We realise that these are uncertain times for communities faced by what seems an ever-deepening set of issues and institutional uncertainty with the roll-out of devolution and local government reorganisation. At the national level, there seems to be increasing mention of the importance of ‘place’ and murmurings about community empowerment, without a readily available route to see how this translates down to individual communities.
At the People & Places Partnership, we pride ourselves on being good at unwrapping all this place ‘packaging’ and also finding practical ways to improve neighbourhoods, towns and city centres. That’s why we are putting together this new programme for ‘delivering pathways to place progress’, through the practicalities of ‘partnerships, plans and projects’. Here we share the three principles behind the ‘pathways programme’ and introduce you to the three development steps involved.
Pathway’s pioneering principles
A. Built on track record of revitalising places
Our ‘pathways programme’ is built on the approach that we took in preparing the national ‘revitalising town centres toolkit‘ for the Local Government Association and our track record of applying it in around 50 places, illustrated by these national case studies of our work in Suffolk and North Yorkshire. The pathways programme extends this distinctive approach that focuses as much on the ‘how’ (people & partnerships) as the ‘what’ (plans & projects) of revitalisation.
In recent years, we think we have become masters in interpreting place policy, as our place policy checklist reveals, as well as understanding the intricacies of ‘devolution’s different paces in different places‘ and the options for improving place-based goverance to enable community empowerment . That’s added to our long-held commitments to putting partnerships in place and the art of asset-based development.
You can read more about our approach and ‘specialities board‘ that we think will help us adapt the pathways programme to address your aims. Now though, let’s talk about the importance of understanding different place partners’ needs.
B. Meeting place partners’ collective needs
We think this ‘pathways programme’ can work well with ‘anchor organisations’ and other community groups looking to increase their impact and influence; town councils wanting to be a bridge between their communities and more distant Unitary Authorities; and with the constituent ‘legacy councils’ seeking to ensure a local focus and engagement in shaping future Unitary Authority policies and priorities. Business Improvement Districts looking to have both stronger strategic influence and community engagement, might find it helpful to participate in the programme, as would specialist groups such as community heath initiatives and educational institutions. It would work even better as a collaboration inolving some or all of the above!
From our experience working with places, we understand that progress in places is delivered more or less equally by local action and wider influence. It can be held back as much by local organisations not ‘rowing in the same direction’ and a lack of joined-up working, as a lack of resources. A key part of the pathways programme involves work with identified key partners and stakeholder groups from the outset to understand their distinct needs and develop an increasigly collaborative partnership approach where organisations play to their strengths. This includes reviewing options for combining local action and wider influence using tools such as our good practice guidance on ‘putting partnerships in place‘ and our proposed community participation wheel for partnerships.
C. Putting partnerships and plans before projects
You may have organisations, councillors or local groups concerned about single issues or calling for particular ‘pet’ projects in the neighbourhoods, towns or city centres that you represent. Such passions can be a good place to start though through our pathways to progress programme, we help lead organisations or place partners to take an informed, step back. It might be that local needs are better served in the longer-term by engaging with more stakeholder groups, businesses and citizens to understand the role they might want to play in a ‘place partnership’. We’d suggest perceptions and priorities identified through such engagement should be combined with some ‘magical metrics’ that we can help muster-up. Our research in to influencing our experiences and perceptions of places will help frame discussions about what matters to residents, visitors and potential investors in places. All this, will help us begin to develop a collective plan, or ‘forward framework’ as we call it during the formative stages.
Rest assured, the ‘pathways programme’ can though address place partners’ common, collective requirements including:
- analysis of the catchment, current and potential future role of a neighbourhood, town or city centre
- engagement with local residents and an understanding of their use, perceptions and priorities for the place
- engagement with local businesses and insights into the current value, perceptions and priorities for the place
- preparation of a joint action plan for addressing identified issues to enhance the look and feel of the place
- creation of a ‘place partnership’ with identified roles, any necessary structures and ways of working
We will most likely also discuss the importance of co-ordination and communication with you -the needs that maybe you didn’t know you had! They help us get back to those people with passions, who now might be better able to channel their energies in more collaborative and productive ways.
A three stage pathway for place progress
Although an interative process that blends partnerships, plans and projects, it’s probably helpful to break the pathway into three stages where each has changing prominence.
