Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee
Communities First – lessons learned
Submission by the Bevan Foundation
1.
The Bevan Foundation is an independent charity that develops
evidence-based ideas to make Wales fair, prosperous and
sustainable. We have worked on poverty and deprivation in Wales
since 2002 and welcome the opportunity to submit evidence to the
Committee’s inquiry on Communities First.
2. At the outset we would like to state that Communities First was an extremely important recognition in the early years of devolved government that action was needed to reduce poverty and deprivation across Wales. It was a bold and ambitious programme both in its scale and in its aspirations.
What worked and didn’t work about the Communities First programme
What has worked
3. When it has worked well, Communities First has been highly regarded by partners and much appreciated by the communities it has served. The most recent (2015) evaluation noted:
Communities First is regarded as a valuable Programme by many of
the
stakeholders involved in its delivery. The limited engagement this evaluation
has had with the scheme’s beneficiaries also suggests it is well received by
local communities, with many examples of positive changes made to the lives
of those in its target areas.[1]
4.
While the responses to the Welsh Government’s consultation on
the future of Communities First are not representative because of
the significant number of respondents who had links with the
programme, nevertheless many respondents including residents were
supportive of its activities.[2]
5. Successive evaluations and our own experience show that what Communities First has done particularly well is:
a. Community engagement: Communities First has engaged with and developed an understanding of local communities that is unique. At best it has built exceptional trust amongst people who distrust the state, so that they are willing to get involved with local services and activities.
b. Partnerships: Communities First has built partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders, from Jobcentre Plus to local schools, helping to shape local services and improve access so that they better meet the needs of the community.
c. Delivery of services: Communities First has supported the delivery of valuable services, from offering ‘job clubs’ to help people into work, to debt advice for people in financial difficulty to much-needed mental health services. Local access to such services has been vital for people for whom the cost of a bus journey of even a few miles can be prohibitive.
d. ‘Soft’ outcomes: although the evidence is patchier, Communities First has also often achieved good ‘soft’ outcomes such as people feeling more confident, having wider horizons and having better job prospects (if not yet having a job). These changes are very hard to measure but are no less important because of that.
What has not worked
6.
Despite these successes, there are ways in which Communities First
is not working so well. Crucially, the programme has not achieved
significant, measurable reductions in poverty and deprivation in
either the designated areas or in Wales as a whole. Evaluations in
2010 and 2011 – the most recent of the programme’s
effect on deprivation – found that the then approach had
‘limited’[3]
and ‘marginal’[4]
impact. And while the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation cannot be
used to monitor progress, the areas that were the most deprived in
Wales in the early 2000s are mostly still amongst the most
deprived.
7.
In our view there are two reasons for Communities First’s
difficulty achieving change on the ground – the fundamental
approach of the programme and its delivery.
Fundamental Approach
8.
The current approach to Communities First is based on changing the
characteristics and behaviours of individuals through, for example,
improving employability, encouraging healthy lifestyles and
improving life skills. The assumption is that individuals are the
problem, and that the solution is to ‘treat’ them
– a term actually used in the 2015 evaluation.[5]
9.
In contrast, we see area deprivation as the result of complex
social and economic changes. Long-term changes in the economy
and labour market, such as the decline of manufacturing and the
loss of semi- and unskilled jobs, mean some people face significant
problems finding secure, reasonably-paid work. At the same time,
the housing market and housing allocation system tend to
concentrate people facing the greatest disadvantage into particular
small areas, for example where housing is relatively cheap and / or
unpopular. It is no accident that the largest number of Communities
First areas are found in the parts of Wales that have experienced
the greatest economic shocks in recent decades.
10. It is difficult for the Communities First programme – like all area-based programmes – to shape these big social and economic forces, such as wage rates, whether a local employer makes people redundant, or local rents to name but a few. The task is all the harder because of the relatively weak relationship in the past between economic development priorities and Communities First.
11. Even
when Communities First is able to change the characteristics of
individuals, there is no guarantee that that will change the
characteristics of the area. As the 2015 evaluation of Communities
First concluded:
The Programme … is based on the key assumption that … changing individual-level outcomes … will significantly impact on area-level characteristics. The testing of this assumption would be a key aim of any future outcomes evaluation.[6]
12. For
example, an individual who has benefitted from Communities
First’s help to find work may move out of the area when he or
she gets a job, only to be replaced by an unemployed person moving
into the area. While the out-going individual’s circumstances
have improved, the area’s characteristics remain unchanged.
