Stage 1: Evaluation of the 2004 Sustainable Community Strategy
The evaluation of the 2004 Community Strategy was undertaken in 2006 to ensure that those parts of the current strategy that are still relevant were not lost but carried forward into the new Sustainable Community Strategy. The Evaluation Report was signed off by Devon Strategic Partnership (DSP) Executive (superseded under the new governance arrangements by the DSP Partnership Board) on 1 November 2006.
The main conclusions were that the quality of the 2004 strategy was demonstrated through the fact that many of the issues were still relevant for the new Sustainable Community Strategy, albeit evolved and better understood following action. Much activity had taken place to tackle the issues but the actual amount was not well known and much of the activity had taken place because it coincided with the aims and strategies of various organisations.
The 2004 strategy followed a linear path between challenges and actions, which would be more difficult in the 2008 Sustainable Community Strategy as we recognise that themes are interdependent and have to be interwoven to demonstrate such concepts as economic, social and environmental sustainability. Performance management of the 2004 strategy was not as rigorous as expected because it was not possible to measure many of the indicators. The work on the Local Area Agreement and the focus on performance management will mean any future strategy is likely to have to follow more rigorous project management and performance monitoring regimes.
