Community planning is the process where public agencies work with the community to deliver better, more joined-up public services to improve the quality of people’s lives.
Local agencies and organisations work with local communities, businesses, charities and voluntary groups to improve public services for the people who use them. The Partnership addresses the challenges that are too large for one organisation on their own to deal with, such as poverty, economic development and our Vision for a Climate Resilient and Net Zero Future for Orkney.
In community planning, what matters is what is actually achieved – the outcomes – and how people’s lives change as a result. It is also about ensuring that communities are engaged in the decisions made about services which they use.
Community Planning is a statutory duty placed on a number of organisations by the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 and requires each community planning partnership to prepare and publish a Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP), which we call the Orkney Community Plan.
The legal status and responsibilities of the Partnership are explained in our Terms of Reference.