DECISION-MAKER: OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE SUBJECT: THE BIG SOCIETY – NATIONAL BEST PRACTICE DATE OF DECISION: 17 NOVEMBER 2011 REPORT OF: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY None BRIEF SUMMARY There are three key parts to the Government’s Big Society agenda, launched by the Prime Minister on 19 th July 2010: • community empowerment • opening up public services • social action This report provides the Committee with an overview of some national case studies that contribute to the Big Society agenda, to be considered as part of the Scrutiny Inquiry. RECOMMENDATIONS: (i) That the Committee considers the report to highlight any matters which OSMC members feel should be taken into account in developing the Big Society Scrutiny Inquiry. REASONS FOR REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS 1. To enable OSMC members to identify any matters which they feel should be taken into account in the development of the Big Society Scrutiny Inquiry. ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED AND REJECTED 2. None. DETAIL (Including consultation carried out) 3. The Big Society national agenda continues to evolve along the three key strands: • Community empowerment : giving local councils and neighbourhoods more power to take decisions and shape their area. • Opening up public services : public service reforms will enable charities, social enterprises, private companies and employee owned co-operatives to compete to offer people high quality services. • Social action : encouraging and enabling people to play a more active part in society. 4. Alongside the number of national initiatives mentioned in the previous meeting notes, case studies of schemes in other parts of the country are emerging which are considered to be best practice or good examples of Big Society principles. Some of these are listed in Appendix 1 but the main themes have been covered in more detail below.

1 5. Community empowerment To increase community empowerment, some authorities have been creating community forums or area committees. These groups are usually based around a geographical area, often ward based, and feed into decision making. § In Ipswich, Community Forums are used to publicly share issues, promote new initiatives and input into council decisions. They give agencies the opportunity to consult, and local people an opportunity to hold agencies to account. There is more detail on this in the case study in Appendix 2. § Lewisham’s 18 Local Assemblies set their own priorities and have access to an Assembly Fund to take action on locally important issues. They are also using social media to share their decision making with a wider range of people. § City Forum in combines forum meetings with online discussion forums to comment on decision making in the city. The project is organised by DemSoc in partnership with the local council. § Warminster Voices in records local opinions and then plays them at the Warminster Area Board; allowing local people to have a say on issues at meetings they would not normally attend. § Citizen Power in focuses on six key themes for the area and has put together groups of local people to be involved in the proposal, decision making, and delivery of the programmes. 6. Opening up public services There are a number of new multi-agency approaches to services traditionally provided by Adult Social Care or Health providers, some of which contribute to the Opening Up of Public Services strand, while others have evolved into the Social Action strand: § Working Families Everywhere is a Government initiative where a ‘troubled family’ is matched with a local authority based ‘family champion’ from their local community who links with all the existing interventions and agencies and provides them with one to one support to help them become a working family. Pilot schemes are operating in Westminster, Hull and . The Communities Team has registered interest in this initiative on behalf of City Council. § Action Teams Rossendale were created after local young people wanted to change public perceptions about them and linked with local agencies to tackle antisocial behaviour. § Family LIFE, based in Swindon, focuses on families in chronic crisis who were engaged with a number of public services. Participle, a social enterprise, was commissioned to work with the families from a base on a local estate. Families chose to take part in the process and get the support of an advocate. Initial results include estimated savings of £720,000. There is more on this in the case study in Appendix 3. § Kent’s public sector agencies have produced a wide variety of datasets on their residents to enable a better understanding of their area and more access to potential partners. They have also used local researchers to inform an innovation event where local community projects were suggested like a bulk-buying food group.

2 § Connected Care, a social enterprise service in Hartlepool, is making sure the concerns and needs of local people are underpinning the work of the council and Hartlepool Primary Care Trust. 7. Social action Another key trend includes the evolving use of public spaces through multi- agency regeneration schemes or changes in the way council buildings are run or used. Some of these started as Opening Up Public Services and have developed into examples of Social Action: § Beautiful North is a multi-agency approach to tackling areas of deprivation in Liverpool. Community led programmes have revitalised areas and tackled anti-social behaviour and housing issues. There is more detail on this case study in Appendix 4. § Sutton’s libraries are diversifying by hosting a Bookshare scheme where residents offer their own books to scheme members to borrow as an addition to the libraries catalogue. Libraries are also being used to host job clubs and other community schemes. § Calderdale Council have given the control and management of their Town Hall to Hebden Bridge Community Association who are making improvements to the building and opening access to a wide number of community groups and enterprises. § In North Yorkshire, Hawes and Starbeck libraries have been transformed into Community Hubs; community enterprises that are run by local people and provide an access point to public, community and voluntary services. § Stevenage Borough Council’s co-operative borough initiative has transferred the management of its community centres to communities and has transferred outdoor football training assets to a junior football club. 8. Community budgets The government published their prospectus for areas and councils that want to bid for either Neighbourhood Level Community Budgets or Whole-Place Community Budgets pilot schemes on 17 October. This is part of the Open Public Services agenda and the government will provide funding for each strand and for the whole-place Community Budgets. This will enable a joint team, with officials from both local service providers and Whitehall, to be pulled together and work in the locality to support the development work. The scheme was originally launched in 2010 and there are 16 areas, involving 28 local authorities, piloting Community Budgets as one of the ways to improve how services are provided to the most troubled families. By October 2012 each pilot area will have developed an operational plan which sets out what a single budget, or combined resources, would look like, the outcomes that would be delivered, governance, the redesign of services required and how new financial approaches would work. The plans will be ambitious, setting out a radical future and Community Budgets more generally will be a catalyst for local providers to come together. RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS Capital/Revenue 9. There are no direct financial implications.

3 Property/Other 10. None LEGAL IMPLICATIONS Statutory power to undertake proposals in the report : 11. The duty to undertake overview and scrutiny is set out in Section 21 of the Local Government Act 2000 and the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. Other Legal Implications : 12. None. POLICY FRAMEWORK IMPLICATIONS 13. None.

AUTHOR : Name: Vanessa Shahani Tel: 023 8083 2599 Vanessa.shahani@southam E-mail: [email protected] KEY DECISION? No WARDS/COMMUNITIES AFFECTED: All

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION Non-confidential appendices are in the Members’ Rooms and can be accessed on-line Appendices 1. List of national examples 2. Case Study on Ipswich Area Forums 3. Case Study on Beautiful North 4. Case Study on Swindon LIFE Documents In Members’ Rooms None Integrated Impact Assessment Do the implications/subject of the report require an Integrated Impact No Assessment (IIA) to be carried out? Other Background Documents Title of Background Paper(s) Relevant Paragraph of the Access to Information Procedure Rules / Schedule 12A allowing document to be Exempt/Confidential (if applicable) None

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