New Deal for Communities: Where next for Neighbourhood Renewal? Identifying & overcoming barriers

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

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

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

What’s 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

What’s 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

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

What’s next?  Political change  Nervous about NDCs  Treasury rules: “it’s 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

Contacts  Paul Convery, SQW  