Craigavon Council in takeover bid for community support role

Craigavon Borough Council is pushing ahead with a new model under which it takes control of community development support in the district. The structure was agreed at a meeting in June 2005 attended by the Department for Social Development and other statutory bodies but not representatives of the voluntary and community sector.

Even before the new system is agreed the Council has appointed community development officers and now claims there is no need for existing network bodies run by and for people living in local areas.

The Council's power grab is despite sharp criticism of its performance in an independent evaluation by Deloitte MCS Limited, which was released under the Freedom of Information Act. Paul McGill has been studying the documents and speaking to people on the ground.

PILOT MODEL

Craigavon Borough Council (CBC) and the Department for Social Development (DSD) have recommended a 'pilot community support model' which they are now consulting on. The proposal paper sets out valuable objectives such as building the capacity of communities, delivering services in an efficient, equitable and inclusive manner and improving transparency and accessibility to service provision.

However, the structure envisaged is dominated by statutory bodies. The top tier, known as the interagency partnership would consist of CBC, the Voluntary and Community Unit of DSD, the Neighbourhood Renewal side of DSD, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and the local health trust, but nobody from the voluntary or community sector.

Its role is summarised as coordination of community support services and management of what are referred to as 'operatives'. This will include "assessing staffing within stakeholder organisations and examining level of resources and deployment" as well as developing "new ways of working and delivering community support services within the borough".

FORUM

Below the top tier is a proposed community support forum; this is essentially a talking shop that will meet four times per year and have a secretariat from CBC. The consultation document does not see it having any direct powers and says it will have a role with:

1. "assisting and refining community support needs within the borough
2. influencing the delivery of community support services
3. providing views on community support service provision in the area."

Membership will be tightly controlled to ensure network bodies do not serve on the consultative forum. The document says it will apply a definition of 'community organisation' and invite representatives from them to join. The definition is narrowly drawn as follows:
Community organisations are located within communities of geography or interest. They are controlled by their users (mostly local residents) and are usually small and informal. They are often referred to collectively as the community sector."

The forum will not be allowed to elect its own chair; the model proposes an independent chair "who has experience in working with the community sector" but is not explicit on who will make the appointment.

In fact the forum will not even be able to make direct representations to the interagency partnership. Instead its views will be channelled through the chair, who will be a member of the partnership. It cannot even make separate presentations or present reports to the partnership - these must be done "when necessary and through the chairperson", the consultation report says.

Formal consultation is now coming to an end but the document does not envisage much change, commenting only that "the model will be refined as required".

No equality impact assessment has been carried out on the proposals, as required by Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. The document says the pilot will be monitored through its duration, with an evaluation during its second year. "Consideration will also be given to any potential equality impacts."

INDEPENDENT EVALUATION

DSD commissioned an independent evaluation of community support services in Craigavon from Deloitte MCS, which it received in July 2004. It examined two organisations which received Measure 3.3 funding: Lurgan Council for Voluntary Action, which no longer exists, and Community Network Portadown, which has just changed its name to Community Network Craigavon but receives no support from CBC.

It looked at the role of other bodies, including the Place initiative, which the Council did support but whose funding is now likely to be stopped. Ironically, Deloitte reports that Place, a network body covering five Protestant estates, was provided as an example of CBC's approach to developing and supporting communities.

The evaluation says evidence to its researchers suggested that Place has brought benefits to the estates in question, though there was 'widespread negativity' about the lack of transparency over how CBC funded it because the money did not come from the community support plan budget. Other organisations wanted to know how they could access funding that Place had received from CBC.

COUNCIL PERFORMANCE

However, a major thread running through the Deloitte report is criticism of CBC's performance, by other agencies as well as by the voluntary and community sector. For example, it comments: "Whilst the current community support plan is comprehensive in content, consultation in the borough and our own assessment have highlighted a number of deficiencies. What is particularly striking is the lack of formal consultation and engagement undertaken in the development of the plan.

