MEA Community Planning Partnership - 3rd Statement of Progress p8
Putting People First in the Wider Strategic Context
Since Putting People First was published in 2017, the strategic and policy context has seen some significant changes, some key aspects of which are noted below.
- The covid pandemic and subsequent recovery plans
- Welfare reform
- New Mental Health Strategy 2021 to 2031
- Belfast Region City Deal
- Draft Skills Strategy for Northern Ireland
- Development of an anti-poverty strategy
- Draft programme for government
- Towards a Programme of Support for Community Planning (the Gallagher Report)
- Embedding a Wellbeing Framework in Northern Ireland, Carnegie Trust UK
It is testament to the foundations of Putting People First that it remains aligned with the wider policy context and priorities.
These new and emerging strategies may add impetus to areas of work the Strategic Alliance was already considering.
Communication and Awareness
It is difficult to challenge the perception that Putting People First is the Council’s plan - as opposed to the plan for the Council area - when so many of the actions are Council-led.
Whilst we understand the origins of this, it is to the detriment of a wider understanding of community planning.
The action planning process in 2017 prioritised actions which could be delivered quickly, and which involved at least three partners, however it in the effort to deliver quickly, the community planning identity was lost.
It was clear through the focus groups that there is a lack of awareness and appreciation of what has been delivered as a result of community planning.
This is due in part to people struggling to differentiate between what they perceived as business as usual and the perhaps more collaborative way in which this business is now conducted.
Part of the solution to this lies in a Communications Strategy and Action Plan.
The communication networks and channels available to the community planning partnership is nothing short of significant.
Across the partners there are ways to communicate with all schools, all sports clubs, all registered community groups, all registered youth groups, all housing associations and tenants’ groups.
The potential of this communication platform is vastly underutilised by the Strategic Alliance.
A small number of agreed core messages, a reciprocal agreement around social media post tagging and sharing, and a twice-yearly e-zine shared with all contacts and awareness of Putting People First and what it is achieving will increase exponentially.
Actions and goals refreshed
As part of the review implementation plans for each theme were considered.
The documents provided identified how actions were prioritised into short, medium and long term.
It was agreed that the actions lists were reviewed with a fresh lens which takes account of the new environment in which community planning is being delivered.
Actions agreed which were appropriate and pertinent to escalate up the list or to increase the focus on.
These include the following:
Good Health and Wellbeing
- Creating a network of navigators within communities
- Support and encourage the shared use of facilities within the public sector estate
Progress in Education and Employment
- Skills Forum
- Education and support for employing vulnerable people (previously a Health and Wellbeing action)
Community Safety and Cohesion
- Build Civic pride and celebrating community success
- Build on existing support to assist newcomer pupils (previously a progress in education action)
- Environnent champions to encourage environmental responsible behaviour
Tourism and the Economy
- Energy efficiency
- Buy Social
- Urban and Rural Regeneration and town centre revitalisation
There are also actions which are either the responsibility of a single organisation or which include many factors which the partners cannot influence and as such they were removed or consolidated with others to design a more strategic multi-partner initiative.
Regional Strategies Initiatives with a Community Planning dimension
Several of the regional policy developments referenced in the previous section include opportunities for action which readily lend themselves to being community planning actions.
Such opportunities are collaborative in nature and community in focus, the following actions were considered for the next 4-year period:
- Initiatives to tackle poverty such as development of sustainable social supermarkets
- Embedding the work of the Labour Market Partnership within the action planning on the theme of Progress in Education and Employment
- Enabling and Empowering local communities to respond to local issues through the community resilience model, protecting those most at risk of exploitation by addressing addiction
- Developing a model of community development and engagement which empowers communities to participate in the community planning process
- Exploring neighbourhood agreements as a mechanism to engage statutory partners and local communities in resolving issues in District Electoral Areas
- Implementing actions identified through the Review of Community Plan under the four themes in the Gallagher Report, namely: the Scope of Community Plans; Communications and Community Involvement; Use of Data and Evidence; and Leadership, Performance and Resources.
Community Involvement
The Community Panel plays an important role in the community planning structure, however moving forward, representation of the community should be progressed to active engagement/involvement of the community.
Where possible the Strategic Alliance will adopt a codesign approach to development of actions.
Not only will this address issues of community buy in, it will also increase the chances of success and increase awareness of the community planning activity.
The new District Electoral Area model lends itself particularly well to co-design as it has a local focus and can draw on local networks and relationships.
It also has a council officer with community development skills as lynchpin to the process.
This approach would make community planning more real and tangible at a local level and enable appropriate focusing of resources in response to local need.
Partnership Commitment
It is understood that all public sector agencies are under considerable budgetary pressure.
It has also become apparent over the past five years that the theory of bending the spend ie, the reallocation of existing resources is less readily achievable than the designers of community planning might have anticipated.
However, there are ways in which community planning partners can actively participate in community planning with little or no investment required: Social Value Clauses are identified as an action under Tourism and the Economy.
Whilst this currently applies to above threshold contracts, partners could commit to inclusion of social value as a consideration in all community planning related commissioning.
Climate change policies are required of all public bodies, so the partnership could make a collective statement on its commitment to net zero, renewable energy etc
Meetings within the community planning structures could be better utilised for the sharing of information and expertise between partners.
Each of the partners has access to an immense network of groups and individuals who can both inform and benefit from community planning actions, however the opportunities this presents have not been maximised as yet.
It is anticipated that as a result of the Regional Review of Community Planning, and the revisions to the Programme for Government, there will be increased support for the implementation of Community Planning at a local level.