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THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN SCOTLAND ACT 2003
COMMUNITY PLANNING: ADVICE NOTE 5
Effective Community Engagement
MARCH 2004
Introduction
Councils are required under section 15 (1) of the Act to engage with community bodies in the Community Planning process. Section 17 of the Act also requires that those bodies required to participate in Community Planning should assist the local authority in its role as facilitator. This Advice note, which should be read in conjunction with paragraph 5.1 of the Statutory Guidance, presents a framework under which they may do so.
In the context of Community Planning, the main aim of community engagement should be to improve the planning and delivery of services by making them more responsive to the needs and aspirations of communities. One way of securing these objectives is to provide for the representation of community interests in the partnership structure.
This note takes as its starting point the principle that the engagement of communities is at the heart of Community Planning. However, as communities will vary considerably between different areas, the challenge facing councils and their Community Planning partners will be to develop approaches that best suit the circumstances of particular communities.
Principles of Effective Engagement with Communities
To make community engagement effective, councils will want to work to certain key principles with their Community Planning partners. Foremost of these are:
- Commitment: Demonstrating genuine commitment to working with communities, making appropriate use of the wide range of methods now available for doing so - and involving not just the "usual suspects". See Focusing on Citizens: approaches and methods.
http://www.cosla.gov.uk/attachments/execgroups/mg/mgengagingcommunitiesmethods.doc - Outcome orientated: Engaging with communities in ways that lead to meaningful and tangible outcomes - and not as an end-in-itself - in terms of significant improvements to services and people's quality of life giving communities more control over the circumstances in which they live.
- Appropriate level: Engaging with communities at levels they can best relate to, rather than expecting communities to relate to partners' own organisational structures and processes.
- Recognising diversity: Acknowledging the wide range and diverse nature of communities. Working - at both formal and informal levels - with a wide range of community and voluntary groups, including umbrella bodies, such as councils of voluntary service, community forums, and associations of community councils, local Sports Councils and sports trusts, and voluntary arts bodies.
- Independence: Recognising that the most effective representation of community interests is likely to be via community bodies which are independent and accountable to their communities.
- Learning lessons: Increasing their own knowledge and skills to successfully engage community bodies, see " Capacity Building for Community Planning", Scottish Executive/Community Planning Task Force, 2002, ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/planning/cbcp.pdf) and learning from the lessons of existing community capacity building experience, see " Lessons for Community Capacity Building: summary of research evidence", Communities Scotland, ( http://www.scot-homes.gov.uk/cgi-bin/displaypubs.pl?&260). Also learning how to increase capacity to successfully engage communities.
- Support: Ensuring that support is provided for informal learning and community action focusing on the real issues affecting people's lives. For further information see Scottish Executive (2003), " Working and Learning Together to Build Stronger Communities". ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/walt-00.asp)
- Reaching out: Reaching out to socially excluded communities and to groups, such as people with disabilities, ethnic minorities and young people ( See Advice on Mainstreaming Equalities for Best Value, Community Planning and the Power of Well-Being). The Scottish Executive has also produced a consultation toolkit to encourage and facilitate participation of young people in the decision making process. http://www.savethechildrenscot.org.uk/pages/communities/pdfs/reaction-toolkit.pdf
The Corporate Connections Board in South Lanarkshire is one of the seven themed partnerships of the Community Planning framework. The Board is chaired by the Council's Spokesperson for Youth who is supported by staff from the Council's Youth Learning Service. They are also shadowed by a young person appointed as a Trainee Youth Worker on a pilot project funded jointly by South Lanarkshire Council's Youth Learning Services and Route 98, a project overseen by YouthLink Scotland. The Board meets every eight weeks to monitor progress in relation to the key priorities within the Youth Strategy and to discuss new priorities. The benefits of this include a more co-ordinated approach to the delivery of services for young people and the involvement of young people, council services and other relevant people in this process. There has also been a reduction in the duplication of services such as the introduction of a "one-door" approach by partners to a "What's On" publication for young people. For more information contact:
Education Resources South Lanarkshire Council (01698) 454466 |
- Practicalities: Paying attention to the practical needs and circumstances of individuals involved in Community Planning processes, with reference to such issues as timing of meetings and events (for example, holding meetings in the evening or at weekends when required to enable participation of community interests), access to child care, public transport, interpretation services, etc.
- Communication: Communicating with communities in plain language in ways they can best relate to, including use of formats such as large print, Braille and languages other than English.
