Welfare reform on the Web (January 2007): Community regeneration and development - UK

Assessing the participatory potential of Britain’s New Deal for Communities: opportunities for, and constraints to, bottom-up community participation

J.S.F. Wright and others

Policy Studies, vol.27, 2006, p.347-361

The National Evaluation Team for Britain’s New Deal for Communities (NDC) reports serious difficulties in involving local communities in the programme. Partnerships rely on a relatively small number of community participants. Many who do participate soon suffer burnout, and where small groups do sustain their involvement, they inhibit other potential “joiners” from accessing the programme. This article assesses the NDC’s potential as a site for bottom-up community participation by reviewing government policy guidance, programme notes and strategy documents. It concludes that if the NDC is a community-led programme at all, it is community-led in the sense that government decides how the community will be involved, why they will be involved, what they will do, and how they will do it.

The future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration: interim report

Cabinet Office [and] HM Treasury

London: 2006

Government wishes to work to strengthen the relationship between the state and the voluntary sector in five key areas: Government wants:

• The voluntary sector’s voice to be heard more loudly over the coming years
• Its role in the delivery of public services to increase
• The sector to help build strong and active communities by reaching out to, engaging with, and providing support, for people who find themselves isolated and alone
• To create dynamic and sustainable social enterprises, contributing to a stronger economy and a fairer society
• To create an environment in which organisations are empowered to achieve these changes

The role of the local authority: best practice in community cohesion

T. Piggott

Race Equality Teaching, vol.25, Autumn 2006, p.20-24

Rochdale council is one of seven in England that has achieved Beacon Status for community cohesion. This article sets out examples of good practice in the borough, including funding for English as an additional language programmes, promotion of parental involvement in their children’s education and of school-community links generally, the creation of a Multi-Agency Racial Harassment Forum, and investment in consultation of children and young people.

The role of the voluntary sector in community cohesion

J. Hawes

Race Equality Teaching, vol.25, Autumn 2006, p.33-35

This article looks at the contribution made by Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) services to community cohesion, focusing on Stoke-on-Trent as a case study. Stoke-on-Trent CAB has sought to promote community cohesion by recruiting a diverse workforce, engaging in outreach work with the most marginalised groups, and working in partnership with statutory services.

Strong and prosperous communities: the local government white paper

Department for Communities and Local Government

London: TSO, 2006 (Cm 6939)

The aim of this White Paper is to give local people and local communities more influence and power to improve their lives. It is about creating strong, prosperous communities and delivering better public services through a rebalancing of the relationship between central government, local government and local people.
The substantive chapters cover:

• responsive services and empowered communities – including a ‘community call for action’ across local public services, a duty for councils to consult, and enabling a community to manage and own its assets
• effective, accountable and responsible local government – enabling structural reform in shires, all-out council elections and single-member wards
• strong cities and strategic regions – including devolving greater powers to city regions with elected mayors
• local government as strategic leader and place-shaper – including a duty for Local Area Agreement (LAA) partners to cooperate
• a new performance framework - Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA)’ to be introduced from 2009
• efficiency in transforming local services – enabling services to be designed around the user
• community cohesion – encouraging a clear focus on this in places that face cohesion challenges.