Community engagement in community planning is central to the Local Government in Scotland Act (2003). The Network Support Fund is an innovative approach to resourcing this. Historically community engagement in national policy initiatives has been granted from central government to other public agencies.

The NSF provides resources directly to the community who would normally be engaged, not those who seek their engagement. The report investigates 15 very different projects across 12 separate Community Planning Partnership areas.

The report presents a synthesis of the learning available through an analysis of experiences and recommends methods to maximise effectiveness of projects funded in this way.

The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 has two main aims in Community Planning: to genuinely engage communities in decisions and ensure commitment from organisation to work together to improve public services.

Effective community engagement is often problematic. In March 2003, Margaret Curran, then minister for communities, announced additional funding to provide independent support in pursuit of effective community engagement.

Fifteen demonstration projects were funded. The Network Support Fund was set up to pilot ways of funding community and voluntary organisations to become more involved in Community Planning.

The report assessed 15 projects distributed over 12 separate Community Planning Partnership areas. This encompassed a range of organisations – Local Rural Partnerships, umbrella groups and local community groups. Each project had different circumstances, objectives and approaches. The researchers sought to establish internal and external indicators of effectiveness.

The team used stakeholder reference group meetings and spoke to community representatives, functionaries, and services providers to establish project effectiveness. Network Support meetings, quarterly briefings and supplementary interviews gave information about progress.

Project success was defined by the extent to which community engagement processes had led to a change in services as required by the community.

Evidence was demonstrated by progress made towards a project objective. Many successfully effected actual change or gained commitment from service providers. Almost all demonstrated that the processes facilitated would lead to future change.

This form of funding was found to be effective and the level of investment commensurate with the return delivered. There is a further year of funding. It is usual for the first year to show slower progress than the second, so the outlook is positive.

Communities Scotland
scr@communitiesscotland.gsi.gov.uk

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/11/2005

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