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The Rural Services Partnership is being established in recognition of the need for a national body to represent concerns and issues surrounding the provision of rural services in England. It is a truly cross-service organisation, independent from government and represents rural service providers – including health, education, police, social landlords and fire and rescue services. It will work with rural councils, members of the group of local authorities known as SPARSE.
Our work is being sponsored by the Government body the Commission for Rural Communities and supported by the Government Department primarily involved with Rural Issues, DEFRA. We seek a minimum of six but preferably up to twelve organisations from each of some twenty identified service areas.
With this membership profile, the Partnership will truly reflect cross service and cross area views. We will also involve some twenty five national bodies to achieve a really strong body of some two hundred organisations providing rural service provision. This will be a unified service voice for the first time.
On this web site you will find our prospectus allowing service organisations working in rural areas to consider applying for membership of the group; our matrix of members currently in the group; our constitution and intended work programme.
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The most important role of the Rural Services Partnership will be to provide a common voice which focuses issues from individual service providers, joins them together in a strong, common cause, and then promotes a general, cross-service case for adequate resources to be devoted to rural service provision. The group will also seek to promote best practice.
The Rural Services Partnership will research and comment on issues that concern most organisations who serve rural areas. Some of the key questions addressed by the Partnership are:
• Is the fact that service delivery is more expensive to undertake in rural areas than elsewhere adequately reflected in funding formulae?
• How much percentage wise is that additional cost likely to be?
• How does service in rural areas suffer as a result or have to be subsidised by other activities of the service provider?
• How could that position be ameliorated?
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