1. Resident Feedback Report
Devonshire West Big Local
March 2017
Jessica Boelema

2. Summery of Findings 18.3% 31% 20.39% 22.5% 3.1% 17.48% 15.4% 9.3%
Through a series of consultations with Devonshire West residents and stakeholders in the last quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017 five key ‘themes’ were identified which where acknowledged as important issues or ‘priorities’ by participants.
These 5 themes were mentioned the most during consultations and participants felt that Devonshire West Big Local should focus on these issues when investing their funding into the community.
The 5 themes are summarized in the table below with more information on these themes in the section ‘Findings in Detail’.
Theme
‘Dream’
‘Bad’
Overall
The Environment & Area Appearance
18.3%
31%
20.39%
Business & Shops
22.5%
3.1%
17.48%
Community & Social activities
15.4%
9.3%
13.49%
Inclusion & Engagement
9.8%
15.6%
10.68%
Partnership Working 7%
9.7%

3. Recommendations
Many of the themes mentioned during the consultations are not entirely new to DWBL and have been mentioned in previous consultation and worked into our overall Plan as well as our current three year plan.
Partnership Working and Business and Shops have been built into DWBL’s most recent 3 year plan for 2017 – 2019 under the themes ‘Working in Partnership’ and ‘Supporting social enterprise and Promoting Social Investment’.
The Environment & Area Appearance can be found in DWBL’s 5 main themes in the over arching 10 year plan, as can Community and Social Activities and Inclusion and Engagement under the themes of ‘Improving the environment and area appearance’, ‘Community activities and events’ and ‘Multicultural projects’.
There were however, sub themes, which come under these theme headings, which can be considered ‘new’, such as Local Food Production and Community Owned Facilities, which were mentioned repeatedly and have not been addressed or built into our previous plans.
My recommendations are as follows;
Make sure that as a board we can agree on what themes we will be working on in the future and have agree upon a set of clear, achievable and measurable goals for each theme so that we can monitor and evaluate our work effectively.
Assess what impact we have had so far on both our current working themes as well as the themes identified in this report by evaluating previous grant rounds and identifying where we are having the most impact and where we are falling short of our goals in order to plan for the future.
Evaluate which themes we prioritise in the future. For example Environment & Area Appearance is the most mentioned theme in both consultations and yet we have funded very few projects around this theme.
Consider commissioning work on particular themes where we are falling short of our targets or prioritising grants applications which work towards particular themes.

4. Finding’s in Detail ‘Dream’ Findings
11 themes came out consultation with the community around what peoples dreams for their community were.
These themes were as follows;
Business & Shops
22.5% of comments revolved around business and shops with people feeding back they would like to see Devonshire West have a mix of vibrant, independent shops and restaurants as well as more valuable, income generating business in the area.
Community & Social Activities
15.4% of comments revolved around community and social activities with people feeding back they would love to see a more engaged, socially active community full of meaningful networks, community facilities and social activities.
The Environment & Food
18.3% of comments revolved around the environment and food with people feeding back that they would like see a safe, well presented area with less traffic, more green spaces and urban food development projects.
Youth
11.2% of mentions revolved around children and young people with people feeding back that they would like to see more opportunities and engagement with young people in the area.
Inclusion & Diversity
9.8% of mentions revolved around inclusion and diversity with people feeding back that their dream community would be one that embraces and celebrates diversity and different cultures and one that includes all people, no matter their background and supports people experiencing crisis.

5. Partnership 7% of comments revolved around partnership working with people feeding back they would like to see organisations and services working in partnership more in order to deliver better services for the community. Women 5.6% of comments revolved around women with people feeding back that they would like to see more opportunities for women, including better career and training opportunities as well as support tailored for women. Health 4.22% of comments revolved around health with people feeding back that they would like to live an a community where people are healthier and more active. Older People 4.22% of comments revolved around older people with people feeding back that they would like to see more activities for older people including intergenerational activities where people in the community from different age groups can meet. Housing 2.8% of comments revolved around housing with people feeding back they would like to see more affordable, better quality housing in the area. Heritage 2.8% of comments revolved around heritage with people feeding back that they would like see more done to preserve the areas heritage and promote it to residents and visitors.

