In the current climate councils are faced with the challenge of cutting cost but do want to default to cutting levels of service.
But is the process of enabling the community to do more for itself just a polite way of dressing up a service cut. At Ignite we would argue not – what is important is using the scarce resources of the council to deliver outcomes for the community.
Building the capacity of the community also needs to go hand in hand with the sensible management of expectations of what the council will do and what the community – and individuals within it – need to take responsibility for.
We recently were told about a level of dependency that had built up around antisocial behaviour on a council estate. Minor , first time transgressions, were picked being up by the council and treated as full blown cases. One neighbour throwing sandwiches onto a garage roof on a sunny Sunday afternoon really required a quiet conversation between neighbours rather than the full weight of the council anti-social behaviour team. It turned out that 60% of cases could be handled at point of contact with a little advice and management of expectations rather than being turned into cases. A dependency and false expectation had developed that needed to be reversed.
But how can community capacity and a sense of responsibility be built:
- Community forums, e.g. tenancy committees , are a great way of allowing the community to self manage its affairs
- Capacity building programmes that enable this self management to thrive are an important part of the story and enable the council to get greater leverage from their resources, e.g. developing local mediation skills to unblock local disputes
- Allocation of budgets to community groups builds another layer of responsibility – even to the extent that any unused budget can be retained and invested in specific community projects.
- Community incentives to get involved are now evolving rapidly – points schemes for community participation that result in a reduction in council tax are now becoming a reality
Councils can also smooth the path for many segments of the community to access limited services and to prevent communities needing the help in the first place:
- Providing better information and self serve facilities that mean that communities do not need to access services in the first place
- Joining up with community partners, e.g. ensuring that Citizens Advice Bureaus are supported and signposted for debt advice to prevent potential homelessness cases
- Improving access, recognise constraints and using the community to share in the support of the vulnerable
There is much can be done and there is evidence to suggest that breaking the habit of dependence reaps rewards beyond the reduction in demand and associated cost savings.
This article is the foiurth in the series of blogs written for district local authorities on “Responding to the Comprehensive Spending Review” – Follow the series…
