Slough Borough Council

About us

What is Slough Focus?

Slough Focus is the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) for Slough. LSPs have been set up all over the country. LSPs are non-statutory bodies that bring together local public, private, community and voluntary organisations, generally at the level of district, county and unitary councils.  They work with the local community to identify and tackle key issues such as crime, skills, education, health and housing in a more co-ordinated way.

LSPs work by:

• engaging the local community and others in deciding priorities
• preparing and publishing a community strategy and local area agreement as a result of consultation with the community and partners
• co-ordinating services and plans around agreed objectives
• developing new ways of partnership working to deliver services

Who makes the decisions?

A steering group of senior representatives from the public, private, community and voluntary sectors meets regularly to agree strategy, targets and actions, monitor progress, review resources, resolve issues and oversee progress. Major decisions are taken to the wider assembly meetings for debate. The steering group meets 6 weekly.

How is the partnership held to account?

Existing decision-making bodies, such as the council and Primary Care Trust, hold the Slough Focus accountable for performance and governance and partners are accountable to each other by delivering the agreed actions in the community strategy and local area agreement. Slough Focus is accountable to the public through consultation and the regular reporting of progress through Slough Citizen - the council's newspaper delieverd to.

What are its current priorities?

These are being agreed for the forthcoming year at a summit which will be held in May.  

What resources does Slough Focus have?

Slough Focus is currently supported by Slough Borough Council who leads on key projects and makes sure it runs effectively. Thames Valley Police have given a financial contribution to the partnership which is the budget for any partnership activity. Other partners make a direct contribution of resources in different ways – for example, the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service are contributing by developing an electronic performance management system for the local area agreement. Partners have recently agreed to jointly fund an LSP Manager.

How does it make a difference?

Slough Focus works closely with the key partnerships that are responsible for achieving the targets set out in the community strategy and local area agreement. These cover the children and young people, older people, health, crime and safety, the environment, skills and the economy and other issues.