- Managing expectations: being open and realistic about what can and cannot be achieved by engaging with communities in Community Planning processes.
- Sustainability: Building sustainability into development work, through long-term strategies for empowering communities.
There is a range of expertise to support capacity building for community engagement, these include:
- Trade Unions some of which provide training and support to their members in working with communities and community activists.
- Local Health Councils which can provide training to health sector workers and their partners in working in partnership.
- Voluntary sector organisations, voluntary organisations will have a range of training and capacity building skills while volunteers will have a range of expertise and experiences on which to draw good practice.
- Cultural Agencies and Faith Groups which may provide links to training in involving groups and addressing cultural sensitivities.
A number of these principles are explored in more depth in " Involving Local People in Community Planning in Scotland", Community Development Foundation/Community Planning Task Force.
( http://www.communityplanning.org.uk/documents/engcommunitiesincp.pdf)
Effective Community Engagement: Making it Happen
The effective engagement of communities is a long-term process. There are nonetheless a number of key steps that councils and their Community Planning partners - building on the principles set out above - can take to make this happen. These include:
- Deciding what development work needs to take place to facilitate and enhance the representation of communities of interest and place in Community Planning processes, for example, through existing or new community infrastructures, such as area or interest forums. Such work should acknowledge that the community structures and organisations best able to accurately represent the views of communities are autonomous entities with clear lines of accountability to their structures.
- Sharing existing mechanisms and experience in community engagement practices; for example the NHS Scotland " Patient Focus, Public Involvement", use of participatory appraisals and community futures methods and the New Opportunities Fund/Community Fair Share programme.
- Agreeing on roles and responsibilities in areas of joint/lead action to support development work, including resourcing, staffing, training and information sharing.
- Recognising that there are a range of ways to engage and involve communities and that there is no 'one size fits all' approach. Engagement will vary from single issue based work to ongoing consultation on a range of subjects.
- Mapping out existing levels of community activity, drawing up community profiles, carrying out community needs assessments. See Appendix A, "Assessing activity and building up involvement" in " Involving Local People in Community Planning in Scotland", Community Development Foundation, 2003.
( http://www.communityplanning.org.uk/documents/engcommunitiesincp.pdf) - Identifying key barriers to engaging with communities and working out how these should be addressed, for example, through training and development work among staff or support for community groups or representatives. See, for example, Supporting Community Representatives: a discussion paper, Community Planning Task Force, 2001.
( http://www.communityplanning.org.uk/documents/cptfwg3-community-reps.pdf) - Making best possible use of the resources of the voluntary sector - for example, in developing and implementing approaches to community engagement, training and other capacity building activities, development of community infrastructures, promotion of active citizenship, etc. Councils of Voluntary Services are funded by the Scottish Executive, often with local authority contributions, to participate in activities around the general capacity of the sector.
Voluntary Action East Renfrewshire (East Renfrewshire CVS and Volunteer Centre) was invited to joint the East Renfrewshire steering group shortly after the first Plan was drawn up. As the umbrella organisation it sees itself as being able to represent the interests of the voluntary sector and volunteering in East Renfrewshire. Voluntary Action, with assistance from the Council's Community Workers, has held events on Regeneration and Community Involvement in Community Planning. The aim was to raise awareness of Community Planning among voluntary organisations and volunteers and to begin to look at how they can work together to shape, implement and monitor Community Planning. Voluntary Action sees itself as having a duty of helping partners, organisations and volunteers understand the vital role that the voluntary sector has to play and the valuable resource and contribution they have to offer to the Community Planning process. Community Planning will work best when the voluntary sector is recognised as a full partner and not a recipient of Community Planning. East Renfrewshire is taking small steps towards turning that into a reality. For more information contact:
http://www.voluntaryaction-er.org.uk/who-are-we/about-va.html |
- Many local authorities have written agreements which define the principles and practices of working with the voluntary sector. The Scottish Compact outlines the Scottish Executive's and NDPBs'(Non Departmental Public Bodies) relationships with the sector and is accompanied by Good Practice Guidance on Partnership Working, Funding, Consultation and Proofing. Compacts jointly agreed with the sector provide an effective way of helping build the types of relationships that are needed to deliver high quality public services.
