EVENT - Better together, building healthy communities in hard times (15th March 2010)The Institute of Community Cohesion (iCoCo) and the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) are running an important one-day event aimed at supporting NHS practitioners and partners in promoting community cohesion in the current financial climate. The event, to be held on 19th May 2010, will be chaired by Sir John Egan.
The event will look at:
- tackling health inequalities through building social capital in the downturn
- implementing the Marmot Review (from both a Local Authority and Primary Care Trust perspective)
- building resilience and promoting healthy communities by adopting a lifecycle approach
Information
Improving health outcomes in deprived communities: Evidence from the New Deal for Communities programme (11th February 2010)This report forms part of the National Evaluation of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme. It examines interventions designed to improve health outcomes for NDC residents, and explores their subsequent impact. It draws on in-depth case study research in four NDC areas, as well as programme and national level outcome data. The report also looks at the sustainability of the NDC approaches, and draws lessons for both central government and local regeneration partnerships.
Report
Carlisle's Lifestyle on the Road (2nd December 2009)Carlisle's LifeStyle on the Road project provides public health and fitness provision to schools and the community. It uses a unique van for specialist coaches and fitness equipment to be transported to venues.
Information
LAC (DH) (2009)8 Autism strategy: improving services for people with autistic spectrum conditions (7th December 2009)This circular highlights arrangements for the design and delivery of a new national strategy for adults with autistic spectrum conditions.
Publication Valuing health: business case literature review (8th December 2009)The Healthy Communities programme has produced a literature review which summarises the available evidence and research on the financial and non-financial impact of health improvement activity. This review highlights the need for a greater focus on the financial impact of health improvement activity on local government services, but does indicate that there are a number of areas where local authorities could expect to make efficiency savings. These include older people’s health and independence, workforce health and climate change and sustainability.
Report Assessments relating to people with learning difficulties: Guidance to Local Authorities (November 2009)The transition from school to a new learning establishment can be a difficult time for any young person. Those with learning difficulties are at particular risk of not making a successful transition. As a result, young people with learning difficulties are less likely to participate in education or training post-16 as those without, and are twice as likely to be NEET (not in education, training or employment).
The guidance is designed to help local authorities make consistent, effective and robust decisions but does not tell them what to do in each individual case. The guidance is current to March 2010 when new guidance published in Spring 2010, reflecting changes brought about by the ASCL Act, comes into effect.
GuidanceAssessments relating to people with learning difficulties: Guidance to Local Authorities - Analysis of consultation responses (November 2009)The Education and Skills Act 2008 section 80 states that “in exercising its functions under this section, an authority must have regard to any guidance issued by the Secretary of State”.
The Education and Skills Act 2008 inserted Sections 139A to 139C into the Learning and Skills Act 2000 which placed a statutory responsibility on local authorities in relation to assessments relating to learning difficulties. The purpose of this consultation was to seek views on the draft statutory guidance.
The consultation ran from 23 April to 16 July 2009. A total of 70 responses were received. A summary of responses to each question is provided and a list of the respondents is included in the Annex.
Responses Safeguarding children and young people: a new scrutiny guide (4th December 2009)The Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS) have published a new guide to support overview and scrutiny committees in fulfilling their critical role in relation to safeguarding children.
The guide is designed to assist both councillors and officers in shaping and developing local safe services. The document includes:
- suggestions for approaches to scrutiny
- key references and advice for further reading
- a series of questions that committee members may want to consider when testing whether local arrangements are robust.
Guide
Communities for Health: unlocking the energy within communities to improve health (21st October 2009)The Communities for Health Programme exemplifies the increasing role local government plays in supporting health improvement and reducing health inequalities. This second report includes community activities in over 80 local authorities aimed at encouraging behaviour change and strengthening local partnership to tackle a wide range of key health priorities.
Document Building Cohesive Communities: What frontline staff and community activists need to know (14th October 2009)This is a short practical guide for busy activists and frontline staff working on community cohesion. The guide is based on current research and practical experience of the authors. Topics included are:
- Promoting interaction between people and groups
- Developing effective community leadership
- Tackling local attitudes, perception and myths
- Developing the role of young people
Guide
2007-08 Citizenship Survey: Empowered Communities Topic Report (29th September 2009)Using 2007-08 Citizenship Survey data, this report provides an in-depth examination of community empowerment: whether people feel they can influence local and national decisions; whether they would like to be more involved in decision making; what would make it easier to influence decision making; and how people would influence decisions if they wanted to. It also looks at people's trust in institutions and what activities people actually take part in (civic activism, civic consultation, civic participation and volunteering).
