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About the Assembly Partners' Support Unit

The Assembly Partners Support Unit (APSU) is funded by the South East England Regional Assembly and managed by RAISE. This programme, initially called Bridging the Gap, has been running since May 2002. The Assembly recently took the decision to move the support unit in house from 31 March 2007. The Assembly now needs to recruit new staff, so to avoid disruption to the stakeholders RAISE has agreed to provide a part time interim service until mid Summer.

The APSU team has continuing contact with the three stakeholder groups on the Assembly ensuring they are fully informed of regional meetings, of events both within the region and nationally and by alerting them to relevant news releases. This helps to increase their engagement and effectiveness as well as their accountability and representation.

The stakeholders are the non-local authority members of the Assembly. These are the 17 Social and Environmental Partners (the SEPs), the 17 Economic Partners (the EPs) and the three Town and Parish Council Assembly members. This latter group represent the largely non-political primary tier of local government. The RAISE voluntary/community sector membership elects seven social representatives to the Regional Assembly. These are part of the 17 SEPs.

The APSU team also work closely with RAISE staff and with Regional Assembly officers.

Why the Assembly Partners' Support Unit

It developed from the realisation that all regional assembly members need to have equal opportunities to engage fully in the wide ranging work of the Assembly. The Regional Assembly has 112 members. Of these, the 75 locally elected councillors have officer support from their county or district councils or from their unitary authority. However, the 37 stakeholders have no such support, especially those members coming from smaller, voluntary/community organisations. They need back up, advice and a good point of contact.

With more equal access to policy help and support, and a better understanding of the policies and procedures governing the Assembly's work, all members are better able to work together to ensure the Assembly achieves its full potential.

Working in Partnership

The Assembly Partners Support Unit (APSU) team are the link between the stakeholders and the Assembly and RAISE. The APSU also plays a vital link between RAISE and the Assembly keeping each in touch with the other organisation's work.

The APSU team provide regular updates to the RAISE staff and produces newsletter articles so that the RAISE membership are made aware of the work of the stakeholders and of the Assembly.

The APSU team regularly work with RAISE policy officers at think tanks. These inform regional opinion. Findings from these sessions are fed-back to the stakeholders and are used to inform responses from the stakeholders to policy documents. The APSU team also facilitate discussion to find common ground between the different stakeholder groups enabling them to better influence regional policy as they are seen as a greater force.

The APSU team are also in frequent contact with the Assembly to ensure that information flows to the stakeholders are relevant, informed and pertinent.