Herpreet Kaur Grewal,
Regeneration & Renewal,
10 October 2008
The long-term future of a scheme to involve residents in the delivery of neighbourhood services is "uncertain", according to an evaluation published this week.
The Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder (NMP) scheme, established in 2001 by the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, has succeeded in promoting renewal in deprived areas to a significant extent, especially that relating to community safety and the environment, says the report.
But it warns that the replacement of the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund by the more economic development-focused Working Neighbourhoods Fund would be "a key test" for the 95 English local authorities operating neighbourhood management schemes.
The evaluation, which was commissioned from consultancy SQW by the Department for Communities and Local Government, says the funding change would test councils' support for neighbourhood management "on a more sustainable basis".
Research conducted by the authors found that the NMP scheme was beginning to change some of the ways in which key service providers operate.
NMP initiatives must now convince funders of the benefits of their work, the evaluation report says. It adds that it is the "continued interest of local authorities and their partners that would determine the future of neighbourhood management in England".
Dawn Bevan, neighbourhood manager for the Boscombe West and Springbourne neighbourhood management team in Bournemouth, said her organisation was in "a difficult situation" and it was likely it would not continue in its current form.
She said she was unsure how her team's work would fit in with that of an economic regeneration unit that the council is currently thinking about creating. She said that there was no guarantee that neighbourhood management would be a priority for the unit.
The evaluation report shows that neighbourhood management schemes have now extended well beyond the original 35 NMPs and are now operating in at least 27 per cent of all of England's unitary or district level authorities.
The schemes are spread fairly evenly across England's regions, with the largest concentration in the North-West and the smallest in the South-East - a pattern that broadly mirrors the country's deprivation levels, says the report.
- Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders: Final Evaluation Report is available here
EVALUATION FINDINGS
- England has 135 neighbourhood management schemes, covering nearly 500 neighbourhoods and around five million people, or eight per cent of the country's population.
- The schemes are focused solely on the most deprived neighbourhoods in 88 per cent of local authority areas with the initiatives.
- Sixty per cent of neighbourhood management initiatives have started since 2005.
