A partnership approach to community cohesion - Case study 6 Milton Keynes March 09
Local strategic partners in Milton Keynes have come a long way towards recognising that core strategies and service delivery need to reflect the needs of different communities. They have also laid some foundations for ensuring partners support this through the inclusion of community cohesion as a priority in their Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) and cohesion indicators in their Local Area Agreement (LAA). In turn, this has led to the development of a Community Cohesion Strategy, published in early 2009. The LSP has also established a new Community Belonging Themed Partnership to take a lead role on cohesion issues in the city and review progress towards LAA targets on cohesion.
However, there is still much to do to transform these new strategic objectives and structures into action in order to transform core services to reflect the cohesion challenges facing the borough. There is also work still to do in continuing to lay the groundwork for community engagement by providing sufficient resources to local community and faith forums. Given the rapidly rising diversity of the borough and rises in inequality, the LSP and its themed partnerships have a strong incentive to take a lead on ensuring community cohesion
becomes part of their core business.
