The preparation process will be the means by which local people and organisations can be drawn into democratic decision-making. It will be vital to ensure wide local ownership of the community planning process, which should therefore be predominantly 'bottom up' rather than 'top down'. Community strategies must give local people a powerful voice in planning local approaches to economic, social and environmental well-being and in holding core public services and local politicians to account. The key to an effective community strategy will, therefore, be successful partnership working and community involvement throughout the process. At every stage, all councillors will have important roles to play.
Local authorities can, and do, achieve a great deal on behalf of their communities.
However, only by working together with other public, private, business and voluntary bodies will it be possible to deliver the broad range of outcomes encompassed by community strategies. All councils and their partners will have some experience of working together. In developing local strategic partnerships, councils and their partners should seek to build on those local arrangements that have worked well, rather than starting from scratch. Many local partnerships have already been set up to fulfil specific objectives. In recent years, broader partnerships have been established, such as crime and disorder partnerships, health communities contributing to Health Improvement Programmes, New Commitment to Regeneration Pathfinders and partnerships for Local Biodiversity Action Plans.