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Neighbourhood working beyond the pandemic

September 3, 2020 by admin Leave a Comment

Over the summer of 2020 we interviewed 13 individuals who have pioneered neighbourhood approaches to local public services over the past two decades. We asked them about their experiences, how these relate to the current crisis, and what we can take forward into a period of recovery and change. Some of those we interviewed still work in neighbourhood or locality roles, some have taken on larger responsibilities, some have moved to new careers entirely. They all carry with them a common ethos and skillset geared towards connecting citizens and public services.

These interviews are brought together in our publication Neighbourhood working beyond the pandemic and create a powerful argument for community connectors in local public services, inspired by neighbourhood working, as we move beyond the Covid-19 crisis.

At the start of the pandemic local public services across the country rapidly mobilised thousands of staff to engage and make connections in their communities in order to protect their residents and identify the most vulnerable. Many of these approaches built upon, or mirrored previous locality models.

In September 2020 we held on online roundtable co-hosted with Shared Intelligence to hear from those featured in Neighbourhood working beyond the pandemic. We asked what can be learned from neighbourhood and locality working, and what role connectors like those interviewed are playing – or could play – in the challenges local public services will face as we move beyond the current crisis. For instance are these skills and ways of working making their way into councils’ medium-term planning?

You can access a recording of the event and download the publication here.

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Filed Under: Event, Featured

Jam and Justice Treasure Hunt

July 15, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

“We want to seize the opportunity to make devolution matter in Greater Manchester by creating spaces for social innovation and inspiring and igniting change”

(Jam and Justice research mission)

Our co-production treasure hunt on 26 March in Eccles was designed to help us learn through first-hand examples how co-production works in places with city-regional governance.  We wanted to go out to meet groups and organisations ‘on their own turf’ across Greater Manchester to gain deeper understanding of context, increase the likelihood of chance encounters, and create time for reflection as we travelled around. 

We also wanted to test some of the early messages and conundrums to come from the Jam and Justice research:

  • Do we assume good social innovations are always ‘new’, maybe they’re not?
  • Are we hampered by a ‘bottom up is best’ fetish?
  • What role do different types of ‘spaces’ play in enabling co-production?
  • Do we fall into traps of thinking co-production and robust leadership cannot go together?

Our treasure hunt took us to three organisations for whom co-production is integral to their way of working:

We went to Boothstown Community Centre to meet learners taking part in the Tech and Tea course.  The course is run by Inspiring Communities, the legacy organisation of Salford’s New Deal for Communities.  A decade on from the end of the NDC’s multi-million pound programme, Inspiring Communities operates as a community anchor and charity on a fraction of the turnover of the NDC.  In many ways the activities they run have more impact on the everyday lives of local people. At the same time, while they deliver services to the local community, their independent governance means their relationship with public sector agencies is based on negotiation rather than delegation.

 

 

We were given a walking tour by the paid support worker for Leigh Neighbours, a resident-led partnership set-up to oversee the spending of a Big Local lottery grant in Leigh West, Wigan.  Big Local has provided £1m for Leigh Neighbours to spend or invest over ten years and Leigh Neighbours are using the money to take action on wide-ranging priorities set by the local community from improving the local environment, to tackling poor quality private-rented housing.  Although resident-led group, with only featherlight support from paid staff, the objectives of Leigh Neighbours may sound similar to those of public agencies, but their model is quite different, based around community self-help and distributed leadership.

We met local social enterprise BlueSci at Coppice library in Sale which they run on behalf of Trafford Council as well as providing mental health and wellbeing services.  BlueSci’s income comes from small grants and larger-scale commissions from the local NHS and Trafford Council.  Although the services they deliver may vary, the common principle is that they are all collaborations.  Professionals, volunteers, services users, and staff are seen as “companions or fellow travellers rather than experts”.

 

What did we learn?

  • “Top down” versus “bottom up” is no longer a relevant framework

The three organisations we encountered were all community-based, and local in focus—yet each spoke of addressing our biggest societal challenges.  For example, one organisation had developed a “bottom up” plan with a local school and its pupils to remove speed humps outside their school. Their reasoning was that extra pollution caused by drivers speeding up after each hump counteracted the gains for road safety.  They decided to apply for sustainable transport funding from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and received an enthusiastic response because this plan perfectly fitted with city-region’s “top down” goals around climate change, healthy lives, and co-production.   There have been stumbling blocks, but not due to any gap in understanding between city-region and neighbourhood; the main challenge has been the local highways team’s limited bandwidth to engage.

  • Co-production and “doing things differently” require leaders to do more than cheer-lead

We reflected on why it is that organisations like those we visited are often praised for what they do, including by city-regional leaders, yet they remain the exception rather than the rule.  We considered the role of those who were ‘caught in the middle’ between innovative practice at community level and bold leadership messages coming from ‘above’ about risk-taking, doing differently, and thinking outside the box.  We reflected on how disempowering it could be—as a local authority middle manager —receiving constant mood music from above about innovation but not having the tools or systems to support change and risk-taking.  It might not even require onerous changes to systems and rules—a confident organisational leader can provide guarantees to middle and frontline staff that they will be supported if things don’t go to plan.

