Many Hands Make Light Work

04.03.2009

Is this old adage true for cash-strapped organisations wondering whether Partnership will help them find solutions for disadvantaged communities?

A Partnership in North Devon argues you don’t need to pour money into co-ordinating services to get better value for deprived communities out of them.  Just a good dose of can-do attitude, a sound listening process and a bit of free-thinking.

Gary Smith describes how Transform, a Pathfinder project managed by a Board of local reps from the community and service providers, has made partnership work.  Funded by central government, Transform is time limited to 7 years of which it’s nearly served 4.  It has spawned a host of initiatives to get people back into work and boosted vulnerable people’s confidence, inspiring them to overcome personal hardship and tackle neighbourhood problems - driven by the conviction that people will transform their lives and communities if they are given the permission and encouragement to do so.  When the project’s users identify an idea for action, they get a ‘can-do’ response.  The force behind this positive attitude is drawn from Transform’s key ingredients: Creative thinking; knowledge of local potential; strong relationships with young and old people on the street; and a bunch of public service providers willing to work in new ways.

So what can people learn from Transform about 'making things happen'?

The Transform partnership was put together by service providers ready for a new approach. A bid was being developed by Devon County Council and North Devon Council to address local levels of deprivation in Combe Martin, Bratton Fleming and Ilfracombe.   It was recognised that success in tackling deprivation in the long term wasn’t so much to do with ‘what’ services did as ‘how’ they approached communities and their problems.  The partners decided to transform existing services by understanding and responding better to residents’ needs.  The key would be to empower service providers and residents to plan and take targeted, localised action together, and Transform would pilot new methods of doing this.

What is special about the way the Transform partnership delivers work?

The essence of the partnership’s success is the way it brokers the relationship between residents and service providers.  Transform runs topical focus groups to attract and engage residents.  The focus groups enable Transform to cross-fertilise recruits onto its Board and task groups.  Transform also has a street representative programme – with people volunteering to look after their street.  Some of these are on the Board or on Task Groups.  In addition Transform runs a Young Advisors programme to train young people to give advice to service providers, and a Young Advisor sits on the Board.

The Partnership Board is the hub of learning and action.  Here, the different perspectives about what matters are put on the table by both service users and providers. Listening and negotiation are central to the way the Board works; Its job is to empower residents to tackle the issues they say matter and shape the way essential services are delivered.  For example, dealing with deprivation in Transform’s areas means tackling the housing, health and worklessness issues that impact on people’s lives the most.  But at the same time, ask residents about what issues they feel are on top for them, and the list will include dog muck and parking. Transform doesn’t shove these eternal irritants to one side.  It tasks its Environment Focus Group to develop and deliver neighbourhood solutions to them, clearing the way (almost literally) for the community to focus on the other fundamentals.

The Board meets bi-monthly to work through the 5 Local Area Agreement Themes. The session always begins with asking residents what the issues are.  Then specialist workers talk about key targets they are working to.  The Board decides what gaps lie between the two and designs initiatives to fill the gaps.  The job of Transform’s Neigbourhood Manager is to help work up and facilitate the initiatives - and then evaluate their impact.  Simple steps can go a long way towards addressing concern and winning the confidence of the community.

Also, almost every issue impacts on all the services. Poor housing for example. Young people living in crowded accommodation find it difficult to study and prefer to be out on the street, having an impact on educational achievement and sometimes leading to concerns from residents about anti social behaviour. This makes it an issue for more than just the Housing Department and a cooperative solution should increase impact, reduce costs and be sustainable.

It all sounds great, but isn’t it true that Transform’s approach relies on Pathfinder funding?

Not at all says Gary.  The ethos of coordinating local services and resident input is not difficult.  You could say that Neighbourhood Management, which is what Transform is about, takes the Local Area Agreement and delivers it at grassroots – it grounds it in local reality by asking “how do you do it in our street or area?”.   Employing a worker isn’t necessarily the way forward – if residents and front line workers believe that they are doing the right thing for the community, it creates energy and added value through cooperation. By communicating at every level, there is agreement about the priorities for the community and a joined up approach to dealing with those issues.

Do you hope Transform’s style of work will be replicated around Devon?

That’s already happening. The street rep programme and the young advisor programme are both happening in Barnstaple and the LSP is looking at learning from our programme and that of other communities in the area to see how to develop a wider response. When our pilot programmes are seen to work, and either add value or are cost effective, then service providers have been great at picking them up. On-street recycling bins and junior citizen schemes in school for example. Evaluation has been a key part of the programme, so that we have hard evidence of service improvements and resident satisfaction. Other of our pilot programmes have fallen by the wayside and there are some that will take a bit longer to mainstream - our worklessness programme for example. We work hard to ensure that as many programmes as possible only begin with a clear idea of how to mainstream – but sometimes you have to innovate and prove the point.

What do you need to get the ball for this kind of work rolling?

I think it’s the policy go-ahead.  If members of staff are given freedom to co-operate and work collectively and are focused on a certain physical area, they can achieve even more.  Workers feel really empowered and are boosted by the support from colleagues working along side them from other organisations.  ?What Transform does is look at the statistics that describe the problem; Then we identify where the problem physically is;  We take the service providers to go and look at it and make the plan there.  We did this in Combe Martin and came up with a plan for a healthy village month – all agencies worked together to deliver public health outcomes – and involved school and clubs. We ended up with Tai Chi, not litter, on the beach. There were lots of spin offs as well, as organisations realised that they could share resources and utilise each others expertise.

What top tips do you have for other organisations who want to achieve similar effects?

• Listen to what people tell you and act upon it, with a can-do approach.
• Identify the key issues for your area and ensure that there is agreement about them
• At the same time as working on the big issues, tackle the issues that people get fed up with because they’re in people’s faces - If people tell you about something like dog poo, work with them to try and find some solution.
• Ensure that your plans for activity are clear, inclusive and deliverable.
• Make sure you evaluate and review your work. To prove a new way of working, you need to be able to measure the outcomes.

To find out more about Transform visit www.transform-northdevon.org.uk

• Open Hearts Open Minds Editor interviewing Gary Smith: Sam Magne

With thanks to Open Hearts Open Minds for permission to reproduce this article - for details, visit www.openheartsopenminds.org.uk