The importance of Devolution to Neighbourhoods John Connell

The importance of Devolution to Neighbourhoods John Connell Sept 2015

What will I cover? Want to involve you in discussion about services and communities Set out • Opportunities from Devolution Deals • Examples of services devolved across country • Ask you to think of what you might take back and implement in your area • Mycommunity. org. uk and the networking opportunities it offers 2

Diseconomies of scale lead to cost savings and better outcomes Co production Services produced together between provider and citizen/user Economies of scope: achieved through the ‘bundling’ of services Radical systems thinking: achieved by putting the user at the centre of service delivery Economies of scale Economies of learning: achieved through small scale experimenta tion Economies of density: achieved by targeting services Potential to achieve efficiencies through above versus economies of scale will be different for different services types.

Neighbourhood Planning The Upper Eden Community Plan brings together 16 parish councils around the town of Kirkby Stephen, in Yorkshire, and sets out what local people value about their community, and where they’d like to see change.

Community Right to Bid Residents of Nunhead, south London, came together to stop the clock on the sale of their local pub, The Ivy House, and raised the money to buy and renovate it, including through using community shares.

Community Right to Challenge Community-led social enterprise, now delivers tailored services for their local community.

Our Place The local community have worked with their local public services and designed a new service to help local young people into work and apprenticeships.

And it’s working… Somers Town Community Association Our Place Camden has created a jobs hub coordinating employment and training for local people. The hub reduces duplication in services and provides tailored support to individuals through language classes, CV writing, IT training or signposting to organisations arranging apprenticeships. This has a financial return ratio of 2. 2. Bishop Stortford Town Council – Right to Challenge The Town Council submitted an Expression of Interest to the District Council, under the Right to Challenge, to run and reinvigorate their market. This was accepted and the Town Council now runs the market. This will increase its use and reduce running costs for the taxpayer. Shrewsbury Town Council deliver their own highways and grounds maintenance and provide a commercial service, with local schools among their clients. As part of the Our Place programme they have developed Team Shrewsbury a multidisciplinary team tackling crime, antisocial behaviour and quality of life issues.

Specific Work Plan for Parishes in 2015 • Making it easier to set up parishes • Parishes taking greater role in devolution • Help development in sector • Looking at Financial issues facing Parishes • Parish visits from Whitehall and Vision for sector • Working with local areas to help them understand benefits of neighbourhood working • Working to improve commissioning practice 10

So what are you going to do? For more information visit My. Community. org. uk john. connell@communities. gsi. gov. uk Sept 2015