An interesting news story is developing on the BBC about the Communities First programme.
It would seem that despite Wales having one of the highest rates of deprivation in areas such as the South Wales Valleys, the Assembly Government has underspent its budget by £6 million.
Having spoken to various community groups over the last few years about this programme, there is general disappointment over its management, with accusations of individuals being 'parachuted' into communities rather than the programme working with community groups which are already established on the ground.
That seems to be reflected in a comment by Professor Dave Adamson in the story, who states that
"The programme was launched in effectively 142 partnerships across Wales in one big bang if you like to use that term - and inevitably there weren't the trained and qualified workers on the ground...Many people moved into it from kind of related areas in local government and health et cetera and I think quickly realised the jobs weren't for them and left very very soon after."
Some groups are also worried at the lack of dialogue and co-operation with other established community organisations and local firms.
However, the biggest issue may be over the effective use of the funds. I know that there is some concern in some quarters that the Communities First funding was not used effectively to match fund the £110 million available through the Objective 1 Priority 3 programme targeted at deprived communities.
If that is true, then it would seem that there has been a lack of communication across the Assembly Government in respect to what is a vital programme to support our poorest areas and certainly needs further investigation.
It would seem that despite Wales having one of the highest rates of deprivation in areas such as the South Wales Valleys, the Assembly Government has underspent its budget by £6 million.
Having spoken to various community groups over the last few years about this programme, there is general disappointment over its management, with accusations of individuals being 'parachuted' into communities rather than the programme working with community groups which are already established on the ground.
That seems to be reflected in a comment by Professor Dave Adamson in the story, who states that
"The programme was launched in effectively 142 partnerships across Wales in one big bang if you like to use that term - and inevitably there weren't the trained and qualified workers on the ground...Many people moved into it from kind of related areas in local government and health et cetera and I think quickly realised the jobs weren't for them and left very very soon after."
Some groups are also worried at the lack of dialogue and co-operation with other established community organisations and local firms.
However, the biggest issue may be over the effective use of the funds. I know that there is some concern in some quarters that the Communities First funding was not used effectively to match fund the £110 million available through the Objective 1 Priority 3 programme targeted at deprived communities.
If that is true, then it would seem that there has been a lack of communication across the Assembly Government in respect to what is a vital programme to support our poorest areas and certainly needs further investigation.
Comments
Biggest mistake was that this programme didn’t pay heed to the findings and recommendations of the People in Communities Programme that preceded it.
Also the people chosen to support the programme were not the ones who knew what they were doing but again were luvvies.
More time was spent on partnerships than communities needs and the programme became top down and ruled by local authorities, few managed to break through,
Initial development staff were not qualified and the disparity between pay and conditions was unacceptable, considering this was a Wales programme.
It needed a crack team of civil servants who could project manage a huge project – with advisors who understood the complexities of community and community economic development.
What happened was exactly what Dave Adamson said – it was just pushed out there and then good practise didn’t catch up. There are some excellent successes out there, but they for the most part are the ones that are rooted in the community and adopted the “Irish” model – don’t tell them what they don’t need to know.
Matt Wright