A report sought to provide baseline data on community strategies and plan rationalization. Considerable progress had been made on the development of community strategies, with the majority of strategies in place as formally approved documents. Respondents felt that the most significant impact of plan rationalization would be in terms of creating more integrated services and reducing levels of bureaucracy.
Source: Alison Darlow, Yvette Fidler and Penny Wymer, Process Evaluation of Plan Rationalisation/Formative Evaluation of Community Strategies: Report of the December 2004 Survey of Local Authorities, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Dec
A report reviewed all community strategies prepared by local authorities and local strategic partnerships. Very few strategies included sufficient material to suggest whether evidence had been used appropriately to derive the strategy and a series of actions. Most areas set targets which closely followed central government policy objectives and targets.
Source: Peter Wells and Rosalind Goudie, Process Evaluation of Plan Rationalisation/Formative Evaluation of Community Strategies: Review of community strategies - Overview of all and more detailed assessment of 50, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report
Date: 2005-Dec
A new book advocated a critical approach to community development that emphasized its transformative rather than ameliorative potential.
Source: Margaret Ledwith, Community Development: A critical approach, Policy Press, available from Marston Book Services (01235 465500)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Nov
A report examined the scope for community land trusts to counter the problem of high land values preventing access to affordable housing. Experience showed that they could not only guarantee long-term affordability, but also act as a successful means of community empowerment by giving people collective control of land and property assets within their neighbourhoods.
Source: Diane Diacon, Richard Clarke and Silvia Guimar es, Redefining the Commons: Locking in value through community land trusts, Building and Social Housing Foundation (01530 510444)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Oct
A report presented an interim evaluation of a project to support community empowerment through light touch support and networking. It said that the existing policy emphasis on the neighbourhood was welcome: but real change would be needed in local authorities and other public bodies if systems and cultures of working were to deliver on the neighbourhoods agenda.
Source: Mandy Wilson, Pete Wilde, Derrick Purdue and Marilyn Taylor, Lending a Hand: The value of light touch support in empowering communities, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2005-Aug
A guide provided detailed advice on how to evaluate a community project.
Source: Marilyn Taylor, Derrick Purdue, Mandy Wilson and Pete Wilde, Evaluating Community Projects: A practical guide, York Publishing Services for Joseph Rowntree Foundation, available from York Publishing Services Ltd (01904 430033)
Links: Guide (pdf)
Date: 2005-Aug
A report analyzed the development and use of networks to achieve community development aims.
Source: Alison Gilchrist with Tanwir Rauf, Community Development and Networking, (Revised edition), Community Development Foundation (020 7226 5375)
Links: Summary
Date: 2005-Jul
An article said that the ways in which the term 'community' was used by the Labour government neglected the complex nature of the concept, and risked adversely affecting the most deprived sections of society.
Source: Isabelle Fremeaux, 'New Labour's appropriation of the concept of community: a critique', Community Development Journal, Volume 40 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jul
An article said that the success of the new patterns of local governance depended on engaging communities in a range of partnerships at various geographic scales and administrative levels. In practice, this usually fell to a handful of community leaders in any given locality.
Source: Derrick Purdue, 'Community leadership cycles and the consolidation of neighbourhood coalitions in the new local governance', Public Management Review, Volume 7 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Jun
A report said that the National Health Service had a key role to play in cutting local crime rates and boosting community social networks.
Source: Healthy Sustainable Neighbourhoods, NHS Confederation (020 7959 7272)
Links: NHS Confederation press release
Date: 2005-Jun
A research report evaluated community participation programmes, established to provide funding to stimulate and support community activity in deprived areas.
Source: Making Connections: An evaluation of the community participation programmes, Research Report 15, Neighbourhood Renewal Unit/Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 8383)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2005-Mar
An article examined community involvement in regeneration. The New Deal for Communities programme had directly involved residents in the governance of neighbourhood renewal with some success. However, community capacity had proved to be limited, adequate representation was difficult to achieve, and there had been friction with local government. Community empowerment had to be enabled and supported by getting the structures and processes right, and supporting community representatives.
Source: Fred Robinson, Keith Shaw and Gill Davidson, 'On the side of the angels: community involvement in the governance of neighbourhood renewal', Local Economy, Volume 20 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2005-Feb