Community Engagement in Community Safety Case Study
Particip8 Overton – community engagement and participatory budgeting in South Lanarkshire
Estimated population size of local area (Overton, South Lanarkshire): 1611
Introduction
In 2009, South Lanarkshire was one of five local authorities in Scotland successful in their bid to take part in the Participatory Budgeting pilot ‘Community Wellbeing Champions Initiative’[1]. The project built upon existing community engagement activity in the area and sought to address the issue of antisocial behaviour, which had been identified by the community of Overton as a priority issue. Particip8 Overton, a steering group of local representatives was established to take the pilot forward. The group engaged the local community in a successful Participatory Budgeting process to allocate community safety funds to a range of initiatives which the community had identified to address the underlying causes of antisocial behaviour in the area.
Since then, Particip8 Overton has gone from strength to strength and continues to take forward the aims of the pilot. They act as a representative group for local organisations and statutory partners, continuing to coordinate community initiatives around the issues raised during the engagement process, and growing as a strong partnership between the local community, community organisations, and statutory agencies in the community of Overton. This case study seeks to capture the engagement processes used in this initiative and share the learning of Particip8 Overton along the way.
The process
The South Lanarkshire Community Safety Partnership identified the Participatory Budgeting pilot as an opportunity to galvanise previous community engagement events which had identified the outcomes that informed the council’s problem solving agenda. Funding of £20,000 was matched by the Community Safety Partnership giving £40,000 to enable this new and innovative approach to engaging with the community on issues around community safety and antisocial behaviour. The pilot had strong support from the local tenants and residents association and the Housing Area Services Manager, and built on a targeted antisocial behaviour enforcement programme led by the council and community policing. It also linked clearly towards the outcomes of key national policy drivers and the local Single Outcome Agreement. These enabling factors were supported by Scottish Government’s and COSLA’s vision for the pilot programme; that locally elected members would have a role of ‘champion’ in overseeing the engagement and empowerment of communities, and in developing effective local solutions to local problems.
To take the pilot forward Particip8 Overton was established. Particip8 Overton acts as a steering group which includes local councillors, council officers, police officers, representatives from tenants and residents groups and a residential homeless unit service, managed by the Salvation Army. The key aims of the pilot were to:
§ Engage with local residents in prioritising the needs of their neighbourhood;
§ Allow local residents to agree community safety priorities;
§ Increase cross community working across the South Lanarkshire area;
§ Build the capacity of resident communities and
§ Involve the community in monitoring and evaluating the delivery of agreed projects.
Initially Particip8 Overton carried out a residents’ survey to help them understand local peoples’ community safety priorities and the outcomes they wanted. Four main issues were identified including: poor appearance of local environment; high levels of fear of crime; lack of community spirit; and lack of activities in the area for young people. From these four priorities Particip8 Overton co-developed interventions to address the issues and presented them back to the local community. The Community Safety Partnership Officer played an integral role in ensuring that the initiatives were developed collaboratively by the local partners in response to the outcomes identified, and that local groups were part of that process:
‘It was challenging initially as although the available funding attracted many groups, they expressed concerns about the allocation of funding to one or two short term initiatives. So we wanted to make sure that the process had real community ownership, and that this would be the focus of the process and with partnerships built during the process.’ (Community Safety Officer)
The intended outcomes for the Community Safety Partnership in working in this way were not only to reduce antisocial behaviour and improve quality of life for the neighbourhood; but also to improve community engagement, increase community spirit, enhance local democracy; and pilot a process that could potentially be used in other ways and areas of South Lanarkshire by the Community Safety Partnership.
As previous attempts to engage communities through traditional methods had not been very successful, Particip8 Overton decided to hold a fun day at which residents were able to find out more about a shortlist of projects, which had been proposed by local organisations and groups in response to the priorities identified through the residents’ survey. Information about the projects was distributed to residents in a leaflet prior to the open day, at which residents voted on to determine which should be allocated resources. The funding and voting event was viewed as an incentive to get local residents to take those first steps to become involved in helping to tackle the community safety issues that they had raised during the consultation process, through deciding where funds should be allocated. At the voting event residents voted for six interventions:
· Overton Garden Care Club
· Overton Safer Streets
· Overton 2gether
· Communities Doing it for Themselves
· Move the Goal Posts
· Youth NRG Overton
“It wasn’t just about how money was to be allocated; it was how the community felt about making decisions and evaluating the projects identified” (Community Safety Officer)
The commitment of time from the staff of the partners involved, and the local representatives was vital in shaping the success of the process.
“It was challenging as my involvement in the group was in addition to my existing duties, but very quickly I was able to see the impact of the additional time spent on this as Monday morning calls in relation to community safety issues were greatly reduced”. (Housing Officer)
The sense of ownership of the process by the community has helped increase engagement overall. There had been ‘apathy in the community’ due the extent of anti-social behaviour, but now that the impact of the initiatives is visible, residents are more confident in working with the police and partners to tackle issues as they arise.
“The tenants association would not have been able to respond to these kinds of concerns alone, so the partnership has allowed us to address the concerns of the community”. (Tenant & Resident’s Association member)
Outcomes
The projects prioritised by the community in the process have had a significant impact on the levels of reported anti-social behaviour - the key issue which brought the partnership process together. And in addition, the group has continued to deliver an annual fun day and a series of other annual community events which have attracted up to 1200 participants.
