New Deal for Communities: Where next for Neighbourhood Renewal?

1
New Deal for Communities Where next for
Neighbourhood Renewal?

• Identifying overcoming barriers

2
Evaluating the NDCs

• National evaluation programme
• NRU 4 Year programme
• Sheffield Hallam University and 16 other
  organisations
• Over 100 personnel
• Covering all 39 NDCs
• Methodology
• Household Survey (twice)
• Programme administrative data
• Interviews, policy reviews performance
  assessment
• National Audit Office
• February 2004 report

3
What helps?

• Support from Government Offices and NRU
• Community involvement in priorities and delivery
• Partnership delivery sustained relationships
  with local national partners
• Effective management arrangements
• Service sustainability and mainstreaming

4
What hinders?

• Community involvement leadership
• slow process, uncertain legitimacy, people
  turnover
• Poor operating processes
• governance, financial reporting, project
  appraisal, risk assessment, monitoring, project
  management
• Delivery organisations vulnerability
• Staff instability, skill shortages and HR
  weakness
• Collaboration with mainstream public services
• cuts 2 ways

5
Whats going well?

• Crime
• Police services are supportive
• Demand from community
• Quick wins
• Health
• Lower priority for partnerships
• Institutional change
• Long term impacts
• Education
• LMS but schools always want cash
• Catchment geography

6
Whats going well?

• Labour market
• Many projects developed
• poor connection to wider labour market
  economy
• Patchy engagement with Jobcentre Plus (ES)
• Low levels of LSC involvement
• Environment and housing
• Quick win environmental projects
• Major housing change very complex some debris
  and unclear link to new policies

7
What could be done better?

• Partnerships
• Boards - composition, expertise, turnover, roles
  focus
• Work with accountable bodies other agencies
• Community involvement
• Awareness planning consultation marketing
• Variety of undifferentiated mechanisms
• Representativeness
• BME populations
• NDCs finding the task challenging
• Mainstreaming

8
Whats next?

• Political change
• Nervous about NDCs
• Treasury rules its the economy
• Market management
• Sustainability
• Policy change
• ABIs losing their sparkle
• LSPs assuming area leadership
• New roles for non-statutory organisations
• Regional and sub-regional importance
• Mainstreaming

9
Contacts

• Paul Convery, SQW
• www.sqw.co.uk
• pconvery_at_sqw.co.uk