Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village
Big Local Plan
2014 1
1 CONTENTS
2 Big Local in Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village ...... 3 3 Our area ...... 5 4 Our approach ...... 8 5 The vision and our priorities ...... 10 6 How we will deliver ...... 12 7 Managing and monitoring ...... 14 8 Budget and Plan ...... 17 9 Contacting us / Steering Group profiles ...... 20
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2 BIG LOCAL IN BEECHWOOD, BALLANTYNE AND BIDSTON VILLAGE
The Big Local programme is a Big Lottery Fund initiative. Across England it is investing at least £1 million in 150 neighbourhoods, which have been overlooked for funding in the past. Big Local encourages local people to identify their own priorities and invest in activities and ideas that are aimed at making their own area a better place to live now and in the future. Local people shape and drive Big Local in their area.
What’s it all about?
It’s about bringing together local people, talent, ambitions, ideas, skills, assets and energy in our area to inspire our local community to act. Whether this be through individuals, groups, organisations or partnerships of all of them, the big idea is to make this a better place to live.
How does it work?
A part of Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village (Wirral) has been selected as a Big Local area. The funding is a charitable endowment, to be spent over 10 years. An independent organisation called Local Trust has been set up to help local areas decide how to spend their allocations.
Local Trust organised for a Big Local representative to help local people pull together ideas for making their community a better place to live in, now and in the future. Community Action Wirral(CAW) has been appointed as the ‘Locally
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Trusted Organisation’ (LTO) - providing administration support and managing the funding for the first stage of the programme. The partnership has agreed, in principle, that CAW should continue to be the LTO into the plan delivery phase and is currently working with them on a Service Level Agreement to capture the features of this future relationship.
In order to access the million pound investment, local people have been tasked with developing a ‘Big Local Plan’. After many months of activity and meetings coordinated by the Big Local Interim Steering Group and organised by The Big Local Representative, the Big Local support worker, Beechwood and Ballantyne Community Housing Association, Beechwood Chapel and a Children and Young People’s Group, from people working with youngsters across the area, together with Beechwood Community Trust, we have got there.
THIS is our Big Local Plan for Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village and is based exclusively on what people who live and work in the area have said is important in our community.
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3 OUR AREA
Bidston Railway Station
Ballantyne Community Centre
St Oswald’s Church St
Beechwood Recreation Centre
Beechwood Ballantyne Housing Association
Beechwood Chapel
BBCHA Beechwood Community Trust
Beechwood Community Association and Beechwood Play and Community Centre.
Fender Way Health Centre
Figure 1 - Map of Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village – Wirral.
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Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village in the Wirral, is home to almost 4,000 people. There are many families in the area with a large number of children, young people and people of working age compared to the rest of Wirral. The area is bordered by the M53 motorway to the west and Bidston Hill to the east, with the motorway forming a physical boundary with the neighbouring ward of Upton. The area sits within the western boundaries of both Bidston and Claughton wards and includes two small areas that are both ranked amongst the 10% most deprived areas in England. The area is physically cut-off, forming a natural ‘enclave’ and, despite rail links at either end of the area, is not generally well served with public transport.
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Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village - In a ‘nutshell’
39% of people have no There are 3,950 people living qualifications (22% nationally) in BBBV By Year 1, there is a 5% shortfall 66% of people have access to Education & in achievement by pupils against Population the internet skills national average
The largest employment sector in 2% of households lack central the area is health & social work heating (3% nationally) The % of people on JSA is 58% of people live in social double the national average housing (18% nationally) Housing Economy There are 17 claimants per job (3
claimants per job nationally)
3,687 (93%) people live in the 44% of children live in ‘out of most deprived 20% of work’ households neighbourhoods in England People claiming mental 52% of children live in poverty (22% nationally) Vulnerable health-related benefits is Deprivation groups more than double the national The number of pension credit average claimants is 2.5 times the national average
Reported crime is lower than 46% of households have no car the national average (26% nationally) The reported violent crime 71% of pensioners have no rate is below national average Access & access to a car (59% nationally) Crime 26% increase in alcohol- transport related crime since 2008
29% of people have a limiting long-term illness (20% nationally) The % of people 'satisfied with their neighbourhood' is higher Life expectancy is 5 years than the national average Health & less than the national average Communities
wellbeing 41% of people smoke (22% & environment for England)
More details can be found at www.vcawirral.org.uk/Beechwood_communityinsight
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There is a long and effective tradition of community action in the area that this Big Local plan draws upon. Many members of the community have been active for a significant number of years helping others, sorting out problems and trying to build a more effective community to live in. Alongside this, there has emerged a number of longstanding and respected local groups, churches and organisations that have become part of the life of the area. A short history of community action in the area can be found at www.vcawirral.org.uk/xxxxxxxx
4 OUR APPROACH
Residents in Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village have identified the need to involve and consult the wider community to ensure the Big Local plan reflects local needs and opportunities. They have also identified that a significant amount of consultation and analysis has already happened in the area, in many different formats and for many different reasons. Some of it was carried out quite recently through local agencies, such as Beechwood, Ballantyne Community Housing Association (BBCHA) , Beechwood Community Trust, and associated with local projects such as the Community Centre transfer.