The opposite may occur if an area is gentrified, with less deprived
people moving into an area apparently improving its characteristics
without the circumstances of deprived people changing at all.
Delivery
13. The
second issue is delivery. Some variation is inevitable in a
programme covering so many areas in a wide range of circumstances.
We recognise that there is a challenge to combine local flexibility
and responsiveness with an all-Wales strategic direction and
framework. Nevertheless, successive evaluations have pointed out
that while the programme is working well in some areas, in others
it is not performing as well as might be expected. For
example the 2015 evaluation noted that ‘some significant
challenges do remain for the effective delivery and monitoring of
the Programme’.[7]
Even on the fundamental requirement of community engagement, after
14 years the evaluators found that ‘genuine community
participation is not always being achieved.’[8]
This finding was by no means new – the 2011 the
evaluation concluded the programme was delivering benefits in
‘many, though by no means all, of the supported
communities.’[9]
14. To
conclude, where Communities First has worked well it has achieved a
wide range of mostly soft outcomes that benefit individuals, but
even in these areas the design of the programme means that it is
very difficult to achieve area-level change. The programme has
worked less well in some areas, struggling to achieve and
demonstrate impact either for individuals or the areas
concerned.
How local authorities will decide which projects continue to
receive funding after June 2017
15. The Welsh Government has a key role to play in providing a clear strategic direction and robust guidance to local authorities. Drawing from the evidence of effective area-based initiatives elsewhere,[10] the underlying principles should be:
a. the area should experience significant socio-economic disadvantage;
b. the area should be large enough for economies of scale but small enough for resources to be targeted, with some analysts suggesting 10,000 is about right;
c. the boundaries of the area to be supported should be meaningful to the community as well as coinciding with those of other agencies;
d. the focus within the area should be on those facing multiple disadvantage.
e. skilled project staff and community leaders are essential to success;
f. expected outcomes should be realistic and be relevant to the intervention, for example support for individuals should be measured in terms of change in individuals’ outcomes;
g. projects should have a track record of achieving positive outcomes;
h. the local authority and other agencies should be expected to refocus their mainstream programmes – including their economic development and regeneration programmes - on the area in question; and
i.
outcomes and impact should be monitored effectively.
16. The
opportunity should be taken to replace the narrow, individual focus
of the current Communities First themes with a broader,
evidence-based approach. The work we have undertaken with the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation[11]
provides a framework for suitable local action, ranging from
stimulating the creation of jobs to raising educational attainment
levels and provision of quality careers advice and guidance in
schools.
17. There should, in addition, be scope for innovation. This might include a change in emphasis away from individual ‘deficits’ towards those based on assets, such as building community wealth, creating a local ‘circular’ or sharing economy, and local intermediate labour markets.
How different poverty reduction programmes will change as a result of the end of Communities First.
18. Programmes
such as Flying Start and Communities for Work will need to be
reframed as they have operated within the framework of Communities
First. At this stage we do not have further suggestions to
make.
________
[1] Welsh Government Social Research, (2015), Communities First: a Process Evaluation. Para. 7.1
[2] Arad Research for Welsh Government, (2017), Talk Communities Engagement Programme
[3] Welsh Government Social Research, (2011), Research Summary: The Evaluation of Communities First. p.2
[4] Hinks, S. and Robson, B., (2010), Regenerating Communities First Neighbourhoods in Wales. p.28
[5] Welsh Government Social Research, (2015), Communities First: A Process Evaluation. Para 7.23
[6] Ibid. Para 7.5
[7] Ibid. Para 7.4
[8] Ibid. Para 7.18
[9] Welsh Government Social Research (2011), Research Summary: The Evaluation of Communities First. Para 22.3
[10] Department for Communities and Local Government (2010), The New Deal for Communities Experience: A Final Assessment - The New Deal for Communities Evaluation: Final Report – Volume 7
[11] Joseph Rowntree Foundation, (2016), Prosperity without Poverty: A Framework for Action in Wales.