Introducing the City Plan | Dundee City Council

Dundee is a dynamic, modern city undergoing the biggest change in its fortunes since the opening of the Tay Road Bridge. A thriving port, a hub for creative industries, media and life sciences, a UNESCO City of Design committed to fairness and social justice, Dundee is determined to succeed. Each day the V&A Dundee reveals more of its breathtaking ambition and Dundee as a whole looks to match this transformation for everyone who lives, works or visits the city.

This is just the latest example of the work that has taken place to breathe new life into Dundee through the collective efforts of our communities, private, public and third sector partners working together through the Dundee Partnership.

Partnership working has long been the norm in Dundee. It is what lets us drive progress in the city, and with our neighbours across the region, to improve the quality of life for our people. In doing this, we are also making a significant contribution to the Scottish Government’s national priorities of creating inclusive growth and reducing inequalities.

A) Our Vision for Dundee

The Dundee Partnership shared a common vision in the City Plan 2017-2026. This has been updated to reflect the current language but remains built around creating jobs, social inclusion and the greener quality of life in the city. It reflects the consensus in the city which we can all work towards and is set out as follows:

Dundee will:

be a caring city which has tackled the root causes of poverty and delivered fairness in incomes, education and health;
have a strong, smart and sustainable city economy with jobs and opportunities for all;
be a greener city, made up of strong communities where people feel empowered, safe and proud to live.

B) What are we going to do?

Our City Plan is Dundee’s Local Outcome Improvement Plan. Through this plan, the Dundee Partnership identifies the biggest strategic priorities, opportunities and challenges ahead as we improve the city over the next ten years. We are not trying to describe everything the partners do together but are concentrating on the actions we can take that will have the biggest impact on our people and places.

The plan focuses on our strategic priorities - Reducing Poverty & Inequality, Tackling Climate Change, and Delivering Inclusive Economic Growth - and tells you about the main actions we will be taking over the next few years to move forward. The Plan includes targets that are ambitious but realistic when set in the demanding financial and social context we face.

We are also keen to develop ever closer relationships with our communities. We will do this by continuing to emphasise the distinctive needs of our different neighbourhoods and by working with our Local Community Planning Partnerships to plan for and deliver safer and stronger localities and communities. How we have engaged with communities to listen to their views and plan for the future is summarised on page 17 of the Plan.

C) Strategic Priorities

This plan builds on a series of Dundee Strategic Priorities which reflect and contribute to the national ambitions for Scotland. We welcome the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 and its advice to Community Planning Partnerships to focus on key priorities. We have met the expectations to:

Use our understanding of local needs, circumstances and opportunities to establish a clear and ambitious vision for Dundee and identify local priorities for improvement
Be clear about the improvements we will make locally in terms of better outcomes for specific communities, reducing the gap in outcomes between the most and least deprived groups and improving long term sustainability of public service provision
Place a clear emphasis on identifying local priorities which focus on how we will add most value as a partnership to improve outcomes and tackle inequalities.

This Plan contains the biggest priorities for the Partnership over the next ten years, but they are only a fraction of the extensive work taking place to improve the lives of people in the city. The Dundee Partnership represents a complex and comprehensive range of partnerships, networks and strategies which tackle particular issues affecting us all.

There isn’t space in this plan to repeat all of the detail of this work. Instead, throughout the Plan, we provide links to the various local and regional plans and strategies that give you the big picture and allow you to delve more deeply into the efforts of all our partners. It is the additional work undertaken between and across all of these themes that creates the full breadth and power of the whole partnership. The following diagram shows the main strategic documents that the City Plan builds on and the lead partners that actions involve and connect to.

Shows how the City Plan links to many of the other strategic documents and partners in the city.

D) Fairness

As one of the three Strategic Priorities, the city’s determination to tackle poverty and inequality underpins the whole Plan. To help with this, the Dundee Fairness Leadership Panel was set up in 2021. The group brings together an equal number of people who have personal experience of poverty and senior civic, political and business leaders in Dundee.

The Panel will develop a shared understanding and make proposals around key areas of anti-poverty work identified through their experience and knowledge. The process is being facilitated by Faith in Community Dundee, in partnership with Dundee City Council and the Social Justice and Regeneration Division of the Scottish Government.

E) Central Roles for the Third and Private Sectors

Third Sector

The Dundee Third Sector Interface (TSI) is a partnership between Dundee Social Enterprise Network, and Dundee Volunteer & Voluntary Action and is recognised as an equal partner in the delivery of the City Plan. The Third Sector in Dundee employs over 2,600 people and spends almost £130 million each year.

Dundee TSI’s key priorities are to develop and support social enterprises and voluntary organisations and to promote and support volunteering. It aims to provide a coherent and collective voice for the Third Sector by strengthening engagement with community planning partners.

The TSI increases the Third Sector’s input in key areas of public policy in the city and impact on the delivery of public services by engaging with third sector organisations, community groups and citizens in Dundee. When communities are at the heart of local decisions, their needs can be better addressed. The Dundee Partnership recognises the Third Sector as full partners, sharing in the decision making and provision which delivers local outcomes.

The Dundee TSI influences partners’ decisions with the views and contributions of the Third Sector in order to meet wider community needs across a range of topics including; health and social care, early years provision, community transport, community safety and other areas of work determined locally or by national policy priority.

This is demonstrated by TSI staff co-chairing strategic planning groups in Health & Social Care, staff commissioned to work in multi-agency roles such as Learning and Organisational Development, Technology Enabled Care, Respite Care Development, Preventing Under-nutrition, secondment to the Children & Families Team and collaborating on funding applications.

The TSI does not fulfil all of the third sector engagement requirements itself. It increasingly provides a bridge that connects local decisions to the local Third Sector and ensures that the value of increasingly limited public expenditure is focussed on local need.

Private Sector

Strong partnerships have been forged with the private sector in the city over the years. These include joint working and funding partnerships that are enabling us to improve the city and close the inequality gap.

Together we are producing creative and sustainable solutions to some key challenges across the entire community planning agenda. These include developing our biggest tourist attractions; creating businesses and employment and training opportunities; mentoring pupils and working in partnership with schools; delivering holiday programmes and responses to food poverty; and supporting people recovering from substance use or offending behaviour.

Much of this takes place behind the scenes but, although their profile may be lower, the contribution of the private sector partners – often led by the Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce - is significant and crucial.

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