We have an agreed profile for the area which can be accessed online at http://www.localtrust.org.uk/?project=beechwood
What we have tried to find out for the purposes of this plan, is not simply what the ‘facts tell us’, but what it is that people want, what they feel the local area needs, what works well and what can be built upon.
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The steps we have taken to build this plan
We ran a series of initial briefings in various venues around the community so that residents and partners could find out more about the Big Local concept, how it could be led by the community and the types of investment it could involve We set up a Children and Young People’s group to ensure that the views of young people would be included from the start (this group led on our logo design competition) We brought together a range of resident applicants, who had responded to the Job Description and Person Specification that we developed at the briefings, to form an interim partnership steering group. The residents then decided which partners they wished to invite to be part of the group We collected and scrutinised targeted statistics that helped us to identify potential priority themes for the Big Local Plan. We used all available sources including the local Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, Ward Profiles, area data, local surveys provided by BBCHA and national data from the Office for National Statistics We organised Visioning and priority setting sessions – local people came together to work more intensively on their ideas and hopes for the area and their initial priorities for action We carried out a programme of 10 interviews with local organisations and activists identifying priority issues in the area from their perspective – this was arranged in partnership with the local community centre Joint Management Committee. The interviews helped to shed light in some
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detail on a range of issues within the community, relevant trends in service provision and under-exploited opportunities and assets in the area A local survey was carried out across Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village. This was based on a short questionnaire and produced 107 responses locally. We were particularly pleased that the local NHS, as a key partner, loaned us a number of consoles to gather this information. It is very current and allowed us to check out some of the gaps in our information as well as supplying immediate details on the impacts of welfare reform and debt A Validation Meeting in which all participants were invited to come back together to consider all of the discussions, evidence and feedback. From this a final set of priorities were refined
Pulling all of this together we have been able to set out our vision and priorities.
5 THE VISION AND OUR PRIORITIES
At the outset, local people were asked to piece together the things that would make up a vision of a successful future for the area. Key ideas that emerged included:
the importance of local people feeling happy and positive about where they live generations living and working together constructively strength through collective action excellence in services and support we develop 10
long-term commitment to developing the skills and strengths of local people
Our vision is
To make Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village a happier, healthier and wealthier place to live for people of all ages. We will bring people together, building on our strengths and developing resilience through collective action and a sustainable approach to investment.
Our priorities for investment and development
After long debates and attempts to focus our thinking, we have identified a set of priority themes for Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village Big Local. What the debates showed was that ‘separating’ and untangling key issues was difficult. Dealing with social problems and challenges doesn’t lend itself to ‘silos’ and making sure that investment priorities help people to move their whole lives forward emerged as an overall priority. To help to address this, we have identified longer-term and broader aims as well as more specific priorities for the next 3 years.
For the long-term, we aim to: Promote improvements in the physical, social and psychological health and wellbeing of people living in the area Improve education, literacy and digital inclusion Improve financial inclusion and strengthen anti-poverty initiatives
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Specifically for 2014-17 we will:
Promote improvements in the physical, social and psychological health and wellbeing of people living in the area by supporting o Specific initiatives to engage and support older people o Play and youth engagement services and activities o Learning for pleasure – enabling local people to develop interests, skills and learning activities Improve education, literacy and digital inclusion o Training, support and investment to develop local enterprise skills and opportunities o Training and support to develop employment skills and readiness for work o Digital inclusion initiatives – access, skills and support Improve financial inclusion and strengthen anti-poverty initiatives o Access to affordable credit o Support for practical anti-poverty initiatives
6 HOW WE WILL DELIVER
The Big Local Partnership will have overall responsibility for making sure the plan is delivered and the investment is successful. We aim to keep the arrangements for delivering the plan quite straight forward.
