ITEM CA18
CABINET - 18 SEPTEMBER 2007
CLOSER TO COMMUNITIES
Report by Assistant Chief Executive
Background
1. Oxfordshire’s communities are diverse in scale and character and the urban/rural nature of the county needs to be reflected in our service strategies and operational practice. In addition, we recognise that we live in an ever changing world and that communities will need to adapt and change in order to survive. The County Council has a key role in helping local communities to do this, as well as in ensuring that services reflect local needs and are accessible.
2. The Government has also recognised that ‘top down’ approaches to solving problems are not always the most effective solution and, in the recent White Paper, there was strong emphasis on the need for local authorities to have more freedom to support and encourage local place shaping: in other words, helping local communities to shape their own future by getting involved in projects which will sustain thriving and cohesive villages, towns and our city, for the 21st century.
The Role of the County Council
3. In essence the County Council has three roles:
· To shape service delivery to reflect local needs · To support local community planning · To provide leadership in major development and regeneration
4. The County Council is already fulfilling these roles in many ways. However, the purpose of this paper is to sharpen the focus for our work with local communities and to provide better information for local members who lead much of the work with local communities
Service Delivery
5. Whilst our service strategies often reflect countywide approaches, this does not mean that we adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to service delivery. In practice, our strategies merely provide a framework within which to work. There are numerous examples; a few are set out below:
· Education - Countywide priorities and targets in relation to educational attainment are supported with action which is geared to the performance of individual schools and local communities. Children’s Centres are being established across the county to work with families, local schools and other agencies.
· Libraries - Everyone in the county has a local library service available within easy reach. Opening hours and book stock are adjusted to reflect local needs. And of course, our libraries provide facilities for local groups as well as access to books, films, CDs, research and information.
· Social Care Facilities – Day Centres, residential homes, support for Black and Minority Ethnic groups and specialist social care professionals are located across the county largely centred on the City and our market towns. The services reflect customer needs but also the diverse nature of our communities
6. Joining up service provision is also critically important and we are increasingly moving towards multi-disciplinary teams involving educationalists, social care specialists and health care professionals supporting children, young people and families.
7. We also recognise that public services are now delivered through a complex network of statutory, independent, business and voluntary & community sector bodies – three tiers of local Government, a Primary Care Trust, Police, Learning and Skills Council, Environment Agency, Water Authority, Bus Companies, Residential Care providers and voluntary sector bodies such as Age Concern, among others. We work closely with these bodies to align strategy and resources but we also need to join up at a local level. In consequence, there is an increasing need to ensure that local operations for example Police Neighbourhood Action Group areas are developed in a way which relate to natural communities (the City, market towns and the surrounding hinterland. We also have well developed liaison arrangements with district councils (set out at Annex 1 (download as .doc file)) to ensure that we have regular dialogue about local issues.
8. There is no quick fix solution here; service delivery and partnership governance has to evolve to fit ever-changing needs. However, this process of evolution will be easier if key agencies have a shared understanding and acceptance of the need to work together and to align strategies and operational delivery. It will also help if we can all recognise common boundaries based on natural communities. These are concepts which we hope to share more widely through the Oxfordshire Partnership (the countywide local strategic partnership) which is currently developing the Sustainable Community Strategy which will set out priorities for securing the well being of the County over the next 20 years.
9. Scrutiny committees can also help this process by examining relationships between service providers and the communities they serve. This more outwardly focused approach for scrutiny is recommended in both the Government’s White Paper and in the County Council’s recent Peer Review.
Local Community Planning
10. Our physical communities are constantly changing for a host of reasons:
· Technology, business practices and shopping patterns change with consequential affects on local communities, e.g. post offices and shop closures · Development - whether infill or major new estates · An ageing population · An increasingly diverse population · Climate change which will impact on the environment and agriculture
11. Local communities can react to these threats and challenges on an ad hoc basis by supporting or opposing planning applications, for example, or they can take a more proactive approach and shape a plan for the village, town or neighbourhood’s future.
12. The County Council and Oxfordshire district councils are encouraging community planning as a way of ensuring a practical and local view about how local communities want to develop. The process is also useful for encouraging active involvement and self-help.
