The Integrated Regional Strategy

The Integrated Regional Strategy Just Connect!, was launched by the Regional Assembly in November 2004.  Just Connect! encourages individuals, organisations and partnerships across the South West to work together to address the regions five key agreed aims.

A website dedicated to Just Connect!and its delivery, www.justconnect-sw.co.uk, “went live” in October 2006.

It provides a suite of information to help deliver the aims and objectives of Just Connect!

By helping organisations and partnerships to know more about each other, what they do and how they work together, www.justconnect-sw.co.uk can identify and assist in developing integrated working and solutions. The website provides users with the opportunity to explore information on:

• A Compendium Regional strategies, including an analysis of their content against the aims and objectives of Just Connect!
• Regional partnership groups and organisations operating in the region.
• Regional commitments from a number of regional organisations toward joined-up working with others.
• Regional evidence, telling “the story so far” of how the region is performing against the aims and objectives of Just Connect!
• Future areas of work for improving the integration of strategies, action and cross-sector working.

For more information on the development of the Integrated Regional Strategy click here.

The Future of the Integrated Regional Strategy (IRS)

January 2008

The Integrated Regional Strategy (IRS) has been a significant achievement for the South West region and the Regional Assembly, having for the first time built a strong regional consensus on the long-term strategic aims and objectives for the South West and has provided a solid backbone for regional policy making. The IRS reflected the fact that the Regional Assembly was becoming a mature policy-making body achieving consensus amongst all the Region's major organisations on what matters most in the South West.

The Government's Sub-National Review of Economic Development and Regeneration proposes that a new Regional Strategy will merge the Regional Economic Strategy and the Regional Spatial Strategy. In effect it will replace the IRS also.

As a consequence of this national policy change, the Regional Assembly will not be undertaking any major new work related to the implementation and delivery of the IRS during the transitional period to 2010, with the exception of:

• Ensuring essential maintenance of the existing IRS website www.justconnect-sw.co.uk, a useful resource directory on South West organisations, partnerships and strategies. Information updates will be dependent upon the requests of individual site users
• Publishing a 2007 IRS Progress Report, which monitors the extent to which the region is making progress towards realising widely agreed IRS aims and key objectives albeit there is no intention to publish further after this year

Looking forward, there is also clearly an opportunity to utilise the work done to date and experience gained through the development and delivery of the IRS, to help respond to SNR and in particular to the influence the forthcoming consultation on the new Regional Strategy (anticipated in January/February 2008).  This process should build on the IRS and lessons learnt from its development.

download the Integrated Regional Strategy