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NANM Event – Devolution: single or double?

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Thursday 12 March 2015, 10.30 – 16.00, Barnsley, South Yorkshire

The Scottish referendum has put devolution firmly back on the national political agenda. Should neighbourhood activists and managers be rejoicing?

The renewed interest in devolution across the United Kingdom is partly because of the promises that Westminster politicians made to the Scottish people in order to secure a ‘No’ vote, and the expectations that they have raised of similar deals with the other areas. But it is also a reflection of the stellar levels of engagement that the referendum achieved. With election turnout in general decline, and distrust of politicians growing, the 85% turnout was both a boost for advocates of greater devolution and a challenge to those who say that disengagement with politics is an unstoppable trend. In reality the Scottish referendum was not the start of the debate about greater regional devolution. Greater Manchester and Sheffield City Region have both recently agreed devolution deals with the national government, and other City regions are seeking to take on similar devolved powers.

But what will this sort of devolution mean for neighbourhoods? Will it reinvigorate arguments for ‘double-devolution’ and neighbourhood power? Or could it end up diverting attention away from community empowerment?

These are the sorts of questions we intend to explore in the latest NANM share and learn event, on 12 March.

We are delighted to be holding this event in Barnsley where the approach of the council is placing it firmly at the heart of the devolution debate.

Content and approach

Councillor Sir Stephen Houghton, Leader of Barnsley Council, has agreed to start discussions off by explaining how Barnsley is radically devolving real spending power beyond the Tower Hall to community level. Councillor Houghton also chairs the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority which has secured one of the Government’s recent devolution funding deals.

During the rest of the day there will be a variety of opportunities to discuss issues with a range of other contributors, each of whom is a champion for devolution in a different way. Most of these discussions will be in smaller parallel sessions.

The confirmed list of contributors includes:

  • Councillor Sir Stephen Houghton, Leader of Barnsley MBC and Chair of Sheffield City Region Combined Authority
  • Kate Faulkes, South Area Council Manager, Barnsley MBC
  • Michaela Howell, Service Development Manager, Bradford Trident
  • Michael Dixon, Chair of Airedale Neighbourhood Management Board, Wakefield
  • Big Local partnerships, Lottery-funded groups based in Yorkshire working towards community-led change

As with all NANM events, a major focus of the day is the opportunity it provides to mix with, get to know and share experience with other colleagues. So the programme includes a mix of plenary presentations, smaller group discussions and time to network.

Download [download id=”69″]

Who should attend?

In short anyone who is interested in neighbourhoods and devolution. We hope that it will attract a mix of practitioners and policy makers, people working at a local level as well as people working at the national and regional levels. If it piques your interest it is for you.

What does it cost?

The event is free to attend, although we are asking for a voluntary contribution towards catering and logistics (the guide is £10). If payment is a problem do not let it put you off. The contribution is a genuinely voluntary one. If you are already a paid up member of NANM simply choose the ticket for NANM members.

How to book your place

There is an Eventbrite page for this event. This is the easiest way for us to take bookings. You will be offered the opportunity to make a voluntary contribution towards refreshments and logistics (and get 2 year NANM membership) as part of the booking process. Payment can be online using a credit card and PayPal or in cash at the event.

In case you have problems booking through Eventbrite, we are also accepting bookings by email or telephone.

[This event is now in the past, but we have left the the Eventbtrite page up in case it is still of interest.]

Seven stories of localism – Workshop resources available

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Seven Stories - Liz summing up
On 8 July, 64 people descended on Birmingham to hear and share stories of localism and co-production as the culmination of a month of activities exploring research into models of localism and co-production undertaken over the previous two years by researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Birmingham.

Read more about the day, the research that prompted it, resources shared and reflections captured here. Get a flavour of the stories shared from the visual minutes below.

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NANM network survey 2014: What did we learn?

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Issues-SurveyBlogHeader
Earlier this year we invited members of the NANM network – people who have come to NANM events, read the NANM newswire, follow @NM_Association on Twitter or just keep an eye on the NANM web site – to complete an online survey. The purpose of the survey was to find out more about who currently makes up the NANM network, after a period of some considerable change, and how you would like to engage with NANM and other network members. Promotion was relatively low key. A link from the NANM website, mention in the Newswire and a follow-up mailing, and promoted in a few Tweets.

This was the first NANM survey for over two years and as ever we are deeply grateful to all those who responded. The responses we did get were full and enthusiastic.

So what did we learn?       

