Project: |
Doncaster’s Borough Strategy 2000-2005 ‘Achieving Our Full Potential’ and Doncaster Strategic Partnership Development |
For: |
Doncaster MBC |
In the late 1990s, across Doncaster the aftermath of the loss of mining and manufacturing jobs had left the city with widespread neighbourhood deprivation, a poor image and a lack of confidence in its future. In 1999 Janet Dean joined Doncaster MBC as one of a new team of six Executive Directors whose task was to turn around the reputation of the Council as an organisation in crisis, and to help the community re-establish Doncaster as a vibrant and prosperous place.
In the Local Government Act 2000, Janet saw an opportunity to harness the support of people from all sections of Doncaster’s community through its requirement for the Council to set up a local strategic partnership of business, community, voluntary and public sector stakeholders and to create a community strategy which would establish a new vision for the future. Janet was able to:
- Create opportunities for partners to work together positively and to build relationships of trust and mutual confidence.
- Set up a Borough Strategy project team
- Create a consultation framework for the Borough Strategy which made partners and residents feel involved in creating their vision for the future
- Organise the first of Doncaster’s successful Community Conferences, which are now held every year in July
The consultation process gave all stakeholders an opportunity to put forward their views on the place Doncaster should be, and resulted in a Vision, ‘Achieving Our Full Potential’, and seven transformational goals, which have been the key drivers of the strategy and action plan that followed.
As part of the project, Janet also
- Commissioned the Borough’s Local Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy
- Developed an innovative approach to neighbourhood renewal, underpinned by a results-driven performance management framework, which has gained her recognition both regionally and nationally as one of the leading experts in this field.
- Worked closely with the Elected Mayor of Doncaster in establishing his neighbourhood management initiative ‘Making a Difference in Your Neighbourhood’
- Developed neighbourhood level planning and community involvement structures which mean that local people can get involved in improving public sector services in their communities.
- Led a best value review of Tackling Deprivation at Neighbourhood Level which was judged by the Audit Commission to be ‘good with promising prospects for improvement’.
Her pioneering work in Doncaster in promoting the concept of a Borough Budget within a Mayoral model of Local Governance and Partnership working, was influential in shaping government policy and helped Doncaster to become one of the original 21 local authorities to pilot the new Local Area Agreements now being implemented nationally.
The Audit Commission has recognised the important roles that the Borough Strategy and the Local Strategic Partnership have played in moving Doncaster into the ‘good’ category in December 2004. Their report said that the Council ‘works well with other agencies through the Doncaster Strategic Partnership. This will be critical in establishing new joint working arrangements under the recently announced Local Area Agreement pilot.’