It follows that there should be a shift in Council policy so that we are more proactive in encouraging and supporting community initiatives.
The Council needs to establish the level of community support before committing large resources but this should be done without raising barriers to the project.
So the Council needs to have high-profile contacts in each community. In practical terms this means building on our Area Committees and Area Coordinators and the experience in South Somerset confirms this (Appendices 6 and 7). They had four areas and four community development workers, each expert in a different field. They drew on each other’s expertise when the need arose, but they had become well known in their areas and were known as the people to talk to about new ideas.
Our two Area Coordinators serve two areas each. We believe that is too much for them to be fully accessible to the local communities unless they have extra support. Cabinet and the Executive should consider a number of ways of responding: one would be for two additional Area Coordinators to be appointed or redeployed, with expertise which could be shared; another would be for the two Area Coordinators to be given support by additional or redeployed staff with expertise that complements their own (such as health, sport, etc.). Because of temporary vacancies these options could be achieved at no net cost, although one of the vacancies may be part-funded by local NHS Trusts and the community development work would have to have NHS agreement.
Another possibility is to fund Community workers who would be employed by VAEH or another partner organisation. And in general we should consider the merits and disadvantages of a community worker wearing the Council badge or being independent. The merits will differ in different communities.
Officers in all departments have a huge number of meetings with the public and they have an important part in the network of first contacts. But the network will not function if officers remain in their departmental boxes. So there is an urgent need to raise their awareness of the opportunities for community development and of what other branches of the Council do. If a query is outside their expertise, officers need to respond by arranging for someone to call back to the questioner.
In some cases or areas this will involve Council funding community development workers employed by VAEH or other partners. There may be clear advantage in not wearing the Council badge and Appendix 14 gives examples of what can be achieved.
Outside agencies can also access funds that are not available to Local Authorities.