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The safer and stronger communities fund: The neighbourhood element

This guidance sets out the arrangements for developing and managing the Neighbourhood Element of the Safer and Stronger Communities Fund (SSCF). The SSCF combines several streams of Home Office and Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) funding. This document builds on previous guidance on the SSCF.

Title: The Safer and Stronger Communities Fund: The Neighbourhood Element (Implementation Guidance)
Author: ODPM
Date published: July 2005
Number of pages: 25
Availability: Download implementation guidance PDF 476Kb

The fund

From 1 April 2006, new ODPM funding for community empowerment, neighbourhood management and neighbourhood wardens – previously programmes subject to their own ring-fenced funding – will be merged into a single funding stream and allocated to areas which include the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. These areas have been identified using Index of Multiple Deprivation data (IMD) to pinpoint pockets of severe deprivation and a list of eligible areas is provided below. This funding will be known as the ‘Neighbourhood Element’ of the SSCF. This guidance explains ways in which the Neighbourhood Element can be used to achieve the SSCF/Local Area Agreement (LAA) priority outcome for disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

Background

Evidence and experience now indicates that there are certain key building blocks that should be put in place quickly to stabilise deprived neighbourhoods and lay the foundations in which other interventions have a better prospect of success. This includes taking practical measures to:

• Improve liveability - encompassing crime, fear of crime, anti-social behaviour, physical environmental quality, housing management and basic leisure provision for young people

• Tackle poor public services to reduce educational underachievement, worklessness, poor health, teenage conceptions and offending

• Transform neighbourhoods through reconnecting them with housing and job markets where this is possible

• Empower local people, which is important in enabling local people to get involved and have a say in local decisions, and foster community cohesion

These building blocks are reflected in the four national priorities which form the core of the SSCF. SSCF Agreements have already brought together partners to work together to tackle crime and liveability and develop outcomes for community empowerment. Agreements bring together a wide group of partners. To achieve the disadvantaged neighbourhood outcome successfully, the agreements need to be tailored to the needs of the disadvantaged neighbourhood and the drivers of decline within it.

Eligibility

Each local area will be allocated tapered funding for 4 years, starting in 2006-07, in order to kick start the process of implementing neighbourhood level arrangements. The funding is based on an assumption that a neighbourhood management based model is adopted, with nothing already in place on which to build. Costs for operating this and notes on the assumptions are set out in the main report, as is advice on setting up a neighbourhood management based scheme. The table below shows how much each Local Authority should receive for each neighbourhood. Year three and four funding is subject to confirmation in the 2006 Spending Review:

The intention of tapering the funding is to encourage areas to sustain the approach as ODPM funding is withdrawn, assuming they find it is making a difference.

The high-priority neighbourhoods which are receiving the Neighbourhood Element, set out below, have been selected based on the 2004 Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) data. This identifies areas within wards known as Super Output Areas (SOAs) and we have used this sub ward data to identify the poorest 3% of SOAs.

Selecting an area

Government Offices will be able to advise the local boundary of the SOA.

Local partners will then need to decide whether to adopt a strategy for the SOA, or a wider geographical area. It will be for partners to propose the boundaries that includes the designated SOA though GOs will have to be satisfied that a suitable area has been selected. In deciding on boundaries, partners should:

• bear in mind that the experience of neighbourhood management pathfinders is that a population of roughly 10,000 is workable. This is large enough to facilitate effective co-ordination of service delivery but small enough to remain responsive to the needs and priorities of communities

• aim to get a balance between focusing on the greatest deprivation and addressing problems in recognisable neighbourhoods that local people can relate to

• look to ensure shared geographical boundaries and joining up with other existing initiatives that are contributing towards neighbourhood renewal objectives for the area

• take into account what is practical and sensible, eg in cases where neighbourhood management and wardens activity is already being delivered (which may include having neighbourhoods larger than 10,000 or delineating a sub-area within an existing relatively large neighbourhood renewal area where this makes sense and fits with existing arrangements)

• in areas with large numbers of SOAs, a decision may have to be taken on where to concentrate efforts rather than spread over all the SOAs

• remember that ward level data is generally easier to obtain than data for a neighbourhood that straddles more than one ward

• consider the value of reflecting known community boundaries which are more likely to motivate people to get involved

• bear in mind the issue of community cohesion. Targeting resources at a specific area, particularly one which has a predominance of one ethnic group, needs to be communicated with surrounding communities to ensure that tension is not created.

More information

The full implementation guidance covers the following in greater detail, and offers practical advice on setting up and managing a scheme

• Eligibility

• Reaching agreement on implementation

• Developing a neighbourhood management based model

• Adopting alternative approaches

• Target setting

• Finance

• Implementation support

Download The Safer and Stronger Communities Fund: The Neighbourhood Element (Implementation Guidance) PDF 476Kb

Eligible areas

Last update: Monday, August 13, 2007