Portsmouth's Local Strategic Partnership

Portsmouth's Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) is the city's umbrella partnership which brings together representatives from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors.

The LSP's overall aim is to improve the quality of life for people who live, work or visit Portsmouth by delivering outcomes through improved partnership working. After extensive community and stakeholder consultation, the LSP has produced the Vision for Portsmouth 2008 - 2018. The Vision is what the LSP has called its new Sustainable Community Strategy, which replaced the 2004-2009 Community Strategy.

The LSP’s vision for Portsmouth

The vision is for Portsmouth to be “the premier waterfront city with an unrivalled martime heritage – a great place to live, work and visit”.

In order to achieve this, partners will be working toward ten priorities. We want to:

improve opportunity and achievement in education, skills and lifelong learning
make Portsmouth an accessible city, with sustainable and integrated transport
develop Portsmouth as a city of innovation and enterprise, with a strong economy and employment opportunities for all
make Portsmouth a city where everyone feels safe and is safe
make Portsmouth an attractive and sustainable city
deliver affordable, quality housing where people want to live
encourage and enable healthy choices for all and provide appropriate access to health care and support
enhance Portsmouth’s reputation as a city of culture, energy and passion, offering access for all to arts, sports and leisure
celebrate the many diverse and different communities within Portsmouth and work together to create an inclusive city for everyone
protect and support our more vulnerable residents by shaping public services to meet their needs

The details of how partners will deliver against these priorities for Portsmouth is set out in a three-year Local Area Agreement (LAA). This was published in July 2008 as part of the vision for Portsmouth, along with a document explaining more about the LSP’s Vision for each of the ten priorities. Details of our current LAA are available below - real life case studies of how partners are working together to help local people.

Who is on the LSP?

The LSP is a family of partnerships at the top of which sits the Partnership Executive. This board comprises senior representatives from the major public bodies in the city, representatives of businesses in the city, large organisations such as the University and representatives of the voluntary and community sector. It takes overall responsibility for delivery of the Vision for Portsmouth, which is what we called our Sustainable Community Strategy.

The detailed work to oversee delivery of the aspirations in the Vision for Portsmouth and the targets in the LAA is taken forward by a number of lead partnerships. These are the real engine room of the LSP, and are accountable to the Partnership Executive for delivering the agreed outcomes. More information on each of the lead partnerships, can be found in the links below.

Portsmouth Community Network, is the city's umbrella organisation for the voluntary and community sector. We also support other partner organisations, such as the Progress through Partnership programme. This is a regional pilot that will help build the capacity of the LSPs in the south east region to deliver their growing agendas.