ILP Infobank News

Locality wins Community Organisers contract

Locality, formed by the merger of bassac with the Development Trusts Association, has won a £15 million contract to deliver the government’s community organisers initiative.

The programme aims to train 5,000 organisers to help local people develop projects in disadvantaged communities across England.

Locality confirmed that the first projects would be delivered by organisers working in

1. Barton Hill Settlement, Bristol
2. Birmingham Settlement, Birmingham
3. Cambridge House, south London
4. Community Links, east London
5. Goodwin Development Trust, Hull
6. Keystone Development Trust, Norfolk
7. Kirkgate Arts, Cumbria
8. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
9. Penwith Community Development Trust, Cornwall
10. St Peter’s Partnerships, Tameside, Greater Manchester

• DTA news story
• Third Sector article

2 March 2011

Below the radar in the Big Society

A recent working paper from the Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC) explores the debates about ‘below the radar’ (BTR) community groups and their assumed role in delivering the Big Society.

It argues that the motivators for community action are, and have been, ill understood in policy circles. Further, there is and has been little systematic analysis of the power relationship between the state (both locally and nationally), communities and neighbourhoods which can inform meaningful debate on devolution and localism.

The paper examines the implications of the new policy environment for small community groups and asks can such activity, which has often been independent of, and operated outside the state, be co-opted to deliver particular government policy objectives?

• TSRC working paper

The Big Society Challenge

The Big Society Challenge brings together a range of authors to explore the issues surrounding the Big Society.

It is part of The Keystone Development Trust Publications series aimed at understanding issues in challenging policy areas that have a direct impact on communities and promoting dialogue amongst practitioners, policy makers and academics.

Keystone Publications are intended to be thought provoking interventions in policy debates, as well as reporting on primary research.

The publications are co-authored by academics and practitioners, often with the support of volunteer researchers and editorial assistants.

• download The Big Society Challenge (pdf 1.5MB)

1 March 2011

Leicestershire bid to be Big Society vanguard

Conservative controlled Leicestershire County Council has written to the Prime Minister, offering to replace Liverpool as one of the Big Society vanguard areas, according to an article in Civil Society.

Liverpool withdrew from the initiative last month, citing lack of government support.

Leicestershire Council leader David Parsons said that mush work has been done over the past few years to embed localism in the area.

The council intends to use £5.5 million from reserves to soften the impact of the government’s public spending cuts on services around young offenders and children and young people.

It has also included £500,000 a year in its new budget to help finance Big Society initiatives.

• Civil Society article

1 March 2011

National Citizen Service - now on facebook

The National Citizen Service (NCS) initiative for young people is intended to “support them to develop the skills and attitudes they need to get more engaged with their communities and become active and responsible citizens.”

Twelve pilots were announced last November to take place this summer.

A thousand young people have signed up to the scheme so far and David Cameron has launched a sign-up page on facebook.

11,000 places will be available this year and the Prime Minister hopes to expand this to 30,000 places in 2012.

A comment on the facebook page contrasts these figures with the 965,000 16-24 year olds now officially recorded as unemployed.

• NCS pilots
• NCS facebook page

16 February 2011

2 new LEPs approved

The approval of proposals for the Enterprise M3 area, covering parts of Hampshire and Surrey, and for York and North Yorkshire, brings the total number of LEPs across England to 30.

The Minister for Decentralisation, Greg Clark, commented, “Local enterprise partnerships will bring people together - local authorities from across administrative divides, business leaders and civic leaders - in a common goal: to promote jobs, growth and prosperity in their local area.”

Mark Prisk, Minister for Business and Enterprise, gave assurance to those areas not yet included in LEPs: “We are continuing to assess proposals for further partnerships across England, so that soon more local communities will benefit from the knowledge and expertise of the private sector and the opportunities that growth brings.”

• Central Office of Information announcement

11 February 2011

Compact report will go to PASC

Cabinet Office plans to invite parliament to create a Civil Society select committee, announced in last June’s draft structural plan, were absent from its business plan published in November.

The proposed select committee’s functions will now be carried out by the existing cross-party Public Administration Select Committee (PASC).

Among its business, the committee will examine a report about the effectiveness of the Compact across government, scheduled for publication by the National Audit Office in July.

The report is expected to include recommendations about how best to enforce the Compact agreement.

2 February 201

Localism Bill - impact assessments

The government has published impact assessments for every ‘package’ of provisions contained in the Localism Bill.

The assessments of the proposed community ‘right to challenge’ and ‘right to buy’ may be of particular interest to voluntary and community sector organisations and community groups delivering services to beneficiaries.

• Community right to challenge - impact assessment
• Community right to buy - impact assessment
• All Localism Bill documents

2 February 2011

Sustainable Communities Act - 1st round ends and 2nd round starts

First round ends

The government has agreed with the Selector (the Local Government Association) on which of the 199 shortlisted proposals made under round one of the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 they will implement.

The approved proposals cover such diverse local issues as

• business rate relief for SMEs
• sustaining local post offices
• rights for small-scale renewable energy development
• a moratorium on the sale of listed assets to give community groups time to prepare bids
• a ban on the sale of alcohol below cost price

The full list of government responses to the proposals is available on the department for Communities and Local Government website:

• Sustainable Communities Act 2007: Decisions on proposals submitted following the 2008 invitation

Local Works have published a Best Practice Guide showcasing examples of good community engagement by councils under round one of the Act:

• Local Works best practice guide

Second round starts

The process for the next round of submissions has been modified in two very significant ways:

1. Community groups and Parish and Town Councils can now submit proposals directly to government
2. The submission process is now a rolling programme, with no deadline

Community groups can submit proposals via the government’s Barrier Busting website:

• Barrier Busting website

28 January 2011

A 'book in eight minutes' - Our Society event

Capturing ideas of hope, struggle and success from a meeting of 100 community activists, charity workers, networkers and others is something of a challenge, but with a little imagination and a lot of conviction it can be done.

Discussion and debate ranged widely at the meeting of Our Society (formerly Big Society in the North) members hosted by CDX at the Round Foundry Media Centre in Leeds last Thursday 20 January. Cynicism, optimism and vision were all openly on display, often in individual participants.

Our Society aims to be a learning and support network for people involved in community action.

Many of the ideas and feelings expressed by participants are captured in a ‘book in eight minutes’ which can be viewed online.

• Our Society event
• ‘book in eight minutes’

27 January 2011