The Rotherham Partnership is the accredited Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) for Rotherham. The Government has described the LSP as “a single non-statutory, multi-agency body” which brings “together at a local level” the “public, private, community and voluntary sectors”.

The Government believes that LSPs “are key to tackling deep seated, multi-faceted problems, requiring a range of responses from different bodies” and that “local partners working through a LSP will be expected to take many of the major decisions about priorities for their local area”.

In the future, the LSP will be an important mechanism for promoting further collaboration and partnership, such as through Local Area Agreements (LAAs). The idea of LAAs could be seen as a natural extension of the LSP concept, moving towards further integration of public services.