Best Practice Workshop

28 September 2006, Auckland Castle, Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham

What was it about?

Pathfinders have a key role in developing and sharing good practice.  This event presented a range of good practice case studies from the North East to stimulate thinking in West Durham. It gave partners the opportunity to:

• Find out more about good practice in four key thematic areas – these areas had emerged from two case study events held by WDRP
• Discuss and share ideas about what works well and what we could improve in West Durham
• Suggest actions and areas for improvement in each of the thematic areas
• Provide best practice input to support WDRP Case Study development

What did we do?

We explained what was happening in the WDRP, and that Pathfinder is not coming to an end - we are moving to a new beginning in which we can build on what we have learned. The case study presentations would help this process:

The case-study presentations and follow on discussion gave a time to learn, to share, to reflect and to focus on what we can do to make things better. We wanted to know: how we shape up now in West Durham and what we do next to improve the situation? 

What did we say?

Community Engagement

In West Durham there is still a ‘them and us’ mentality. We must bring community, voluntary sector and agencies together much more effectively. Practice is patchy and funding is often project and time related.  To improve we need to be very clear about what it means to have active community engagement and get the language right. There is a need for rural areas to have different policy and funding.  Consultation must be kept simple.  Recommendations - A systematic ‘Active Community’ strategy and action plan which link policy, funding and actions together in an accountable way to achieve a real culture change. We need to develop a mechanism for feeding neighbourhood issues into district strategy and policy.  Also need to adequately support communities in taking things forward. In short we need to create the blueprint and then the plan which will deliver it.

Enterprise and Entrepreneurship

North East Rural Estates Project is a very exciting project to develop rural enterprise. We weren’t sure how well we shaped up in this but we know it is important. The principles adopted here – partnership, communications, working with public sector, and a shared vision - are widely applicable and case-studies should encourage how they can be used, particularly community hubs. Community Volunteers and the development of toolkits were particular strengths of this case-study. Recommendations - WDRP to engage more with the Estates work; could also explore how the “rural estates approach” principles could be applied to the community hubs and Eastgate case studies.

For Acumen the key to success for releasing community enterprise lies in putting self belief back into communities - developing a can do attitude, investing in people and leaders and working with people at ground level, in a fun way, on issues that are real to them. Enterprise becomes something that affects everything we do and something everyone can do. Recommendations - Create more of a “can do” culture in public sector and communities; Deliver tailored support to communities in their locality; Better manage public procurement to maximise social enterprise benefit.

Joined up services

Business link has made a great deal of progress in developing the infrastructure and protocols to support joined up business services. We have the know how to deliver in a joined up way and a brand which people trust. We have been less good at actually joining up the services. Issues includes annual changes and the continual need for funding.  To improve we need to: build on what has been achieved, define the core service and backup delivery so that it is seamless for customers. Recommendations - Suggested that there is a need to bring County Durham Development Company (CDDC) and DEFRA in at a more operational level; develop complementary rather than competitive services; undertake further work around developing the community sector and social enterprise.  We also need to think longer term and try to future proof against change.

The Mineral Valleys case-study highlighted many of the same issues raised in the morning discussion. It emphasised being clear on what schemes were about, being clear how they contributed to wider community and partnership agendas, recognising and working with enlightened self interest so that there is a strong link between activity and community partnership, consulting at all levels early, having a common logo/ umbrella identity under which smaller projects sit, developing an interactive standard risk register, and tackling cross cutting issues and encouraging more joined up working by educating.

Recommendations – Produce an interactive standard risk register with actions to be managed; and address cross cutting issues through initiatives such as joining up education and volunteering.

Policy and Practice

There is a big chasm between strategy and delivery – not just in West Durham. Communities differ widely, a one size approach will not fit all. Gathering evidence which shows how people benefit directly from bringing policy and practice closer together is hard. We need stories to evidence the impact we are making. We need to give people in communities the wherewithal to say what matters most to them. Policies should be set out simply and in one place so people can see what is going on. Policy and delivery people should come together on equal terms to exchange experiences and work jointly on policy development and delivery programmes. Policy should be about things that matter to people. Recommendations - Adequately fund local consultation to identify needs and meet policy body requirements. Share knowledge between strategic bodies and local communities through events and case studies. We also recommend using the ‘community hubs’ case study to develop a better understanding of community infrastructure, how we can improve mechanisms for communication, engagement and involvement. We should tackle directly the communication/feedback chain - policy to delivery to customers - to understand the interfaces better and remove the blockages. Place emphasis on the policy/ delivery interface. Use this to develop better models for engagement and involvement.

Summary

The case study presentations indicated a number of common themes for improvement.

• Clear blueprint for action setting out clearly what we want to achieve in a way which people can work to
• Take principles of good practice and make them work let go of old ways of working
• Create places for people to come and work together and really do joined up thinking and practice
• Bring things together so that we can improve services collectively not piecemeal
• Use what we are doing now to make things better
• Identify key projects and drive them to perform

For many people this had been a very useful day which helped focus thinking on what and how we can improve services to our rural communities in West Durham. For a few it was more words, not actions.

Next Steps

The key findings and recommendations from the event will be fed back to the Pathfinder Steering Group. The case study leads will incorporate the thinking from this event into case-study development. 

Supporting Documents and Downloads

WDRP: Joined Up Working - Shaun Stuart, The Enterprise Agency [ppt] (684 KB)

WDRP: Linking Policy and Practice - Glyn Bateman [ppt] (58 KB)

WDRP: Kevyn Smith - Development Advisor [ppt] (292 KB)

WDRP: Joined up Working - Tony Devos, The Mineral Valleys Project [ppt] (241 KB)

WDRP: Community Engagement - Steven Hume, Blyth Valley [ppt] (7.72 MB)

WDRP: Entrepreneurship - David Stewart, NE Rural Estates [ppt] (106 KB)

WDRP: Enterprise - Kate Welch, Acumen [pdf] (1.12 MB)

WDRP: Dorothy Gibson - Facilitator - Best Practice Event 28 Sept 06 [ppt] (434 KB)