  • Co-produced spaces *look* different

In one building we saw a sticky label on a light switch explaining it was in fact the fridge switch.  This was a clue that the building was used by different groups at different times – maximising its use and also getting away from the idea that organisations have their own sets of assets and spaces.   In a small car park we saw the narrow grass verge transformed into a vegetable plot in which herbs and winter leeks were growing. It was well tended, but looked homespun and fragile. Yet it had never been vandalised.  There was not one simple lesson here, but it was clear that co-produced spaces look different, and that difference helps answer the question ‘is it really co-production’ and also sends important signals to others about ownership and ethos.

  • Build in more ‘lived experience’ to policy development especially around service reform

The treasure hunt was specifically designed to enable us to connect ideas with real-life examples, experiences and viewpoints.  This drew out the contrast with many strategic initiatives which are badged as ‘reform’ or innovation but become (or have always been) *unconnected* with real-life challenges and reality.  This connection with reality could be achieved by holding more treasure hunts like this, or other similar methods, but the day was a reminder that you cannot deliver effective innovation as a paper exercise without constant connection to lived experiences and everyday reality.   

Further information

Jam and Justice: https://jamandjustice-rjc.org/

Leigh Neighbours, Wigan: lnpb.org.uk

BlueSci, Trafford: bluesci.org.uk

Inspiring Communities, Salford: inspiringcommunitiestogether.co.uk

The photographs shown on this page were taken during the Treasure Hunt, as participants applied photovoice methods to identify examples of co-production, innovation, and expertise in action. Read more about photovoice methods (via wikipedia): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photovoice

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Filed Under: Event, Featured Tagged With: community, coproduction, Eccles, manchester

Jam and Justice Treasure Hunt 26 March – free event with University of Manchester

March 18, 2019 by admin Leave a Comment

(image credit: Jam&Justice project)

BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

DOWNLOAD THE LATEST AGENDA

The Jam and Justice co-production “treasure hunt” is a day when we will go out and about in Greater Manchester meeting with community actors in their own spaces and localities, rather than having presenters come to us. Our hope is that – just like a treasure hunt – we will actively go looking for ideas and learning, piecing together clues, and getting to know our fellow treasure-hunters along the way.

In the morning you will choose between visiting:

Inspiring Communities in Salford are the legacy organisation of Salford’s New Deal for Communities. A decade on from the end of that multi-million pound programme, Inspiring Communities operates as a community anchor and charity on a fraction of the turnover of the NDC. In many ways the activities they run have more impact on the everyday lives of local people. At the same time, while they deliver services to the local community, their independent governance means their relationship with public sector agencies is based on negotiation rather than delegation.
Leigh Neighbours in Wigan is the resident-led partnership responsible for Big Local in Leigh West, Wigan. The lottery-funded Big Local programme has provided £1m for Leigh Neighbours to spend or invest over ten years and Leigh Neighbours are using the money to take action on wide-ranging priorities set by the local community from improving the environment, to tackling poor quality private-rented housing. As a resident-led group, with only featherlight support from paid staff, Leigh Neighbours have set similar objectives to those of public agencies but they way the operate is very different.
Bluesci in Trafford are a mental health and wellbeing service based in Trafford. The services they run are funded by small grants and larger-scale commissions from the local NHS. Although the services they deliver vary greatly, the common principle is that they are all collaborations between professionals, volunteers, and services users, and staff are seen as “companions or fellow travellers rather than experts”.

Jam and Justice is a social innovation and research programme in Greater Manchester which aims to co-produce, test, and learn from new ways of governing cities. You can read more about the research here https://jamandjustice-rjc.org/about-jam-and-justice

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Filed Under: Event, Event news, Featured Tagged With: community, coproduction, event, housing, social care

Read our new research into neighbourhood and locality working

July 5, 2018 by ben 2 Comments

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.

Download the report

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Filed Under: Featured, News, Uncategorized

Neighbourhood approaches to public services: research and event to mark 10 years of the NANM

May 16, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Images clockwise from top right: Bradford MBC, Roger Bunting (Flickr), Nick Richards (Flickr), Wikimedia commons, and James Clarke (Flickr)

Are you involved in a neighbourhood or locality approaches to local public services?  This could be as a public sector employee, elected Member, volunteer, or community worker.

To mark our 10th anniversary we are conducting an important piece of research to build up a picture of neighbourhood or locality approaches across England in 2018 – where it being used, what models are in place, and what factors are likely to affect its future.

The research involves a survey which we hope you can contribute to. If you have not yet completed it, please take part here >>  https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NANM2018

The survey results will be triangulated with a literature review of the evolution of neighbourhood approaches to date, and horizon-scanning of what is emerging around neighbourhoods and localism, in the UK and further afield.  The finished research will be made openly available and we hope it will provide a valuable tool for those directly involved in delivering or managing neighbourhood approaches, as well as policy-makers and research in local public services and localism.

The research will be published at a free-to-attend national event we are hosting from 10-4 on Thursday 5 July 2018 at the Whitechapel Ideastore, London.

Book you place here.

You can keep in touch with further news on this research and the July event by joining our mailing list using the sign-up form on this page.

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Filed Under: Event, Event news, Featured, Research Tagged With: events, Localism, neighbourhoods

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