Succeeding as a place, succeeding as a country
2. Buckinghamshire – able to deliver recovery through our integrated place leadership
Buckinghamshire has robust and effective partnerships and leadership, ready to accelerate UK recovery. We have a unique opportunity with the newest unitary and the most integrated and coterminous county structure in England of the council, public service and business leadership and partnerships.
Buckinghamshire Council was established in April 2020. Moving from a two-tier model to a single unitary authority is a significant achievement and a major challenge for local government in many other parts of England. We now want to develop an integrated economic recovery and public service reform approach to place leadership, achieving better outcomes for residents, reducing health inequalities, driving accelerated growth, and the expediting move to carbon-neutrality.
A key part of transitioning to a unitary authority in Buckinghamshire has been about empowering local communities and neighbourhoods through a double devolution approach. Devolution to local places within Buckinghamshire, underpinned by the principle of subsidiarity, is about passing power down to communities, at the most local level.
The Council is coterminous with the Buckinghamshire LEP, Buckinghamshire Business First, Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and Buckinghamshire CCG. There are also strong partnerships with Buckinghamshire New University, University of Buckingham and Buckinghamshire College Group. Our Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) institutions work closely together through their aligned curriculums and seamless pathways for students, from FE to HE.
Our high-quality institutions have a strong track record of delivery:
Buckinghamshire LEP was graded ‘excellent’ for delivery in the Government’s annual assessment of LEPs in 2020
Representing 13,000 business members and 75% of the county’s private sector workforce, Buckinghamshire Business First secures in excess of £3m annually to support all businesses in the county
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust rated as ‘Good’ and ‘Outstanding for Caring’ by the Care Quality Commission and the CCG ranked 8th nationally for mental health therapy referrals
Buckinghamshire New University is in the top 10 for graduate employability, University of Buckingham ranked 1st for student satisfaction and are pioneers of the two-year degree and Buckinghamshire College Group has been cited as exemplar by the Department for Education for their merger process