"In addition, there is a widespread belief, held by both community groups and statutory organisations that the council has a history of non-engagement and the process of developing the community support plan confirms this view."

Deloitte has more criticism of CBC in its section on the delivery of community support services: "There was a consensus view that support services were not being provided in a consistent manner across the borough and that communities most in need found it more difficult to access support. On this point, it was felt that there were significant 'patches' of community support inactivity especially in relation to rural communities..."

In a section entitled 'view of Craigavon Council', Deloitte comments: "Voluntary and community sector organisations were critical of how council was currently delivering community support and a number felt that they were not playing a role at all. The majority of consultees felt that council was poor at communicating although there was a widespread view that the council should in actual fact take the lead locally and that it should enable community support activity."

Later it adds: "Some stakeholders described the council as controlling and non-inclusive and it was felt to be 'anti-partnership' working. Whilst Place was mostly viewed as a useful model of practice, there was a concern at the lack of transparency in the council's approach to funding."

Anticipating the model finally proposed by CBC and the DSD, Deloitte notes that "consultees felt that the council should be an enabler and supporter of community support services rather than a direct deliverer."

Elaborating on possible models, the consultants suggest the District Policing Partnership of community and statutory involvement, a confederation of community groups and the replication of existing models such as Place and TADA.

Deloitte also mentions the positive work of Community Network Portadown (now CNC) which was seen to have established a niche in the town, though its cooperation with its Lurgan counterpart was inadequate and only a third of its activity was in TSN areas. "Consultees highlighted its presence locally, its drive to showcase the borough and its attempts to target emerging community issues, including the rise in ethnic minorities."

In its key findings, Deloitte says a strategic need exists to provide support in communities most in need and most excluded from current provision. "The critical strategic issue relates more to the absence of policy integration amongst key players, particularly DSD and the council, and the failure to develop an approach to supporting communities that has the endorsement of communities themselves."

It recommends that any new approach needs to be underpinned by the principle of partnership and makes clear that this does not refer only to statutory agencies. "We would propose that Craigavon could become a pilot area for developing an innovative community structure that would involve all key players across the borough."

LOCAL VIEWS

The Place initiative has good reason to feel aggrieved. CBS used it to bolster its case that it was doing good work in local areas but now seems likely to ditch it and take over the role itself.

Richard Mealey, who has just resigned as head of community issues at Place, said the proposed model is 'alarming'. "Craigavon Council has supported a structure for several years that has been very effective and widely acknowledged to be working, at least in Protestant areas. Now it wants to go back five years."

He claimed the Housing Executive and others recognised the value of Place's work in reducing community violence and tension, promoting community education and training, working on community safety, the environment, housing and youth services. Residents used to want out of the Brownstone estate but when a house became vacant recently, 12 families applied for it.

"After the Shankill riots in September there was no trouble here in Portadown. Not a day's trading was lost and no estates were wrecked.

"The council has supported us with £30,000 per year but I believe it got a good return on its investment. We have evolved into a competent, confident cross community organisation and there has been no tradition of this in Portadown." Mr Mealey said.

The Place programmes manager, Cyril Moorhead, said the Council had informed it that the funding mechanism for the initiative will cease at the end of March. At best the five estates will be able to apply for up to £4,000 each.

Adrian McPoland, chair of Community Network Craigavon, which now has nearly 120 member groups from both Protestant and Catholic areas, criticised the amount of consultation held on the proposals. CNC had to write to the Council for a copy of the document and only got it in November.

"It's very much statutory orientated and very much council controlled. It's a very hierarchical system of DSD and other statutory bodies and the council. You would think there would be more involvement by the voluntary and community sector."

Mr Mc Poland said the process of drawing up a new system should have involved people in workshops and then sending out a document looking at a number of options. "I'm glad something is being done but it should not be led by the Council; it should be led by a number of organisations. CBC never saw the value of network groups and never supported them."

He is concerned about CNC's future. "We have never had any council support and are living hand to mouth. I don't know about our future. The DSD could pull our funding and put the money into this new model," Mr McPoland added.

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