Report
Reaching out - Community engagement and health (July 2009)This is the third in a series of publications from the IDeA’s Healthy Communities programme, this time written in conjunction with NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence). The document explores the importance of engaging communities in health promotion and health services, and the health benefits that this can bring.
Publication
Communities Progress Report (1st June 2009)In July 2008 the Government published the White Paper Communities in Control: Real People, Real Power which aims to pass power into the hands of local communities. It seeks to generate vibrant local democracy in every part of the country, and to give real control over local decisions and services to a wider pool of active citizens. This progress report sets out progress made since the publication of the White Paper and provides a timeline for future implementation.
Report
Community health services: making a difference to local communities (5th February 2009)Community health services, along with primary care, form the bedrock of services in the NHS, and make a valuable contribution to ensuring the health and well-being of society. This report looks at how community health services are making a difference to local communities, illustrated with case studies from the NHS.Please note that you need to be a member of The NHS Confederation to access this report. To register please go here http://www.nhsconfed.org/membersarea/login/register_user.asp Report
Neighbourhood management beyond the pathfinders: A national overview (6th October 2008)
The report provides an overview of how neighbourhood management activity has been extended beyond the pathfinder areas into other neighbourhoods. It includes a summary of the national evidence base about the nature of neighbourhood management and the findings of a new national survey of local authorities about the extent of neighbourhood management and the different models emerging. It draws on summaries of ten new case studies of neighbourhood management initiatives, illustrating the range of practices.
Report
Neighbourhood management pathfinders: final evaluation report, people, places, public services: making the connections (6th October 2008)
This report draws together findings from an extensive evaluation of neighbourhood management pathfinders conducted between 2002 and 2008 including household survey analyses, interviews and case studies. This evaluation report provides a final statement of how neighbourhood management has been delivered by the pathfinders and of what has been achieved.
Report
Evidence Gathering: Housing in Multiple Occupation and possible planning responses - Final Report (26th September 2008)
This report provides the outcome of an evidence gathering exercise which was undertaken to review the problems caused by high concentrations of houses in multiple occupation. This has been highlighted as a problem in a number of towns and cities across the country. 'Studentification' of university towns is a real concern especially during the summer months when neighbourhoods are left dormant because too many properties (Houses in Multiple Occupation, HMOs) in one area are rented to groups of students. The independent research sets out a series of cross cutting measures that could tackle and stop the complex causes and symptoms of concentrated student neighbourhoods. The measures include new planning mechanisms and the widespread adoption of a number of the best common sense local solutions that can be easily adopted.
Report
‘Reaching Out - Community Engagement and Health’ (11th August 2008)
This is the third in a series of publications from the IDeA’s (Improvement and Development Agency) Healthy Communities programme, this time written in conjunction with NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence). The document explores the importance of engaging communities in health promotion and health services, and the health benefits that this can bring.
Click here for the Publication
Communities - healthy, strong and prosperous (23rd July 2008)
The Improvement and Development Agency (IdeA) has published a new paper that explores the developmental and service delivery links between the place-shaping role of local government and its health and wellbeing ambitions. The publication is essential reading for: directors of adult social care; directors of public health; local authority and primary care trust (PCT) policy managers; and health and social care professionals.
Click here for the Paper
Preventing Violent Extremism: Next Steps for Communities (25th July 2008)
In April 2007 Communities and Local Government launched our Preventing Violent Extremism: Winning Hearts and Minds action plan. In that document they set out a range of practical actions to mobilise communities against violent extremists. This document reviews the progress to date, celebrates the achievements of local schemes, and sets out their priorities for the coming year.
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Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities: Statutory Guidance (9th July 2008)
This document provides statutory guidance to local authorities and their partners on creating strong, safe and prosperous communities. It covers the duty to involve and duties around Local Area Agreements in the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.
Document
Communities in Control: Real people, real power (9th July 2008)
Communities in control tells the story of power, influence and control and how people can use existing and new tools to access it. The White Paper looks at who has power, on whose behalf is it exercised, how is it held to account, and how can it be accessed by everyone in local communities.
White Paper
Evidence Annex
Summary
Impact Assessments
Community engagement and community cohesion (25th June 2008)
Community engagement and community cohesion are both current public policy priorities. But there have been gaps in our understanding about how to promote community representation in ways that take account of diversity and population change. This research explores: whose views were being heard and whose were not; what were the barriers to being heard and how they could be overcome; how these barriers could be addressed in ways that would promote community cohesion, rather than increasing competition within and between communities.
