Community Strategy Consultation

The priorities outlined below were drafted following widespread consultation. In Autumn 2004, we commissioned MORI to undertake a major survey of local people to ask about quality of life issues and future priorities for the county.

We also made sure we had as accurate a picture as possible of people's priorities in other ways; in November 2004 we held a visioning conference where our partners and local people discussed what they wanted to see happen in their communities over the next few years. We also talked to targeted groups of people around the county, contacting young children though the play development service, young people through the youth forums and parliament, and older people through the Nottinghamshire Older People's Advisory Group (www.ageconcernnotts.org.uk/volunteeringopportunities). We also held specific events to contact 'hard to reach groups' including disabled people and black and minority ethnic groups to find out what issues they felt should be addressed.

Through the efforts of the newly formed consultation practitioners forum (www.nottinghamshirepartnership.org.uk/consultationpractitionersforum), partners have also begun to learn more about the needs of specific groups of people to ensure that views on services or needs are shared and that all organisations have a more detailed understanding of the opinions of specific groups of people or specific services.

All this, together with partners' views and recent research into the state of the county and its communities, shaped the priorities in this strategy, which are:

• safer and stronger; making Nottinghamshire safer, building a strong sense of community and enriching lives
• healthier; improving health and wellbeing
• learning and earning; helping everyone to reach their potential
• cleaner and greener; protecting and improving the environment
• travel and access; travelling easily and safely and being able to access all the services people need.

The first round of consultation on the draft strategy suggests there is general support for these priorities.

The priorities section expands on the above and raises questions about what we need to do to address them.