Of significant impact has been the Garden Care Club which has been developed in partnership with a local Salvation Army homeless service users centre, Eva Burrows. Service users from the homeless service users’ centre are trained by Environmental Services to provide gardening to local residents who do not qualify for Council gardening services. The group reports that this has not only developed the skills and confidence of the centre’s service users, but has also helped break down barriers and stigma associated with homelessness in the wider community. The involvement of services users in the planning and delivery of the annual fun day and participatory budgeting process, has been a particularly positive outcome from the perspective of the Eva Burrows Centre. .
Community capacity building has been a key aim of the process for the partnership. The group was keen to build confidence in the community. In Overton, many people were highly skilled in local industry which has now gone from the area. As a result, many local people no longer see themselves as able to contribute to the community. Particip8 Overton feel that they have had an impact on the capacity of individuals to engage in community activity, particularly through increased participation in Particip8 Overton group itself, the tenants and resident groups, and young peoples’ initiatives. Particip8 Overton also feel that community capacity has increased, which is evident in the active and informed contribution of the community to a consultation on local development plans.
Residents have reported a reduced incidence of antisocial behaviour at weekends, as a result of Move the Goal Posts, a targeted football initiative for young people. The initiative has been highly successful in engaging ‘inter-territorial’ groups and, as such, has increased turn out at community events, in particular families from neighbouring communities, something which would have been a concern in the past due to anticipated antisocial behaviour.
“There is a flicker of harmony there now” (Mary, a local resident)
Although the initiatives chosen by the community through the voting process have been resourced by the Particip8 budget, the group have found that the partnership process has also brought ‘in kind’ support from local business. For example, contributions to the Christmas event,
“Other areas nearby now ask to be involved in the Christmas event, people are still talking about it!”
Learning
In terms of establishing the partnership, the group quickly identified that the support of the Housing Officer would be vital in ensuring a successful engagement process. Particularly in relation to their knowledge and understanding of the geography of the area, and the direct access they could provide to the different communities within Overton.
One area of learning was in relation to ensuring maximum attendance from the community at the voting event. Particip8 Overton felt the fun day attracted a lot of attention and enthusiasm; however numbers at the voting event itself were lower. Although this meant the community had longer to digest the information about the initiatives on offer, the group felt they would hold the voting at the fun day if they were to do it again in order to ensure larger numbers voting in the participatory budgeting process.
The National Standards for Community Engagement[2] were key in guiding the process to ensure that it was as participative and inclusive as possible. Although the pilot was externally evaluated, the group felt they would have benefited from having more time built into the process for evaluation and to record their use of the National Standards.
It is important to note that at the beginning of the process residents, and partners working in the area didn’t fully understand the underlying principles of Participatory Budgeting, and that a change of approach would be required, by handing over ‘power’ directly to local residents.
The sustained engagement by Particip8 Overton with the wider community, and the way in which the participatory budgeting process evolved, meant that the membership of Particip8 Overton changed through time. Now, it is predominantly made up of local agencies, local authority staff, and local residents who are keen to develop the learning from the process, and who have a sound understanding of the positive relationship with the community that enabled the pilot to be taken forward.
In terms of the experience of staff involved in the process, officers did express concerns over the intensive level of support required:
“Participatory budgeting is quite time intensive, and there were concerns about whether this could be justified during the current financial climate being experienced particularly within local authorities, and the additional demands being placed on staff.” (Community Safety Officer)
Staff also felt that other community agencies and services were often working in silos in the community and had limited connection with local residents or other agencies. The critical role of Particip8 Overton in bringing the different local partners together quickly became apparent as this provided the basis for a shared understanding and a shared platform to deliver more inter-connected and effective services in the area.
This enhanced partnership working has helped to build excellent working relationships between staff from local agencies, council, and local residents, to better plan and coordinate services or joint initiatives in the community, towards a more ‘co-produced’ model. On an individual basis, this approach allows staff to be more effective in their areas of work, and how they deliver services, because they have a better knowledge and understanding of the community, all of which is starting to improve the quality of life for local residents and those in the surrounding areas.
Particip8 Overton sought to support the community to tackle the underlying causes of the incidents of antisocial behaviour that were occurring in the community, and feel that there have been short term outcomes from the Participatory Budgeting process which have shown that there has been some progress towards this. However, they are committed to working in partnership, to support the community in developing responses to the issues which are important to them, and wish to build on the assets and capacity of the community to achieve sustainable long term impact.
Next Steps
Particip8 are continuing to resource the activities identified in the budget, and have found that the original pilot has unlocked much of the capacity and assets within the community, meaning the resources have gone much further. The group has extended the opportunity to further develop the Participatory Budgeting approach and will continue to ensure that the initiatives supported demonstrate that they were:
§ Sustainable;
§ Have a long term difference to the community;
§ Build local capacity; and
§ Provide public reassurance to the local community.
The next step for the group is to develop the Overton 2gether initiative, which seeks to share the learning gained and spread the activity out to the surrounding areas.
The group have also managed to secure increased access to the community hall, the only remaining community facility in the area, and are keen to engage the community in this process in order to ensure sustainability of the resource for the future.
Due to financial constraints on council budgets the Community Safety Partnership recognises that it cannot, particularly during these financially challenging times, provide a dedicated budget on an annual basis for all participatory budgeting initiatives that are currently being rolled out in other communities across South Lanarkshire. However, the Partnership believes that the process in Overton has evolved towards a co-production model, where local agencies, council officers, elected members, and police and local residents are all working together on the issues affecting the local community by using mainstream budgets and resources. It is anticipated that each participatory budgeting initiative being carried out in South Lanarkshire will evolve towards an embedded ‘co-production’ model.