The Strategic Priorities for the Five Lamps Organisations for 2007/10 are:

Growing our four division business model:

   1. Guidance, Employability and Learning.
   2. Finance & Enterprise.
   3. Young People.
   4. Health & Community

This priority reflects the strength of the re-branded organisation, our mission, vision and values, our widening geographical coverage and our ability to blend services to provide enhanced support to our clients and beneficiaries. It also recognises our organisation- wide commitment to service quality, continuous improvement and the personal and professional development of our staff.

Winning Contracts

Five Lamps has made strong progress towards a contract-based service portfolio. Grant funding remains important for the market, product testing, for innovation and will always be a key element of our revenue base. We are seeking increased access to mainstream commissioning and service procurement opportunities. Our contacts may be main or sub-contracts, recognising the trend towards fewer, bigger contracts and prime or lead providers operating at regional or sub-regional level.

Growing our Asset Base

Building on the 2006 White Paper (Strong & Prosperous Communities) and the Quirk Review of Community Management and Ownership of Assets (Making Assets Work), it is clear that the long term success of the Five Lamps will be predicated on our ability to create new revenue-generating assets and our subsequent capacity to finance investment from our own stronger balance sheet.

Building Effective Partnerships

For a number of years Five Lamps has promoted the highest standards of partnership working at the local, regional and sub- regional level. In the furtherance of our strategic direction, we will build on our current partnerships and seek to establish new ones which are emerging from the modernisation of public services and the strongly supportive public policy context.

Measuring Social and Economic Impact

Social accounting and impact assessment will become a key determinant of the Five Lamps organisational success by 2010. Five Lamps has positively transformed thousand of lives through our broad range of services, yet we can only demonstrate these numerically and anecdotally. We will develop a structured approach to social impact assessment, seeking to demonstrate a social return on investment across our service portfolio.

Building Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) Capacity and Infrastructure

Five Lamps has positioned itself carefully as a model for a new type of voluntary and community sector infrastructure organisation in Stockton- on- Tees. During the period to 2010, we will continue to develop this role.