I feel compelled to write this blog after the semi surprise
announcement last week by the minister Carl Sargeant that the Welsh
Government’s flagship talking poverty programme Communities First (CF) is to be
“rethought”. At the time of writing what
is actually meant by this term is far from clear and therein lies one of the
problems to the community development / tackling poverty agenda in Wales.
Although CF is fifteen years old, which in community regeneration project years
is positively ancient, in recent years it has been beset by uncertainty as to
it future and it has been a creaking gate of a programme which has not
been conducive to its robustness.
During its fifteen years it has undergone various
incarnations and at its most basic it moved from its original model and ethos
of being a community led initiative that recognised the complexity of what
community development means at a grass roots level to being, particularly in
the past few years, a more traditional community focussed initiative pursuing
distinct targets often under the direction of the local authority.
As someone who has been involved in CF in some shape or form
since its inception I am of the opinion that not all these developments in the
last few years of the initiative have been for the best. The innovative approach of Communities First
when it was first formulated is that it recognised that often it is the people who
live in poor communities who have a unique insight into formulation solutions
to the problems they face. As CF “evolved” however it increasingly moved from
this innovative approach to one more dominated by local authorities and a
traditional model dominated and led by professionals. That said considering this change of focus CF
has continued to deliver, at times, innovative and effective initiatives and
projects that really made a difference to people’s lives in some of our poorest
communities.
Particularly of late staff have had to work with a high
degree of uncertainty in relation to the future and form of the CF
programme. In the past year all staff
have been on a one year contract due to come to an end on the 31st
march 2017. This uncertainty is something that has dogged the programme since
its inception. CF workers have become used to uncertainty as to the future of
their contracts and last minute announcements as to the future and changes in
the programme. All these factors have
not been conducive to the programme achieving its full potential.
Communities First has also had to endure being a favourite
political football for the Welsh political class. The programme has always been
a flagship project of Labour and as such and due to the budget directed toward
it it has always been a prime focus of criticism from the Conservatives and to
a lesser extent Plaid Cymru.
Interestingly though although CF has been a focus for this criticism
from the opposing political parties they have neither offered or suggested any real innovative
alternatives.
No one can say that CF has been a runaway success. Understandably as it has been trying to
tackle poverty in some of the most disadvantaged areas of Western Europe that
have had a very long history of trying to survive on the outer periphery on the industrialised areas of the UK. There have been various evaluations of the
programme over the year some good some not so good but in the general consensus
is that the programme is a bit of a curate’s egg, good in parts.
The recent announcement by the
Welsh Minister as to the rethinking of the programme has led to some very poor
reporting in the Welsh media (no surprise there then) and some less than
informed statements from our elected representatives. In this report from BBC
Wales http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-37617559
the use of the word “dropped” gives the impression that all the work of the
programme is to simply cease. Rather
than mention the many success of the programme the report chooses to focus on an
instance of fraud in one CF area. The most glaring example of a misinformed
analysis of the programme’s impact comes from Mark Isherwood the Welsh
Conservative’s spokesman who argues that as the CF areas are still suffering
poverty then obviously the programme is not “fit for purpose” Considering the programme has spend
approximately £30 Million a year for the whole of Wales it is a bit much to
expect that that relatively small amount of funding can be expected to tackle
the deep and most fundamental repercussions of global economic forces.
Additionally that this statement was to come from a representative of the
Conservative party who have been responsible for subjecting the area and local
residents to negative forces that have compounded the areas poverty such as the
bedroom tax and the so called benefit reforms which again has reduced the
amount of money which is coming in to the area. So although the years of
Coalition and Conservative party rule have not improved the levels of poverty
in the area this spokesperson chooses to blame the CF programme.
So Communities First is to be no
more, so be it, nothing lasts for ever.
As I said earlier while CF has achieved some really great things at the
same time it has been a bit of a curate’s egg of a programme often because of
factors that are beyond the control of those who work on, plan and instigate
the programme. What is crucial as we move forward though is that the
achievements are built on and not lost. During this upcoming period of
consultation and reflection as put forward by the minister it is essential we
identify what those achievements are. To
my mind one resource we should recognise is the CF workforce and
infrastructure. We have fifteen years development
of a workforce who know their communities intimately and knows what works and
what doesn’t. Empowerment has been key
word in the minister’s statement in relation to the future of Communities First
I would suggest a powerful method of achieving that empowerment at community
level is to use that resources of the CF workforce who know what empowerment
really means. As a first step what that workforce needs to achieve those aims
is some certainty and a clear plan over a significant period of time so they
can make these plans a reality. This uncertainty has hamstrung the programme in
the past and let us ensure that the same mistakes are not made in the future.
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