To ensure this plan is delivered effectively, the Big Local Partnership will produce a work plan that sets out how the Big Local investment in Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village will achieve the aims set out in this document.
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Community Action Wirral (a local charity that supports community organisations in Wirral) will be the organisation responsible for handling the investment monies and organising payments to be made. Following on from this they will monitor the investments made under this plan and report back to the Big Local Partnership on how well the programme is running and achieving its aims.
The work plan will use a mix of approaches to deliver the investment in the area, which will include:
Investment rounds – advertised locally with clear dates by which any applications for funding must be received ‘Rolling’ applications process – some funding may be available all of the time, with no clear deadlines A combination of both approaches – depending on the type of funding to be delivered and the types of impact we want it to achieve Direct commissioning – in some cases the Big Local Partnership may decide that the best way to address an issue is to set clear guidelines for what needs to be achieved and then directly appoint an organisation to do this. This will always be done in an open way and our reasons for making decisions will be made clear Social Investment loans –where an individual or organisation needs a loan, to deliver social investment activity, be it accessible finance or the setting up of a Social Enterprise.
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7 MANAGING AND MONITORING
Clearly, we do NOT want this investment programme to become overloaded with paperwork and forms to fill out. However, we will need to have simple but robust systems in place to help us to manage and monitor the investments.
To avoid an overload of paper and form-filling for local people, the Big Local Steering Group have already indicated that they want a creative mix of approaches to be used in monitoring projects and investments, including:
Counting attendance at meetings and events and collecting feedback Recording growth in numbers of, and numbers in, local groups Evidence that you can see and hear - photographic records and videos Consultations and surveys of people benefitting from investments Statistics, where they are available Continual monitoring against action plans x 2 Tracking the longer-term effects of investments Personal Stories and ‘customer journey mappings’
For each of the aims we have set out in section 5 of this plan, we will collect information and data at the beginning of the investment programme. Through feedback from the people, projects and services we invest in, as well as through research of our own, we will continue collecting this information throughout the lifetime of the investment. This will allow us to compare ‘realities’ for people living in this area and be clear about the difference this investment makes over time. Details will be set out and managed through the workplan and overseen by the Big Local Partnership. 14
Community Action Wirral will play a big part in helping us to collect our evidence. They already have systems and technology set up to help us do this. We have also agreed that we want to share information that we collect (where this is allowed) with other organisations in the area, to help them to deliver better and more useful services to local people in a way that best suits their needs and that of the locality.
The critical part of this will be to ensure that the views and opinions of local people are captured as part of this process. In the end, it is local people and residents in the area who will judge whether or not the investment has been a success.
Overall, we will try to monitor three key parts of the investment programme:
Our systems and arrangements for running the programme – are we delivering this effectively? The activities, services, projects, enterprises and events we are investing in – are we making positive things happen in the area? The changes that we are helping to bring about as a result of the investments – is any of this having a real impact on the area and on people’s lives?
The Big Local Partnership will also appoint an external evaluator – someone with experience and skills who can help to assess how effectively the programme is running and whether or not it is having the type of impacts we are planning for.
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They will help us to evaluate our progress both during the life of the project and by providing reports that summarise what has been achieved by the end.
All of the ways in which we monitor and evaluate the investment will be captured in more detail in our Evaluation Framework and Communications Plan, which the Big Local Partnership will produce in the coming months.
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8 BUDGET AND PLAN
Big Local aims to support local action and sustainable forms of local development by encouraging social investment. Social investment can take different forms and we are proposing an approach that combines different types of social investment with more traditional approaches to funding locally. The mix will include:
Personal lending: loans to people that traditional banks would not lend to. These loans have interest rates that are higher than traditional banks, but substantially lower than payday loans and other finance Microfinance: small loans for self-employed people and very small businesses
Small and medium enterprises: loans to help local businesses. Customers are generally businesses with fewer than 50 employees in local areas
Civil society loans: loans to charities, community organisations and social enterprises Micro-grants: very small grants designed to ‘kick-start’ very small, local initiatives Main grants: more substantial investments in projects, services or products – provides vital ‘builder capital’ to launch or re-shape initiatives aimed at prevention or innovation Hybrid: we will use creative combinations of the above to achieve our aims, both social and financial
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In designing any particular approach to funding, we will always start with the question ‘how can we best address this issue, challenge or opportunity?’
