About us

What is the Devon Strategic Partnership (DSP)?

The DSP is a Local Strategic Partnership covering issues across Devon. The
Government believes that a Local Strategic Partnership is the most effective
way of preparing a sustainable community strategy for an area, based on the
evidenced needs and the aspirations of the people who live there. It should
also hold the vision for the area.

The purpose is to improve the quality of life of people living in Devon by
ensuring the work of all agencies and groups has the needs of local people at
its core.

Strategic Partnership does not mean working together when that does not add
value. It means knowing who is best placed to address an issue and ensuring
that their actions are coherent. In that way it will improve outcomes for local
people.

The DSP is organised with people contributing in several ways as shown below.

(The analogy of a dry stone wall where differently shaped stones are strongly
bound together without mortar has come to symbolise a partnership where the
strength lies in valuing the contributions of all.)

PDF History of the Devon Strategic Partnership

 

Local Area Agreement and Sustainable Community Strategy Delivery Structure 2008

The Local Area Agreement priorities will help to deliver the Sustainable Community Strategy; each Local Area Agreement priority will be delivered by a variety of partners and partnerships. They will report to the DSP Delivery
Board via a nominated coordinator for each priority using an agreed performance management system. Each partner within the Devon Strategic Partnership may be involved in the delivery of many Local Area Agreement priorities.

Click on items in the flowchart for further information on each:

organisation chart Devon Children's Trust websiteDevon Futures group Conference Delivery Board

Why is the DSP needed?

Society is changing rapidly. Expectations are increasing, with new opportunities offered by developments in technologies. We are living our lives in very different ways. People expect services which are of consistently high quality, convenient and timely. Public services need to modernise to meet and surpass public expectation and to retain public support.

Many of the most challenging issues which face us, such as tackling social exclusion or rural deprivation have the characteristic that they are complex. They cannot be tackled by one agency or group and many of the traditional ways we have tackled problems are becoming out of date. For that reason, Local Strategic Partnerships sit at the heart of improving services and thereby improving the quality of people's lives. District LSPs take a strategic view of how to tackle issues facing their area. The DSP, by working with the districts, can address the issues that are common across the county, and can be more effectively dealt with at that level, to the advantage of all.

Resource Hub

The Devon Strategic Partnership has begun a project to establish a Resource Hub to support delivery of its Local Area Agreement. Current thinking about the structure of the Resource Hub sets out a virtual (at least in the first instance) office of functional and theme leads working across all partner organisations. The functional side of the office includes the following workstreams:

The thematic roles will manage each of the LAA themes (which correspond with the Devon Sustainable Community Strategy priorities):

For further information, please see:

pdf
Project Initiation Document
pdf
Benefits Paper

Project Manager

Sue Rook
01392 382371
sue.rook@devon.gov.uk