Workshops: NEW OPPORTUNITIES

New Opportunities.

Led by: Robert Beard, National Association for Voluntary and Community Action

Robert Beard
Robert is Policy Adviser for the Improving Local Partnerships Unit at the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA), and a member of the Faith and Community steering group at the Department for Communities and Local Government.  He also offers freelance equalities and diversity training, especially around Religion or Belief.

The workshop 'unpacked' the government’s agenda to shift decision-making power from Whitehall to local areas, through local strategic partnerships (LSPs), local area agreements (LAAs) and comprehensive area assessment (CAA). Faith communities and faith-based organisations have a particular and historic commitment to marginalised and excluded people – the workshop explored how they could draw on this to contribute to the design and delivery of local public services.

The workshop:

• looked  at the positive implications of the current economic recession
• explained Comprehensive Area Assessment and showed how the new assessment process offered faith communities opportunities to feed into the service design and delivery process, even where they have not been involved in LSPs and LAAs
• showcased user-friendly resources for further exploration of the issues raised.

Policy context – localisation

• Government policy is to shift power to make decisions about local issues from Westminster to local areas
• Government wants local decisions to be informed by the local experience, knowledge and expertise of third sector organisations (TSOs), including faith-based organisations (FBOs)
• Local strategic partnerships (LSPs) have been set up in every local authority area, to bring together the public, private and third sectors
• Each LSP has negotiated a local area agreement (LAA) with its regional Government Office, setting out local priorities

Opportunities for FBOs

• FBOs can work with other TSOs, through local infrastructure organisations (LIOs), to contribute to the localisation of service design and delivery
• FBOs and their members have knowledge, experience, expertise and track-record in providing services to ‘need to reach’ groups, plus commitment to their areas
• FBOs can contribute to local democracy, facilitate councillors’ access to ‘need to reach’ groups and empower those furthest from decision making to ensure their voices are heard
• The economic downturn may offer FBOs an opportunity to present themselves as the best value option for delivering services

Comprehensive area assessment

• CAA is a single assessment process, undertaken by the Audit Commission and six partner inspectorates, replacing Comprehensive Performance Assessment
• Designed to put citizens at the centre of the assessment process, reduce inequalities and address discrimination
• Local councils and public bodies expected to demonstrate increasing partnership working to tackle local challenges in which FBOs are stakeholders
• CAA focuses on effective delivery of local services and on experience and perceptions of whether they are the right services, meeting the needs of the disadvantaged
• CAA will use green flags to indicate exceptional or innovative achievements, and red flags to indicate concerns about poor performance or prospects
• Faith leaders, FBO officers and faith reps need to engage with CAA, to maximise the sector’s involvement in and influence on local public services

New opportunities
Faith-based organisations and local involvement

Robert Beard
Improving Local Partnerships Policy Adviser
NAVCA, The Tower, 2 Furnival Square, SHEFFIELD S1 4QL
( +(0)114 289 3984
robert.beard@navca.org.uk