East Durham Area Action Partnership (Aap)

AAPs have been set up to give people in County Durham a greater choice and voice in local affairs. The partnerships allow people to have a say on services in your area. Come along and get involved. https://www. durham. gov. uk /eastdurhamaap

How AAPs work

Each of the 14 AAPs is made up of an area forum and an area board to identify and tackle issues in local communities.
•An area forum: for all-comers to meet twice a year to consider issues such as agreeing priorities for the area and reviewing progress of the partnership board.
•An area board: 21 elected members who will meet at least six times a year to discuss how the AAP is progressing against its action plan, manage spending and work with local partners around service issues. Each board is made up of elected members from organisations such as the county council, town and parish councils, and health, police and fire brigade, community and voluntary groups, and the public.

Each AAP puts plans and actions in place to deliver services where they are needed most and has a budget of £100, 000 for local projects and investments, as well as an administration budget for staffing. This is in addition to a neighbourhood budget which each county councillor has to use for local initiatives, informed by the AAPs.

What do AAPs do?

AAPs contribute to the county council's and County Durham Partnership's vision. The AAPs work around the four themes of:
•Engagement: working with communities to build a dialogue with communities and encourage local people to be involved in planning local services.
•Empowerment: giving people the power to work in partnership with organisations and help them combine their efforts to improve local services.
•Local action: developing an action plan for the AAP, and resolving issues by using AAP funding and the resources of the county council and partner organisations.
•Performance: monitoring and improving public service performance and supporting the AAP and County Durham Partnership to achieve their aims