Partnerships discusses its targets within three weeks of the end of the preceding quarter. Those targets giving the most cause for concern are discussed by the Sutton Partnership Board. Progress is reported to the council’s executive and to the Government Office London twice a year.
Finance and Resources
The work of the Sutton Partnership is resourced in part through funding made available by central government in the form of Area Based Grant. This is a general grant allocated directly to local authorities as additional revenue funding to areas. It is intended to support the delivery of local, regional and national priorities in the local area.
The majority of the funding which underpins the partnership’s activities is managed by the individual partner organisations. Through the process of agreeing the Sutton Strategy and setting the Local Area Agreement, this funding is then used to deliver against the shared priorities of the partnership. Partner organisations are responsible for their own financial planning and expenditure and are responsible for ensuring appropriate allocation of resources to deliver on the targets agreed in this Strategy.
Financial planning is updated each year taking account of relevant factors, such as service developments, grant prospects, expenditure forecasts and capital receipts.
The selection of the priorities and targets set in the Sutton Strategy is informed by the consideration of risks and opportunities by partner organisations.
Individual organisations have their own risk management arrangements in place and these are used in determining the partnership commitments into which they enter.
Partners consider the resources available and analyse trends in population growth, health inequalities, community safety, housing, employment and environmental sustainability.
On a quarterly basis during the year the Sutton Tracker System requires all partner organisations with responsibility for Local Area Agreement targets to evaluate the risks associated with delivery.
For more information your questions about the Sutton Partnership and the Community Strategy go to the Sutton partnership website: click here for the link – http://www.suttonpartnership.net/ (this link opens in a new window)
For other information on the Sutton Partnership please contact the Policy & Partnerships Team, Chief Executive’s Group, London Borough of Sutton, Civic Offices, St Nicholas Way, Sutton, Surrey, SM1 1EA. Telephone: 020 8770 5000.
