The Mid Bedfordshire Community Plan was launched back in December 2003. The Plan addresses local community concerns and issues, which led to a set of actions to improve the quality of life for residents. The Plan was developed and produced based on feedback and input provided by the District Council, Police, Primary Care Trust, individuals and organisations representing the Community and Voluntary Sector and private business, who together are the Mid Bedfordshire Local Strategic Partnership. Steered by the district council, the content of the Plan was also guided by the responses received by our community members and what they told us what mattered most to them.

Four years on, many things have been put in place and/or changed, so the time was right for the Community Plan to be updated, refreshed and refocused , to ensure that it reflects current thoughts and priorities. In doing so, we can prepare ourselves for the future, enabling us to respond to the challenges of population change, housing demand, health issues, education and training, jobs and our leisure time. The consultation ('What Matters Most to You in Mid Beds') has now ended and your views will now inform future plans for the District.

A Local Strategic Partnership came into being on 6th June 2002, with the creation of Mid Beds Local Strategic Partnership (Mid Beds LSP). This partnership aims to bring all existing plans for local Services together and to get as much agreement as possible to create a plan for the District, known as either a Community Strategy or Community Plan. The LSP Steering Group includes people representing Public Services (Mid Beds District Council, Beds County Council & Heartlands Primary Care Trust etc), Local Businesses and Voluntary/Community Groups (e.g. CVS - Mid & North Beds). The LSP will do two things - plan existing services better and set out a vision for the future. 

You can find out more about Mid Beds LSP from their latest newsletter, which can be downloaded:

Mid Beds LSP Newsletter (PDF File)

Mid Bedfordshire Community Plan

The input of the voluntary sector and their volunteers has been vital in creation of the Districts First Community Plan & the subsequent action plans. There was considerable consultation, throughout  2003 and the plan was published in December 2003. Actions for the Medium to Long term were published in 2006.

You can download copies of the current Mid Beds Community Plan & associated Action Plan:

Mid Beds Community Plan (PDF File)

Mid Beds Community Plan - Action Plan 2006 - 2011 (PDF File)

The above documents have been produced as Adobe Acrobat portable format documents (pdf) which requires you to have the free Acrobat software on your computer.  If you do not have the necessary software, please click here to go to the Adobe website where you can download it. To download the documents – simply hold your cursor over the name of the document (above), click the right button on your mouse and then choose ‘save target as’, and choose where you want to save the file on your hard drive (usually 'My Documents'.

What are Local Strategic Partnerships?

• They are Non-Statutory Bodies (which means that the Government does not require each Local Authority to develop a LSP), which brings together Public, Private, Business, Community and Voluntary Sectors. Therefore they could include County and District Councils, Parish & Town Council’s, Community Liaison Forums, Primary Care Trusts, Police Authorities, Education Authorities, Chambers of Trade, Councils for Voluntary Service or Rural Communities Charities.
• They can take strategic decisions
• They are aligned to Local Authority Boundaries.

Why do we need them?

• To improve the quality of life for local communities and this is best achieved when local organisations and people work together.
• So existing partnerships and initiatives are rationalized.
• So service delivery has a local dimension.

What do they do?

• They develop and implement Community Strategies or Plans. Whereas, the Government places no statutory obligation that an LSP should be formed it does require each local authority to develop and implement a Community Strategy under the Local Government Act 2000.
• To take forward Local Public Service Agreements  (LPSA’s), where appropriate.
• To co-ordinate Neighbourhood Regeneration Funding (NRF), in the 83 designated NRF areas of greatest deprivation.

 The Issues that LSP’s face: -

• Difficulties in engaging with community, voluntary and business sectors.
• Difficulties in providing an adequate level of resource to manage and co-ordinate the LSP, particularly in the case of small areas.
• Creating an LSP that is a manageable size to do business, but includes representation from all key partners.
• Getting existing partnerships to recognise the LSP as the overarching partnership.
• Dealing with partners who have boundaries that are not completely co-terminus with the LSP’s (e.g. PCT’s).
• Managing two tier LSP arrangements with separate District and County LSP’s.
• Dealing with partners who will find it difficult to provide senior level representation to all LSP’s in their area.
• Identifying clear priorities for action that have the support of all partners.
• The accountability of the LSP.
• The perception that LSP’s will be seen as yet another level of bureaucracy and another unnecessary layer of government, that bypasses elected representation in a particular area.