Investment priorities for years 1-3
Promote health and & wellbeing within the estates and improve the quality of life for residents Mths1- Mths 7- Mths1- Mths 7- Mths1- Mths 7- 6 12 YEAR1 6 12 YEAR2 6 12 YEAR3 Research and scope existing and potential options 1,000 1,000 2,000 0 0 Initiatives for older people 5,000 5,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 Support for play / youth 5,000 5,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 Learning for pleasure 2,500 2,500 2,000 2,000 4,000 2,000 2,000 4,000 TOTAL 14,500 20,000 20,000 54,500
I mprove education, literacy and digital inclusion Mths1- Mths 7- Mths1- Mths 7- Mths1- Mths 7- 6 12 YEAR1 6 12 YEAR2 6 12 YEAR3 Research and scope existing and potential options 1,000 1,000 2,000 0 0 Local enterprise investment 5,000 5,000 7,500 7,500 15,000 7,500 7,500 15,000 Skills and employability training 10,000 10,000 7,500 7,500 15,000 7,500 7,500 15,000 Digital inclusion initiatives 5,000 5,000 7,500 7,500 15,000 7,500 7,500 15,000 TOTAL 22,000 45,000 45,000 112,000
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Improve financial inclusion and strengthen anti-poverty initiatives Mths1- Mths 7- Mths1- Mths 7- Mths1- Mths 7- 6 12 YEAR1 6 12 YEAR2 6 12 YEAR3 Research and scope existing and potential options 1,000 1,000 2,000 0 0 Access to affordable credit 15,000 15,000 15,000 15,000 30,000 15,000 15,000 30,000 Develop practical anti- poverty initiatives 5,000 5,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 TOTAL 22,000 38,000 38,000 98,000
Facilitation and delivery Mths1- Mths 7- Mths1- Mths 7- Mths1- Mths 7- 6 12 YEAR1 6 12 YEAR2 6 12 YEAR3 Facilitation and admin 13,000 13,000 26,000 13,000 13,000 26,000 13,000 13,000 26,000 Office space 3,000 3,000 6,000 3,000 3,000 6,000 3,000 3,000 6,000
External Evaluator 3,000 3,000 3,000 Support from Credit Union 2,000 4,000 6,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 4,000 4,000 8,000 TOTAL 41,000 43,000 43,000 127,000
Communication and celebration Mths1- Mths 7- Mths1- Mths 7- Mths1- Mths 7- 6 12 YEAR1 6 12 YEAR2 6 12 YEAR3 Web. Soc media / comms plan and setup / training 3,000 3,000 6,000 750 750 1,500 750 750 1,500 Celebration / comms events 3,000 2,000 5,000 1,000 1,000 2,000 1,000 1,000 2,000 TOTAL 11,000 3,500 3,500 18,000 TOTALS 110,500 149,500 149,500 409,500
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9 CONTACTING US / STEERING GROUP PROFILES
Contact details for the Big Local in Beechwood, Ballantyne and Bidston Village:
Big Local Steering Group – c/o Beechwood Community Trust 22 Beechwood Drive, Birkenhead, Prenton, Merseyside CH43 7ZU Tel: 0151 677 8008 Email: [email protected]
Community Action Wirral 220-224 Liscard Road, Wallasey, Wirral, CH44 5TN Tel: 0151 353 9700 Email: [email protected]
Partner organisations supporting the Big Local process include:
Ballantyne Community Centre Beechwood & Ballantyne Community Housing Association Beechwood Chapel Beechwood Community Association Beechwood Community Trust Beechwood Play and Community Centre Beechwood and Ballantyne and Bidston Village primary schools Catholic Children’s Society Community Action Wirral Fender Way Health Centre Groundwork Merseyside Police The Scouts St Oswald’s Church, Bidston Village Wirral Council Wiser Solutions
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