The twelve-month High Street Accelerator (HSA) pilot programme tasked 10 locations with forming local place partnerships to address high street issues that they face in a relatively short period of time.
This Best Practice Guide for Partnership Formation & Development aims to help each location meet the pilot programme requirement of forming a local place partnership to oversee investment into projects which address the local challenges facing their high street.
Our work through the High Streets Task Force has demonstrated the vital importance of partnerships in driving forward successful town centre development and high street renewal. A successful place partnership brings local stakeholders together to discuss the development of their place and to work effectively together to ensure that positive place change is delivered upon.
Unfortunately, we have found that not enough high street locations have effective place partnerships established, so we have designed this guide to help you critically analyse your existing approach to partnership working in order to give your High Street Accelerator the greatest chance of success.
Throughout the guide, we have provided a range of useful frameworks to help you:
1.** **Understand the type of partnership you want to establish.
2.** **Map out the organisations and individuals to be involved in your partnership.
3.** **Set out how your partnership will function (Terms of Reference).
4.** **Choose a suitable member of the community, with the right skill set, to act as Chair.
Taking this approach to partnership formation and development will help ensure your partnership is truly representative of the local community and will add value, by delivering improvements that are new and necessary, rather than simply replicating existing activity.
Our work studying effective place partnerships has also identified a series of important key factors that are critical to their successful output. These factors are as follows:
• An effective partnership is driven by local place ambassadors. It should Include individuals who are passionate about the place who act as ambassadors for the town.
• An effective partnership needs to foster and build trust. It should proactively seek to foster a welcoming environment of information exchange, where decisions are made together.
• An effective partnership needs to be organic. It should change its composition to allow important interests/skills/stakeholders to be represented as projects develop.
• An effective partnership delivers impact. It should avoid being a ‘talking shop’ and prioritise actions that deliver tangible, positive changes to the high street.
Finally, this guide provides a series of case studies to provide you with some more detailed information as to how successful place partnerships have formed and performed. Whilst all these partnerships come in different shapes and sizes, what unites them all is their way of working.
Each partnership has taken its time to understand their local assets, from their people to the buildings, and have established well-structured governance systems that are representative of the communities it serves. Partnerships are always evolving, and we would encourage you to continually review the approach you are taking to ensure that it is delivering the very best outcomes for your place.
The twelve-month High Street Accelerator (HSA) pilot programme tasked 10 locations with forming local place partnerships to address high street issues that they face in a relatively short period of time.
This Best Practice Guide for Partnership Formation & Development aims to help each location meet the pilot programme requirement of forming a local place partnership to oversee investment into projects which address the local challenges facing their high street.
Our work through the High Streets Task Force has demonstrated the vital importance of partnerships in driving forward successful town centre development and high street renewal. A successful place partnership brings local stakeholders together to discuss the development of their place and to work effectively together to ensure that positive place change is delivered upon.
Unfortunately, we have found that not enough high street locations have effective place partnerships established, so we have designed this guide to help you critically analyse your existing approach to partnership working in order to give your High Street Accelerator the greatest chance of success.
Throughout the guide, we have provided a range of useful frameworks to help you:
1.** **Understand the type of partnership you want to establish.
2.** **Map out the organisations and individuals to be involved in your partnership.
3.** **Set out how your partnership will function (Terms of Reference).
4.** **Choose a suitable member of the community, with the right skill set, to act as Chair.
Taking this approach to partnership formation and development will help ensure your partnership is truly representative of the local community and will add value, by delivering improvements that are new and necessary, rather than simply replicating existing activity.
Our work studying effective place partnerships has also identified a series of important key factors that are critical to their successful output. These factors are as follows:
• An effective partnership is driven by local place ambassadors. It should Include individuals who are passionate about the place who act as ambassadors for the town.
• An effective partnership needs to foster and build trust. It should proactively seek to foster a welcoming environment of information exchange, where decisions are made together.
• An effective partnership needs to be organic. It should change its composition to allow important interests/skills/stakeholders to be represented as projects develop.
• An effective partnership delivers impact. It should avoid being a ‘talking shop’ and prioritise actions that deliver tangible, positive changes to the high street.
Finally, this guide provides a series of case studies to provide you with some more detailed information as to how successful place partnerships have formed and performed. Whilst all these partnerships come in different shapes and sizes, what unites them all is their way of working.
Each partnership has taken its time to understand their local assets, from their people to the buildings, and have established well-structured governance systems that are representative of the communities it serves. Partnerships are always evolving, and we would encourage you to continually review the approach you are taking to ensure that it is delivering the very best outcomes for your place.
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