The broad horizon of community council interests spans city and local place, space, amenity and wellbeing. On the latter two counts, in particular, we should recognise the powerful work conducted, largely behind the scenes, by the Edinburgh Partnership (EP). Anchored by the CEC Community Planning Management Group and chaired by the City of Edinburgh Council, the EP is the Community Planning Partnership (CPP) for Edinburgh City. It’s a statutory obligation of the Local Authority to have a body like this in place.
The EP’s wide array of members includes NHS Lothian, Police Scotland, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Edinburgh Integration Joint Board, Scottish Enterprise, the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations Council, Edinburgh Affordable Housing Partnership, Skills Development Scotland, and many others. Edinburgh Association of Community Councils has a representative place.
The EP anchors the process by which public bodies work with local communities to plan, resource and provide services to improve the quality of people’s lives, and to reduce the outcome gap for those experiencing the greatest inequality.The EP mission is that Edinburgh should be a ‘thriving, connected, inspired and fair city, where all forms of poverty and inequality are reduced’. The EP works across the full spectrum of 'life in the city’ and the wide demographic spread of the city’s residents. A huge commitment goes into this work on the part of core EP members.
As a Community Planning Partnership, the EP is required to publish a Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP), a framework for EP’s priorities and the delivery of its mission. The LOIP is supplemented by a small number of Locality Plans targeted to areas of greatest disadvantage in the city. The Community Planning Management Group draws in the work of seven Strategic Partnerships focused on particular elements of LOIP delivery.
The current EP Local Outcomes Improvement Plan 2018-2028 has been kept up to date with a 2026 ‘refresh’, reviewing best practice, partner commitments and community engagement outcomes. It holds to the original three partnership priority outcomes – Enough money to live on; Access to work, learning and training opportunities; A good place to live.
Work on the next Community Plan (LOIP) will begin now, designed from the ground up, in the face of new challenges to communities and to city life from some fundamental shifts in the social, economic and environmental landscape.
As a community councillor or as an interested city resident, it’s worth taking a quick look at what the Edinburgh Partnership does and what it tries to achieve. A lot of effort goes in here for the benefit of the common good. We should be more aware of it.
https://www.edinburghpartnership.scot/
https://www.edinburghpartnership.scot/downloads/file/288/10-june-2026