13. With well over 300 parishes and local neighbourhoods in the county at any given time, there could be 40 or more community planning projects running. In consequence, the County Council relies heavily on its Members for involvement in and support for local community planning. However the County Council also provides support by:
· Working with the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council (ORCC) and other agencies to ensure that their community planning support and guidance is practical and useful; · Providing support to County Councillors through the Partnerships Team in the Corporate Core; · Mapping County Council activity in local areas.
14. We are already collaborating with ORCC regarding community planning but support for local members is very much ad hoc. Over the next few months we will consider Member support needs with a view to reporting to the Cabinet in the Autumn with proposals for action.
15. Mapping of what we do in local areas in under-developed and the recent Peer Review recommended that the Council make improvements in this area. In fact there is already a map on the intranet which records local public relations information. Our intention is to develop this ‘natural communities’ map so that we capture information about services, expenditure and other information of which local members need to be aware, e.g. planning proposals.
16. A map illustrating the ‘natural community’ areas we are planning to use for information and data mapping is attached as Annex 2 (download as .pdf file). These boundaries align with national census super-output areas, with parish and district boundaries and, in most cases, with electoral divisions. In a few cases this has not been practical because of the large areas covered by the electoral divisions.
17. As well as having consistent local boundaries for County Council purposes it would be helpful to have agreement of boundaries with our partners. This will be discussed with key partners during the Autumn.
18. The information we intend to gather in the first phase of this mapping exercise is set out at Annex 3 (download as .doc file). Where services are delivered from a specific location the budget can be identified although we need to bear in mind that services focus on and follow clients, so this will only provide a partial picture of resource use in each area. After the initial phase, we will examine opportunities to add to the information so that local members and local communities have a better understanding of the resources being deployed by the County Council.
19. We also envisage that we might use the ‘natural communities’ for communication and consultation purposes. For example, these groups of towns and parishes might be used as a focus for future meetings with towns and parish councils and, in time, it may be possible to reflect these ‘natural communities’ in our ‘Oxfordshire’ magazine for local residents.
Leadership in Major Development & Regeneration
20. In some areas of the county, the County Council needs to be more actively involved in addressing the changing needs of local communities. This will be particularly true where major development is planned or where significant regeneration is needed. There are a number of major projects already operational (West End Oxford, South Oxfordshire Quadrant and the Area Programme covering neighbourhoods within Oxford and Banbury), details of which are set out at Annex 4 (download as .doc file).
21. There are also several smaller local projects including work in Wood Farm, Oxford and in Chipping Norton and major new projects are being developed for both Bicester and Banbury.
22. It is suggested that in the period to March 2009, our priorities should be:
· South Oxfordshire Quadrant · West End Oxford · East Oxford (including the Area Programme) · Banbury (including the Area programme) · Bicester · Didcot
23. In time, there will be a need to add to the list but, to ensure that the projects are properly resourced and planned, it is important to avoid over-extending the range of activity.
24. There are some common principles which should apply in all cases:
· District Councils and District Local Strategic Partnerships should be encouraged to take an active and leading role in these projects, but the County Council should also have a lead member and lead officer for each project. · Each project should have clear terms of reference and a project plan including an analysis of appropriate data, resourcing requirements and a timeline. · These projects will require a support team to co-ordinate and drive delivery. The Partnerships Team in the Corporate Core and the Economic Development team in E&E will provide this support. · An annual report on progress should be submitted to the Cabinet and to other interested parties.
Conclusions
25. There is now widespread acceptance that there should be a stronger focus on local communities in public service delivery. The proposals in this report seek to reinforce and build on existing good practice by recognising and supporting the work of local Members as community leaders, by supporting town and parish councils and similar community groups to participate in local community planning and work collaboratively with a range of statutory agencies to find practical and affordable solutions to local needs.
26. As a by-product, action to map local activities and resources will help local people to feel that the County Council is not remote from local people and also improve understanding of the significant resources we spend in every local area.
RECOMMENDATIONS
27. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
(a) endorse the extension of information mapping for Oxfordshire’s natural communities;
(b) approve the priority list of development/regeneration projects set out in paragraph 22 of the report;
(c) consider Member support arrangements in Autumn 2007; and,
(d) review overall progress and next steps in Autumn 2008.
STEPHEN CAPALDI Assistant Chief Executive
Background Papers: Nil.
Contact Officer: Paul James, Head of Partnership Working, Corporate Core Tel: (01865) 816031 September 2007
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