1. The partners stage
This is where we quickly help you to take a step back and get up-to-speed on the best ways forward. After a lot of time spent supporting places, our instincts and insights can save a lot of local thinking time and undirected debate. We get to know your place and partners through an initial visit and around the table discussions with key stakeholders to help shape the process and share initial perceptions and priorities. We know that early involvement of leading organisations and individuals is key if we expect them to ‘buy into’ and become part of the pathway process. So many opportunities are missed and energy wasted when people in authority become the ‘blockers’ rather than the drivers or enables of place progress. We will undertake some initial analysis of policies and place metrics off-site and come back to you with a report mapping out next steps. And we will meet with partners 3-6 months later to help trouble shoot and shape progress, where places haven’t advanced to stage 2.
Output: First steps report including scoping of issues and an initial assessment of potential partners.
Indicative timetable: 4-8 days over 2 months
2. The planning stage
At this stage we will check-out potential issues and opportunities in much more detail. We will do a detailed review of all active and potential policies and programmes that might impact on place progress. We may interview more key stakeholders and groups to understand their issues and also how they might want to be involved in understanding, influencing and possibly co-creating place progress. We are likey to gather key metrics on the role and catchment of your neighbourhood, town or city centre. As necessary, we can undertake surveys of local businesses, citizens or visitors to understand their perceptions and prioritis of the place. We will focus on ways of work by putting partnerships and processes in place. We will begin to develop a ‘forward framework’ in conjunction with ‘place partners’ that covers both the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ necessary for progress. This framework will pull together a ‘golden thread’ linking identified issues, proposed ‘projects’, responsibilities, priorities and impact measures. We will include 2 days to revisit after three to six months to help assess progress and partners’ participation.
Output: Forward Framework charting the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of delivery including place partner roles.
Indicative timetable: 16-24 days over 3-6 months
3. The project stage
This is where we help you to develop policies, projects and activities to deliver progress in your place. We can support you and partners in the coordinated delivery of related projects including running a core group and engaging stakeholders through issues-based working groups (remember the earlier mention of coordination and communications skills!). Our strengths are in helping join-up the dots in delivery tat helps in ‘boosting pride in place‘ and keeping partners traveling in the same direction, including by monitoring and managing progress. We can take a lead in what we call ‘improving the journey from sofa to shop‘ in ways which connects people’s perceptions of places with their on-street experiences, including leading reviews through our people, places and parking process. We can work with trusted associates to deliver other aspects of place progress from tackling empty shops, creating community assets to strengthening place identity and branding. We have also developed a detailed understanding of delivering and tracking ‘pride in place’ amongst key demographics such as younger people and disdavantaged places. Ongoing mentoring is an important part of this phase as the local partnership develops confidence and capcity to pursue progress.
Output: Coordinated delivery programme covering partnership and projects, reviewed after 12 months
Indicative timetable: Bespoke depending on need and reviewed annually.
Charting your place’s pathway to progress
We have purposefully named this our pathway programme as it is about charting and embarking on a journey that will progressively take us through different phases of place progress. Although we talk about plans, it is better to think of the overall approach as a process where proposals evolve between partners. That journey begins with us talking about where you and your place partners think you want to go, and our suggestions of short-cuts and preparations to help you on on the way.
If you are familiar with our web site or LinkedIn posts and ‘Talk of the Town’ newsletter, you’ll realise that our Director, Chris Wade, is always happy to talk about places and the people that make them. He’d be pleased to have an exploratory chat about your neighbourhoods, towns and city centres -real cafes and coffees are best though a virtual croissant probably more practicable.
One thing we include in all stages of our involvement in the pathways programmes is an element of mentoring, including follow-up visits and on-line resources for all place partners. We find it helps at cross-roads or where partners veer from the route.
For more information
If you would like an initial chat to unpick some of the issues in your place and discuss how we might help provide clarity through ‘partnership stage’ analysis and review, get in touch via services@people-places.net.
Our recommended approach is to begin with the stage 1 ‘partners’ stage as a way of quickly charting first steps. As part of this stage we can jointly begin to shape the second stage so that we start to address local priorities and fill-in tyhe gaps in capacity.
It is possible to commission stages 1 and 2 jointly. Stage 3 is best determined largely by the outcomes at stage 2.
