The following has been extracted from an Urban Forum Policy Round Up (Dosti is a member of Urban Forum).

 

Statutory guidance on Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities

Draft guidance, now open to consultation, relating to the new Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007. The guidance covers, Local Strategic Partnerships, Sustainable Community Strategies, the new duty to involve, Local Area Agreements, and commissioning.

Open for consultation until 12 February 2008.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/statutoryguidance

 

The second part of guidance on negotiating a new Local Area Agreement (LAA). The guidance is designed to help with the process of developing an LAA and taken together with the statutory guidance (see above) which sets out more broadly the principles and appraoch.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/laaoperationalguidance

 

A set of guiding principles intended to assist the local third sector to organise itself and maximise the impact of its voice on LSPs. It has been drafted by a third sector stakeholder group, including Urban Forum, and was facilitated by Communities and Local Government.

Open for consultation until 12 February 2008.

 

This updated implementation plan details the progress made on how the Government is implementing key proposals in Strong and Prosperous Communities - the Local Government White Paper
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/implementationplanprogress

NRF replaced by Working Neighbourhoods Fund
A new £1.5 billion Working Neighbourhoods Fund to support councils and communities to combat worklessness in the most deprived areas of England (based in part on the new Indices of Multiple Deprivation 2007). The fund incorporates the Department of Work and Pensions Deprived Areas Fund (DAF) and has been allocated to 66 areas. A further 21 areas will receive transitional funding, to replace Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

 

Communities and Local Government and the Local Government Association (LGA) have published a concordat setting out the relations between central and local government. This Concordat explains the rights and responsibilities of local government, including its responsibilities to provide effective leadership of the local area and community empowerment.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/centrallocalconcordat
 
New Community Assets Pilots
CLG has announced a new target of 80 areas (over two years) to extend the pilots of community asset transfer. £2m will be allocated to support the new pilots, as part of £35m announced last month for empowerment initiatives.

More neighbourhoods to get a 'community kitty'
Residents in a further 12 areas of the country are due to get the chance to access their own 'community kitty' (Participatory Budgeting) to spend on tackling the issues they think are most important in their own neighbourhood.

Councillors Commission report published
The Councillors Commission, set up to look at the barriers and incentives to becoming a councillor and improve support and performance ,has made 61 recommednations to transform local councils and encourage greater participation in local elections. Proposals include lowering the voting age to 16, improving support available to councillors, incentives for voting, placing a duty on councils to provide clear information about how they work and calling on the government to amend legislation to include equalities targets for councillors. The Government will respond formally to the report in the Spring.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/councillorscommission/publications/representingthefuture/
 
Ward councillors and community leadership: A future perspective
A study for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by the Young Foundation and Local Government Information Unit explores how the role of ward councillors is likely to develop over the next five years. It captures the views of current councillors, council officers and community organisations and was co-authored by Urban Forum Chair, Ed Cox.

 

Lifetime neighbourhoods are those which offer everyone the best possible chance of health, wellbeing, and social, economic and civic engagement regardless of age or disability. They provide the built environment, infrastructure, housing, services and shared social space that allow us to pursue our own ambitions for a high quality of life.

The Women's Resource Centre has won the tender to provide the new ChangeUp equalities and diversity support service. They plan to set up nine regional consortia to bolster existing regional equalities and diversity infrastructure and develop new resources where necessary.

 

The National Muslim Women's Advisory Group (NMWAG) has been set up by the government to give Muslim women a voice and help the government understand what needs to be done to support them. It is part of the Preventing Violent Extremism - Winning hearts and minds Action Plan. http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/554064

 

This guidance document forms part of our response to the Commission on Integration and Cohesion's final report, Our Shared Future. It sets out the steps local authorities can take when they are considering translation of their publications into other languages than English.

 

The Citizens Foundation has launched new guidance for local authorities on how to set up citizens’ days. The guidance offers advice, examples and useful contacts to develop activities for bringing together people from different backgrounds and illustrating what they have in common.

 

Jointly produced by CLG and the Local Government Association (LGA) this publication provides an overview of the new performance framework, including local area agreements (LAAs). LAAs, which are now statutory in all top-tier authorities need to reflect up to 35 local shared priorities, along with a requirement to report on all the 198 new national indicators.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/localperformanceframework

 

Consultation on Comprehensive Area Assessment
The Audit Commission and six other inspection bodies have published the first joint inspectorate consultation on the Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA). The CAA will replace the current Comprehensive Performance Assessment from 2009 in assessing the performance of public sector agencies in local areas and the quality of life for people living there.

Consultation on CAA will be open until Friday 15 February 2008.

 

Bill proposes use of dormant cash to fund youth services
The Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Bill proposes that money lying in dormant bank accounts should be used to fund youth services. This follows the consultation on Unclaimed Assets.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldbills/002/08002.i-ii.html

 

You can read Urban Forum's response to the consultation on Unclaimed Assets Distribution Mechanism

 

Capacitybuilders has unveiled the list of winning bidders for the ChangeUp support services that replace the existing Hubs from April 2008. Lead organisations have been chosen for campaigning and advocacy; equalities and diversity; income generation; leadership and governance; marketing and communications; modernising volunteering and performance management. Decisions on two programmes – collaboration and responding to social change have been delayed until December and January respectively.
http://capacitybuilders.org.uk/detail/Capacitybuilders_annnounce_lead_partners_to_develop_National_Support_Services_/99/69.aspx

Making the most of local innovations:

Young foundation/NESTA interim report
The Young Foundation in collaboration with NESTA have produced a report investigating why some places innovate more effectively to meet social needs than others and how local innovations can best be exploited. This is an interim report and policy and practice recommendations will follow in the full report to be circulated in January 2008.