Report outlining how sustainable community strategies can be evidence-based. It details a model for developing such an evidence base and provides advice on the sources of evidence available to local authorities.

Importantly, the paper acknowledges that there is no one single model for evidence-based sustainable community strategies and significant variation will occur across policy and geographic areas. To this end, the authors acknowledge the unique placement of LSPs to provide additional evidence and guidance at the local level.

The research is part of the Process Evaluation of Plan Rationalisation and Formative Evaluation of Community Strategies project. In December 2005, Communities and Local Government (then ODPM) launched a major consultation paper on the future of Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs), which touched significantly upon community strategies.

This paper is one in a series of issues papers produced as part of the Process Evaluation of Plan Rationalisation and Formative Evaluation of Community Strategies Project. The paper focuses upon the issue of evidence in community strategies.

The paper draws on the following research undertaken as part of the Formative Evaluation of Community Strategies:

The main forms of evidence used to inform community strategies are from consultations with local residents and from household surveys. The use of other sources of evidence, particularly secondary data, is used far less.

There were some interesting patterns and variation between authorities. Areas in receipt of NRF, upper tier authorities and unitary authorities were all more likely to draw on secondary data than lower tier districts.

There was also evidence of secondary data being used to inform and challenge interventions at neighbourhood level. However, local consultation predominated approaches rather than a process which balanced consultation and using secondary data.

Communities and Local Government
Analytical.Services@communities.gsi.gov.uk.

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//2006

Policy Research Institute, Leeds Metropolitan University

research

Urban Policy > Social inclusion & integration

Community development