Market Drayton and Rural Parishes Community Covenant
Community-led
For everyone
Health
Wellbeing
Join us to form Shropshire's first community covenant and a national pilot. An authentic power-sharing agreement that will see us work collaboratively with Shropshire Council and our community to make decisions. Decided by us, for us!
This exciting pilot project will be shared with Westminster (through the 'We're Right Here' campaign) - helping to prove the case for devolving more power to the groups and organisations who know our communities best.
Register your interest in updates below.
How will this work?
Well, that will be up to us. By registering your interest, you are volunteering to be one of the partner organisations of this new covenant (power-sharing agreement between the community and Shropshire Council).
Since our first meeting in December 2024 we have been joined by 20 community organisations and Parish/Town Councils to form the Market Drayton and Rural Parishes Community Covenant. We will now work collaboratively with Shropshire Council at a neighbourhood-level to share power and make decisions that are rooted in our community and enhance and improve the lives of the people of Market Drayton and its rural parishes.
The first decision that this group has to make is how and where a new Community and Family Hub will be set up within the town. This will involve decisions not just on location, but also in what this Hub offers our community and how it will satisfy our needs.
Earn Trust
Does your organisation earn and maintain the trust of the community or a sector of it?
Work Proactively
Do you work proactively to listen and engage with your community?
Support Our Community
Do you work to support everyone in your representative community to participate in on-going decisions and activities in an inclusive manner?
Local Interests at the Heart
Does your group/organisation make decisions that support the interests of local people rather than the organisation alone?
The first decision - A Community and Family Hub
The community and family hubs are a key part of the Shropshire Council's transformation programme and also part of Shropshire Integrated Place Partnership's Neighbourhood approach. Their overall aim is to create Happy, Healthier and more Connected Rural Communities, taking a more proactive approach to healthcare that builds resilience within our communities - providing help before we get to crisis point.
The focus is taking an integrated approach to delivering services closer to peoples' homes, in local communities, working across health (NHS),care, council services and the voluntary and community sector. The hubs will be there to offer face-to-face assistance and supporting people to help themselves through the digital and other community offers.
Community and Family Hubs are for all-ages, providing a single access point - a 'front door' - to universal services for families with children of all ages (0-19) or up to 25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with a Start for Life offer at their core.
Beyond Children and Families, the hubs aim to support adults and older people to access the support and activities they need to keep themselves as well as possible, including being able to connect with preventative health services, carer support and other social support.
Hubs provide services and professionals with a shared space to make it easier for people of all ages to access the services they need, and these include physical locations, but also outreach support. There are currently 5 hubs (and one health and wellbeing centre) across Shropshire delivering services to the community, the next phase of the project will be to develop hub spokes (or mini-hubs) in areas of the county dependent on identified needs (for example, work underway with Shropshire Community Health Trust to develop a spoke in Bishop's Castle).
How this looks in Market Drayton will be decided by us.
Shropshire Council have agreed to devolve this decision to us - they are excited about it too. They are trusting us to come together to help make the best decision for us all.
It is important, to be part of the Market Drayton covenant, you need to be able to fulfil the following criteria as a group or organisation (not an individual). If this is you, then please register your interest, we would love to hear from you:
Earn Trust
Does your organisation earn and maintain the trust of the community or a sector of it?
Work Proactively
Do you work proactively to listen and engage with your community?
Support Our Community
Do you work to support everyone in your representative community to participate in on-going decisions and activities in an inclusive manner?
Local Interests at the Heart
Does your group/organisation make decisions that support the interests of local people rather than the organisation alone?
Why is Fordhall involved?
Through the Fordhall Community Land Initiative (the charitable Community Benefit Society that owns Fordhall Organic Farm), Charlotte Hollins has been working on a national campaign for a Community Power Act. Supported by a further seven community leaders and eight sector organisations across the country, this campaign celebrated its first win this year, when the 'Community Right to Buy' was announced in the King's Speech.
The campaign group is now working with Westminster and civil servants to ensure as much devolved power as possible is brought into the new English Devolution Bill, and we are excited to say that Market Drayton's Community Covenant pilot will feed into this policy work.
For more information on this campaign, visit the 'We're Right Here' website www.right-here.org
For more information or any questions, please contact Charlotte via
charlotte.hollins@fordhallfarm.com or 01630638696