Thumbs up for Local Strategic Partnership

Date published: 23 August 2006

"A good, strong Partnership" That was the view of the Government on assessing the work and development of Rochdale Borough's Local Strategic Partnership (The Pride Partnership) this year.

Each year, all Strategic Partnerships across the country go through a rigorous assessment of the strength of the partnership, its impact in a number of key areas, its improvement plans and areas for development. Inspectors look particularly at six themes including the partnership itself, the way it works and its improvement planning:

• Impact on education of our young people;
• Improving the standard of housing;
• Increasing employment levels and tackling unemployment;
• Improving the health of local people;
• Making the Borough safer;
• Improving our local environment

The Chair of the Partnership, Mohammad Naeem said: "This is great news. We are extremely pleased with our Amber/Green rating. It puts a seal of approval on our approach to Partnership working in Rochdale and the impact we are making in key areas in trying to improve the lives and prospects of all Rochdale people, especially those living in our most deprived areas.

"The decision was particularly pleasing because the Government has this year made the process much harder in terms of meeting their criteria. Next year we are aiming for Green which will put us up there with the top LSPs in the country."