  • NANM Newswire is the main way most people currently engage with NANM, although nearly half of respondents also mentioned NANM’s learning events
  • There is scope to develop the usefulness of the NANM web site, and Twitter emerges as the least engaging of NANM’s communication channels (amongst respondents and in terms of encouraging people to complete the survey)
  • People responding to the survey suggested that NANM should develop its offer in three areas:
    • Support for knowledge sharing: Providing access to information, developing case studies, making connections and offering advice
    • Opportunities for learning: Bringing people together to learn (recognising that there are currently severe constraints on funds for learning, including travel)
    • National profile: Using NANM’s national profile to support neighbourhood action.
  • Suggested topics around which to share learning ranged from understanding the causes of neighbourhood decline, through particular challenges people were facing (how to get employment support into estates, how neighbourhood planning can help local enterprise, how to get allotments going) to the best way to demonstrate the value of neighbourhood working and make the case for continued investment
  • A number of those responding to the survey offered to share their own projects and experience, by providing an article for the web site or speaking at events
  • Looking to the future slightly more people were positive about the future than were not, although about 30% said there were just too many variables.


You can read a more detailed summary of the survey findings in this short report. [download id=”65″]

We’d love to hear your responses. Do the findings ring true? Are you involved in projects that you think could help other network members (and would you be willing to write or talk about your experience)? Are there issues that weren’t picked up?

Private renting: What’s the problem?

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DSC_0022-SmallThis post was originally written to share some of the lessons learned during a study visit by residents of Big Local areas to Leigh West to explore local strategies to improve housing. We are publishing it here partly because we think it might be of wider interest, but also because it is quite long. A shorter version will be published on the Local Trust web site. The study visit was organised by NANM as part of our support for networking and learning between Big Local areas. You can find out more about Big Local by visiting the Local Trust web site.

On the 24 and 25 February 2014, 13 people from six Big Local areas travelled to Leigh West to take part in the Improving housing – Big Local study visit. It was a fascinating visit during which we were shown around the local area by residents of Leigh West Big Local (Leigh Neighbours), heard from Wigan Housing Solutions, a local social enterprise lettings agency working in the area, as well as from Lancashire Community Finance about their approach to low cost home improvement finance, and North Huyton Communities Future about how they are using national Empty Homes funding to renovate empty homes to rent to families in need. We were also taken through the process of developing a neighbourhood plan by Urban Vision, an architecture and built environment centre, and heard from an architect at the URBED cooperative about a couple of community-led housing projects in Liverpool. You can see slides from most of the presentations on the NANM SlideShare site, along with some photos and video on the Local Trust Flickr and YouTube channels.

But what was really noticeable was how all of the areas present identified problems in the private rented sector as a barrier to improving housing in their communities. It is this common experience that I want to focus on in this blog post.


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Five models of localism: which are you?

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What does effective representation and accountability look like ? Does it look the same at local authority, ward and neighbourhood level? Can academic theory and research help? If there are differences, do we have the language to discuss them?

The next NANM open space workshop, Five models of localism: which are you?, is on Wednesday, 4 December 2013, 10:30 to 15:30 (coffee from 10:00) at The University of Manchester, Sackville Street Campus (nr Manchester Piccadilly Station), Manchester. You can book on-line at Eventbrite.

In their recent paper Who is accountable in localism? Liz Richardson (University of Manchester) and Catherine Durose (University of Birmingham) identify five models of local accountability based on new research and a review of existing literature. They call their first model the ‘British Political Tradition’ in which power and influence is hierarchical and public agencies see citizen involvement happening mainly at local elections when the public’s role is either as voter, or candidate. Community participation efforts therefore focus only on encouraging more people to stand for election, or to turn out and vote.

At the other end of their scale they describe a model which constantly seeks the public’s involvement as decision makers and problem solvers. In this model, local public bodies see power as coming from many directions and their own role is one of mobiliser, enabler, and convenor.

It is self-evident most of those involved in neighbourhood working aspire to an enabling model. But how can we test the extent that practical experiences of communities match what we aspire to?

That is the question that we’ll explore during the workshop.

To start Liz Richardson will introduce us to the five models she and Catherine Durose have proposed, and explain how they are intended as a practical guide or diagnostic to enable others to test what models of local accountability exist in practice.

We will then convene open space discussions to enable participants to identify which model they think they are working in themselves. This will be a participative day and we hope everyone attending will contribute from their own first hand experiences.

You can find out more about the event and book your place on our page on Eventbrite.

We have funding to cover the costs of this event, which means we can make it free to attend. But we will gratefully accept contributions towards the cost of catering and logistics. Our suggested contribution is £10, which would also entitle you to become a member of the NANM for two years from the date of the event.

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