Edinburgh City Partnership is developing a voluntary sector COMPACT Partnership strategy between city public agencies and the voluntary sector to replace the previous partnership agreement which existed only between the Council and the Sector. This COMPACT is seen as a key component in advancing the Community Planning process. A working group including members from Communities Scotland, Lothian NHS Board, Lothian and Borders Police, Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh and Lothians and EVOC has been agreed and will develop the new scheme with the aim of producing a COMPACT agreement in late 2003. The COMPACT will seek to "lift" the level of activity from the previous partnership arrangement to a more strategic level. The aims of the COMPACT are likely to encompass the contribution of the voluntary sector to strategic goals in the City Plan, the joint development of new initiatives and improved working standards and practices. For more information contact: www.edinburgh.gov.uk |
As a practical first step, Community Planning partnerships could set up a development group, representing various stakeholder interests, including the community and voluntary sectors, to formulate proposals and a programme of work, including arrangements for resourcing, staffing and managing the work. Consideration should also be given to consulting a wider "stakeholder" group of key representatives before proposals are firmed up. Community Planning partnerships may wish to consider whether their Community Learning and Development partnership can take on this role.
Community Learning and Development
Community learning and development will form a central element in supporting the engagement of communities. Community Learning and Development partnerships (CLDPs) are now in place in all local authority areas. Community education workers are deploying their skills in forming and co-ordinating partnerships. The Scottish Executive is currently funding a national training programme to extend these skills. Councils and their Community Planning partners will therefore want to:
- Ensure that CLDPs have a clear and specific role in co-ordinating and developing support for community engagement in the Community Planning process.
- Make full use of the professional expertise available through CLDPs to engage communities around issues of concern.
- Harness the capacities of the CLDPs to extend skills in community learning and development more widely across a broad range of public services and disciplines.
Local or Neighbourhood Community Planning
The engagement of communities in Community Planning processes is likely to be most effective and meaningful at a local or neighbourhood level. It is at this level that agencies responsible for the planning and delivery of services on the ground can come together as Community Planning partners to work with communities to address local concerns in a way that cannot be achieved at a council-wide level alone ( see also Advice Note 2: Partnership Models and Structures). Community Planning at the local level, linked to the Council-wide Community Plan, will play a particularly important role in helping to close the opportunity gap that still exists between disadvantaged and better off communities. See Scottish Executive (2002) " Better Communities in Scotland: Closing the Gap", (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/bcis-00.asp) and Scottish Executive 2003, " Community Regeneration Statement: implementation of Action Plan" (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/social/crsi-00.asp).
Dundee's Community Plan sets out a commitment to develop local neighbourhood plans. In each of the four geographic Social Inclusion Partnership areas of Dundee, a community learning plan has been developed with the active involvement of local community and voluntary groups. It takes as its starting point the key themes of the city's community plan and interprets these in the context of identified local needs. It sets out the outcomes the partners expect to achieve over a three-year period and provides a firm foundation for the development of neighbourhood plans. For more information see: www.dundeecity.gov.uk |
While Community Planning at a local level may not necessarily be an appropriate process through which to engage all communities of place, councils and their Community Planning partners will nonetheless want to assess the benefits of this approach in formulating and developing approaches to community engagement. Key issues to consider include:
- The scope for building on, or rationalising, existing partnership activity at a local or neighbourhood level, including social inclusion partnerships, local rural partnerships, and the decentralisation of services.
- The experience of engaging with communities in different localities, including the potential role of area committees, community forums, community councils, etc. in Community Planning processes at the local level.
- The structures, resources and processes that would need to be put in place to support Community Planning at this level, with reference to such issues as the identification of appropriate localities.
Four Local Rural Partnerships (LRPs) were established in Dumfries and Galloway, as a means of providing effective links between Strategic Policy developments and planning and grass roots voluntary and community organisations involved in service delivery. The Scottish Executive and Dumfries and Galloway Community Planning partners jointly fund the four LRPs. Each of them has representation from the public, private, voluntary and community sectors. Each LRP has their own work plan which varies according to local circumstances and need. Included in each work plan is a programme of capacity building which is tailored to meet local need. The LRPs are now actively involved in addressing cross cutting issues such as social inclusion, health improvement and economic regeneration. This should ensure a Community Planning approach is in place to deliver creative solutions at a local level. Dumfries and Galloway won the 2002 COSLA Excellence Award for Community Planning. For more information see: www.dumgal.gov.uk/communityplanning |
These and other issues are considered in more detail in Local Community Planning: a Discussion paper, Community Planning Task Force, 2002.
http://www.communityplanning.org.uk/documents/cplocalcommunityplanddiscussionpaper.pdf.
See also Advice Note 2: Partnership Models and Structures for more information on local Community Planning structures.
Links / other reading
The Scottish Executive has published research on the public's involvement in the land use planning process:
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