Development of the East of England Delivery Plan for Sustainable Farming and Food was led by a partnership of public and private sector organisations that included representatives from the food and farming industries.
Consultation with stakeholders throughout the region identified priorities for the sector and lead partners took on responsibility for delivery in key action areas. In this way the plan focused on delivering solutions through partnerships, with lead partners communicating the benefits of working jointly within the plan to individuals, businesses and communities in the East of England.
While this process was being carried out, the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) were simultaneously developing a Strategy for the Food and Drink Industry in the East of England (FDIS), following extensive and detailed industry, stakeholder and partner consultation. This set out a vision of enhanced competitiveness and sustainability for the industry.
An integrated action plan was produced in March 2006, to progress the agendas set out in these two complementary processes. To support this action plan, EEDA approved a three year programme of funding for the sector. This includes £5m for Food and Rural Economy Development (FRED). FRED was designed to cover a wide range of issues, including International Agri Food development, Regional Food, Business Skills, Specialist Business Support, Environmental Sustainability, Rural Entrepreneurship and Communications.
To drive this programme forward, Marie Francis was appointed as the Regional Food and Farming Champion on 1 September 2006. Marie’s first task was to restructure the existing SFFS Steering Group to ensure a greater industry focus. An Industry Group has been set up to raise issues affecting the sector, and to suggest ways to overcome the problems facing businesses. To take these further, an Implementation Group meets, formed of the main partners in the region, who are able to make things happen.
In parallel with these sector specific initiatives, EEDA and its regional partners have developed a regional infrastructure for skills and business support. The cross sector East of England Skills and Competitiveness Partnership (EESCP) will co-ordinate public sector engagement and funding. It will be essential that all industry sectors (farming, food and drink) ensure that their particular needs are fully understood and addressed by the EESCP.
Development of the joint action plan has, together with the efforts of partners, galvanised action in some key areas. Of particular note was the extra focus given to public sector food procurement across the region and the linked work with schools on educational opportunities, diet awareness, healthy eating and reconnection, including Department of Health's 5-a-day programme. The Year of Food and Farming, running for the academic year 2007-08 has been designed to concentrate effort to educate schools and the wider public about the importance of food production to health and to the landscape and environment.
The main benefit has been promotion of joint working between partners to clear shared objectives - making best use of the limited funding and resources to make a difference in our priority areas for action. In addition to the schools work, there have been some excellent initiatives to develop shared understanding, objectives and initiatives with the key regional players to address skills needs and low aspiration issues in rural areas.
