Given the recent announcements and budget cuts, Croydon Council has decided to reduce the Local Strategic Partnership’s infrastructure - not sustainable any more in its present format - moving to a new streamlined Croydon Congress structure.
Croydon Congress will give greater emphasis to partners’ core executive functions and enable the Partnership to draw on a wider perspective of ideas and viewpoints across Croydon. Various factors have contributed to this:

• The significant and progressive reduction in public sector spending including withdrawal from some lower priority activities
• An agenda of change focusing on streamlining and dismantling key parts of the state whilst progressively decentralising greater power to local level
• The Comprehensive Spending Review (October 2010) and the subsequent budget settlement for local government (December 2010) confirms many local assumptions around the scale of reduction in future spending.

The process took on board feedback from stakeholder events held in July and December 2010. See these presentations on www.Talk2Croydon.co.uk

One: Rationalisation of the existing partnership structure by 50%
Two: Alignment to statutory requirements e.g. the new Health and Wellbeing responsibilities and democratic accountability i.e. a stronger role for elected Members.
Three: Partnership substructure supported and underpinned by a lead partner, to ensure each theme Partnership secures executive action necessary to progress
Four: Partnership is able to draw on a wider set of local perspectives, to reflect growing significance of key stakeholders (GPs, schools, Registered Social Landlords)
Five: Arrangements to enable Croydon to continue operating in the vanguard of place-based service transformation e.g. national pilot for Community Budgets and progressing Croydon’s Big Society agenda.
Six: Recognise the changing nature of leadership i.e. more dispersed through GP commissioners and head teacher etc. 

Certain statutory components are required: Crime and Disorder, Children and Young People, and Health and Well-being (a new statutory requirement). Croydon Council also wants to keep enterprise in the new Regeneration Partnership Board. This gives us four themed partnerships:

• Safer Croydon Partnership
• Children and Young People Partnership
• Health and Well-Being Partnership (also sport and physical activity)
• Croydon Regeneration Partnership

Certain partnerships will therefore come to an end and/or related activities become embedded where appropriate, within the new framework: Cultural Partnership, Stronger Communities / Cohesion Partnership, Environment and Climate Change Partnership, and Economic Development Partnership.
The Congress will have no decision making powers itself but will provide direction and context to decisions taken elsewhere within the Partnership Framework. The Chief Executives Group will facilitate the effective overall arrangements for the Croydon Partnership, and take executive action where appropriate.