7. ‘Bad’ Findings 7 themes were identified from participants feedback about what they thought were issues in the area. These themes were; Area Appearance & The Environment 31% of comments revolved around the areas appearance and the environment with people feeding back that the area looked run down and in disrepair and was unwelcoming. Crime 18.7% of comments revolved around crime with people feeding back that the area has a reputation as being unsafe, especially after dark, and that there was a high number of burglaries and petty crimes. Isolation 15.6% of comments revolved around isolation with people feeding back that many people felt isolated, lonely and disconnected from their community. Lack of Partnership 15.6% of comments revolved around a lack of partnerships with people feeding back that groups and services in the area don’t co-operate enough and that a lack of communication and sharing of resources was an issue. Lack of Services & Activities 9.3% of comments revolved around a lack of services and activities with people feeding back that there were few activities, especially for children and families as well as limited services and public facilities. Homelessness 6.2% of comments revolved around homelessness with people feeding back that homelessness was an issue in the area with many people being forced to sleep rough. Jobs 3.1% of comments revolved around jobs with people feeding back that there many jobs in the area are low wage.

9. Methodology
At the March focus group of the 12 people attended, with 4 being residents and the others being non-resident stakeholders, such as individuals involved in community groups working in the ward and individuals living in the wider Devonshire ward.
Of the 27 people who provided feedback at the two events, 14 were residents and 13 were not.
Information has been collected from residents of the Devonshire West ward between September 2016 and April 2017 in regards to the following topics;
What residents think is ‘Bad’ about the Devonshire West ward
What residents ‘Dream’s’ for the Devonshire West ward are
What priorities residents feel DWBL should be working on
This information has been collected in order to keep DWBL up to date with resident’s priorities so that we can make sure our work reflects what our residents want.
Resident feedback was gathered on two occasions, at an event organised by the DWBL board in September 2016 called ‘A Proud History and a Bright Future’ and at a focus group specifically aimed at gathering resident feedback on the above topics in March 2017.
Feedback was gathered at the ‘A Proud History and A Bright Future’ event by distributing a feedback form to all participants which we then asked them to complete and return by the end of the event (See Figure 1).
At ‘A Proud History and A Bright Future’ 24 completed surveys were returned, 15 of those surveys contained comments of which 10 were completed by residents of Devonshire West.
The focus group in March asked for much more in depth information from participants and the information was recorded by participants themselves as part of a series of activities designed to gather information on the subject (Appendix A).
Figure 1: Community Survey

10. Previous Consultations
In previous consultations with the community information has been gathered from residents using the themes of ‘Dream’ and ‘Bad’, where we have asked residents what they wish their community/area was or looked like using the heading ‘Dream’, and residents were also asked what they thought the problems or issues in their community/area were under the heading ‘Bad’. For the sake of consistency, the same headings and phrasings were used I'm the March focus group.
Previous Consultations
In previous consultations with the Devonshire West community, 5 key issues were mentioned more than anything else, they were;
The Environment
26.16% of mentions
Bad: Poor environment, lack of facilities/outside space
Dream: Improved/more use of outside space
Community Activities
15.90% of mentions
Bad: Lack of sense of community, lack of multicultural activity, lack of information services
Dream: More community events, friendly vibrant community, more community activities (youth), more multicultural activities
Community Facilities
14.69% of mentions
Bad: lack of community facilities
Dream: Community Centre/Facility, support for residents
Roads
9.05% of mentions
Bad: Traffic and parking problems
Dream: Improved road use, improved parking
Shops
8.65% of mentions
Bad: Lack of shops and support for business
Dream: Encourage more shops/restaurants
Recreational Ground/Park
7.65% of mentions
Bad: Lack of facilities (leisure)
Dream: Improve & Increase parks

11. Figure 2. Findings from previous consultation with residents