About New Ways

New Ways is the Scottish Borders approach to Community Planning, as specified under the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003. The Council has the duty to initiate, facilitate and maintain the process but other bodies such as NHS Boards, Scottish Enterprise, Fire Boards, Police Boards and Chief Constables also have a duty to participate. We have not only established close working practices with these agencies, but we have brought in other vital partners such as Borders College, VisitScotland, and the Voluntary Sector, with whom we have established a Compact agreement (Download PDF)

New Ways encourages joint working and community engagement to ensure a sustainable, prosperous Scottish Borders, supported by first-class public services. A Borders Strategic Board was formed in July 2008 and is chaired independently by Mr Dave McDougall. The focus of the Board is the Single Outcome Agreement, formally signed by John Swinney on 25th August 2009.

Supporting this board are 3 themes:

• Competitive Borders
• Healthy Borders
• Strong and Safe Borders

...as well as a cross cutting "Fairer Borders" theme.

What are the themes all about?