Objectives and Role

The objective of the Forum is to 'promote the economic regeneration and well being of the County's rural areas'. It does this through a range of actions including:

1. The preparation of a strategic action plan for the regeneration of the County's economy.

2. Exchanging information on rural regeneration issues and activities, including best practice.

3. Promoting the rural economic 'agenda', through publications, PR, conferences, seminars and a web site.

4. Monitoring strategies and plans to ensure that rural economic regeneration issues are fully addressed.

5. Commissioning research and intelligence gathering.

6. Commissioning and delivering projects.

7. Managing the rural project co-ordinator, their activities and budgets.

8. Submitting bids relating to rural economic regeneration.

9. Networking with other groups involved in rural economic regeneration including the North and Southern Staffordshire Partnerships.

Strategic Action Plan

The first task of the Forum was to prepare a Strategic Action Plan to guide the work of the Forum and to help in co-ordinating the work of local partners. The preparation of the action plan was divided into three phases.

Phase I: Audit

Phase I was an audit of existing services, initiatives and actions that were being undertaken by partners to regenerate the County's rural areas. The audit was divided into eleven topic areas, set within the context of the four pillars of the regional economic strategy. The audit was carried out in March 2002.

Phase II: Workshops

A series of eleven workshops were held during May 2002 around the themes identified in the Audit. The purpose of the workshops was to draw on the experience and skills of all members of the Forum, and of the wider partnership, in developing the Strategic Action Plan. A separate report has been prepared recording all the comments, ideas and proposals suggested at the workshops.

Phase III: Strategic Action Plan

The third phase has been the preparation of the Strategic Action Plan, identifying the key actions which the Forum wishes to promote.

The action plan draws heavily on the proposals developed through the workshops, and also upon the findings of a research project carried out by the Centre for Economic and Social Regeneration at Staffordshire University. The project entitled 'Rural Tourism Futures' looked at the needs of small rural businesses.

Consultation

In July 2002, a draft strategic action plan was prepared, and circulated widely across the county for comment. Following this consultation exercise, the plan was revised, and presented to the Staffordshire Rural Economic Forum Quarterly Meeting in October 2002.

Context

The action plan has been prepared within the context of strategic economic regeneration strategies at regional and sub regional level.

Regional Economic Strategy. The Regional Economy Strategy 'Creating Advantage' was prepared by Advantage West Midlands in October 1999. This was supplemented by a detailed action plan; 'Agenda for Action', which has recently been rolled forward to 2004. The strategy identifies four 'pillars' or broad objectives; developing a diverse and dynamic business base, promoting a learning and skilful region, creating the conditions for growth, and regenerating communities in the West Midlands. This rural action plan for Staffordshire contains seven priority actions which address each of these four pillars, and many of the detailed actions in the Agenda for Action. This relationship is summarised in Section 2. At a regional level, the strategy also takes into account the West Midlands Rural Accord.

Southern Staffordshire Now! In April 2002, the Southern Staffordshire Partnership, launched their economic regeneration strategy for Staffordshire, 'Southern Staffordshire Now!'. This strategy identified ten priority actions, also framed within the four pillars of the regional Economic Strategy. In some cases, both this strategic rural action plan, and Southern Staffordshire Now! have common actions. This is particularly so in cluster development where both strategies have identified Tourism and Food as high priority actions. Where this is the case, a common project manager has been identified to ensure effective co-ordination between the two strategies and partnerships. In addition, a number of other mechanisms are being put in place to ensure effective co-ordination, including, for example, a food sector steering group.

North Staffordshire Partnership. This action plan has also been prepared within the context of the various initiatives taking place in North Staffordshire, particularly those set out in the Regeneration Zone Implementation plan. A new North Staffordshire wide strategy is currently being prepared by consultants, SQW, which should be completed by December. It is important that the actions proposed in this plan are co-ordinated with those emerging in the North Staffordshire wide strategy.

Other Strategies. The strategic action plan has also taken account of a number of other strategic and local strategies and action plans which aim to contribute to regenerating the County's rural economy.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Progress against the actions set out in the plan will be monitored and reviewed at the quarterly meetings of the Forum. An annual report setting out progress towards all the actions in the plan will be considered at the Forum's annual meeting.