Public consultations inform the priorities chosen by the Orkney Partnership.
In 2023, The Orkney Community Planning Partnership agreed three key priorities for Orkney where it will take the lead. It established three delivery groups, each chaired by a member of the Partnership’s Board, to develop detailed delivery plans to address these three priorities. In 2025, the Partnership adopted a new priority: to improve the health of Orkney’s population and reduce health inequities.
The delivery priorities are:
- Cost of living – The work to address this will be led by the Cost of Living Task Force, a multi-agency group that is one of the Partnership’s delivery groups. This group is chaired by Orkney Health and Care.
- Sustainable Development – This will be delivered through community wealth building, moving towards Net Zero and a wellbeing economy. This is led by the Sustainable Development Delivery Group. A particular priority for sustainable development is to support the future growth of the renewable energy sector, and this is led by the Orkney Sustainable Energy Stakeholder Group. This stakeholder group reports to the delivery group, Orkney Islands Council and other stakeholders. The Sustainable Development Delivery Group is chaired by the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS).
- Local Equality – This includes reducing the inequalities between areas of Orkney that result in different life outcomes. This work is led by the Equality Delivery Group. It has already begun to address the specific challenges faced by those living on the ferry linked isles by developing a Locality Plan for 2024-26 and will address other inequities, including those that relate to population health and race. NHS
Orkney chairs this group. - Public Health – The main way The Partnership will do this is by addressing the biggest driver for population health: economic and social wellbeing. This will underpin all the work of the Partnership and its three delivery groups.
While the delivery groups will lead on these priorities, all are interdependent and underpin the whole work of the Partnership:
- We cannot overcome poverty without sustainable development and a wellbeing
economy. - We cannot have sustainable development without addressing inequalities.
- We cannot remove inequalities without also addressing poverty.
- Economic and social wellbeing is a key driver of good public health.
The Orkney Community Plan 2025/30 sets out how we will deliver these priorities.