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Click here for Findings
Neighbourliness + Empowerment = Wellbeing. Is there a formula for happy communities? (June 2008)
A new report from the Local Wellbeing Project shows how neighbourhood and community empowerment can improve wellbeing. The Wellbeing Project is jointly led by: the Young Foundation; the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA); Professor Lord Richard Layard, from the London School of Economic's (LSE’s) Centre for Economic Performance (CEP). The report examines how active citizenship can contribute to wellbeing by investigating empowerment initiatives in three very different local authorities: Hertfordshire, Manchester and South Tyneside.
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Designing citizen-centred governance (23rd May 2008)
Citizen-centred governance involves new ways of enabling local people, working with statutory and other agencies, to decide how public services can improve their quality of life. This study examined the relationship between new governance structures and the engagement of citizens, service users and the voluntary and community sectors, with the aim of identifying lessons for policy and practice.
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Click here for the Findings
Displacement of Crime or Diffusion of Benefit: Evidence from the New Deal for Communities Programme (7th April 2008)
The Government has assisted deprived neighbourhoods through the New Deal for Communities (NDC) Programme, launched in 1998. It is designed to encourage delivery of local services in a coordinated way to meet local needs, and aims to narrow the gap between these 39 areas and the rest of the country. NDC activity is subject to detailed evaluation. This report is based on analysis of crime data in NDCs and their immediate surrounding areas, to find out what effect crime patterns within NDC have had on crime (e.g. increases or decreases) in surrounding areas.
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Delivering Safer Neighbourhoods: Experiences from the New Deal for Communities Programme (7th April 2008)
The Government has assisted deprived neighbourhoods through the New Deal for Communities (NDC) Programme, launched in 1998. It is designed to encourage delivery of local services in a coordinated way to meet local needs, and aims to narrow the gap between these 39 areas and the rest of the country. NDC activity is subject to detailed evaluation. This report presents the findings on interventions and outcomes under the theme of crime and community safety.
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Challenges, Interventions and Change: An overview of Neighbourhood Renewal in six New Deal for Communities areas (7th April 2008)
The Government has assisted deprived neighbourhoods through the New Deal for Communities (NDC) Programme, launched in 1998. It is designed to encourage delivery of local services in a coordinated way to meet local needs, and aims to narrow the gap between these 39 areas and the rest of the country. NDC activity is subject to detailed evaluation. This report presents the findings of the second phase of this, and gives an overview, based on case studies in six NDCs on the strategies, interventions and outcomes. The aim is to understand why and how changes at the local level have occurred.
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Immigration, faith and cohesion: Evidence from local areas with significant Muslim populations (19th March 2008)
This report examines the significance of different dimensions of cohesion – including social interaction, participation and belonging – on the lives of Muslims and people of other faiths or of no faith, both recent arrivals and established residents, living in the London borough of Newham, Birmingham and Bradford. It provides new insight into people’s experience of cohesion and community at a time when policy is focusing on community cohesion at the local level, particularly in relation to the arrival of significant numbers of new migrants in some areas.
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Click here for the Findings
Routes and barriers to citizen governance (28th March 2008)
The government drive for greater community-based governance requires public bodies to ensure that all communities have the opportunity to participate in local decision-making structures and influence local service delivery. How effectively citizens from different communities and neighbourhoods are able to participate, however, can vary considerably due to structural, environmental, cultural and personal factors.
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Click here for the Findings
Unlocking the Talent of our Communities (5th March 2008)
This white paper sets out the Government's commitment to make changes that give people more local influence, control and ownership of local services, such as employment, health, education and transport.
Click here for the White Paper
Community empowerment in practice: lessons from Communities First (11th March 2008)
An examination of a community-based programme in Wales that aims to increase opportunities for community empowerment and potential influence over service providers. The research presents findings from nine case studies of Communities First partnerships to provide insights into the achievement of community empowerment. It considers: how far partnerships have developed and evolved to empower communities; the relationships communities have with other representative channels; the extent to which communities have influenced other agendas; and the overall impact of regeneration partnerships.
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Click here for the Findings
Neighbourhood identity: People, time and place (12th March 2008)
A study of how neighbourhood identity is formed and the implications this may have for area renewal policies. The study examines three neighbourhoods in Stirling, Scotland, and explores what it means to people to ‘come from’ each of these areas as a way of understanding issues of belonging and attachment to particular places.
Click here for the Report
Click here for the Findings
