Research carried out by the NANM in May and June 2018 through a national survey and senior practitioner interviews shows a new model of neighbourhood management has emerged in response to the challenge of austerity and the increasing complexities of local needs. We heard from thirty five places where some form of neighbourhood or locality working was in operation – and those were just among respondents who completed our survey, we know there are many more.
We call this approach ‘strategic locality working’ – an approach to public service management and delivery that is focused at sub-local authority geographies (such as wards) and sees action and budgets co-ordinated across multiple agencies. Our research report “Doing the right thing”, written by John Houghton, has built up a picture of locality and neighbourhood working across England in 2018; where it being used, what models are in place, and what factors are likely to affect its future.
Great piece of work – I’ll be sharing this with my housing association network soon as many have similar experiences and opportunities to shape locality working across their priority neighbourhoods. I particularly welcome and will use the quote ‘staff are encouraged to see themselves as community builders rather than service deliverers and are being equipped to support and challenge residents to develop and implement their own solutions’..
With a different hat on, I’d have liked to have seen reference to the role that social and community enterprises play in the locality mix – perhaps that’s a future research project?
I’ve also posted the link on my emerging website (still very much in development) as I’ll be looking to share great work on a monthly basis.. and chose your report as my first selection..
Many thanks Pete! Glad you found it helpful and please do share with others who are interested. (Ben Lee)