Safer Stronger Communities Fund

End of Programme Report

This funding stream operated from 2006 - March 2010, to improve the quality of life for people living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.  Funding focussed on the two wards of Margate Central and Cliftonville West. 

The programme has now come to an end.  The attached report gives details on how the the programme was run and the impact it made through the wide range of projects the programme funded.

• Final Evaluation Report for Margate's Safer Stronger Communities Fund (PDF 5mb)

The report's acknowledgements, foreword, preface and executive summary are given below:

Acknowledgements

The SSCF Team, on behalf of Thanet District Council, would like to thank and acknowledge all those who have been involved in delivering the SSCF Programme and activities since 2005. This scheme has been delivered by public, voluntary and community and private sector partners and would not have been a success without this combined contribution. Our thanks to all those who have participated in the early development stages, Programme Board members, all project leads, those responsible for delivering activities, and all community members who have actively engaged with the programme. Thanks are offered to all partners who have offered advice and guidance, in particular Government Office South East and those who were involved in the Communities and Local Government’s Neighbourhood Renewal Unit from which the funds were originally provided.

Foreword

There are many challenges involved when regenerating seaside areas like Margate Central and Cliftonville West. Thanet District Council and its partners are committed to tackling these challenges to improve the life of the many people who live and visit here.

Any challenges we face can also offer us opportunities and the Safer Stronger Communities Fund programme has provided one such opportunity. The Margate Renewal Partnership, which covers the economic and physical regeneration of Margate, has been successful in making the business case for a stronger focus on the area by all key public sector stakeholders. However, it was the Safer Stronger Communities Fund programme which became the spearhead for the social regeneration.

This report provides evidence of the successful social and physical changes achieved in these two wards through the programme’s approach of enabling local people to identify and develop initiatives to tackle priorities they identified within their neighbourhoods.

The Safer Stronger Communities Programme has built the capacity of the local community and provided a voice for local residents to engage with us to tackle the challenges we face together. Public sector services in these wards have developed a stronger relationship with the local voluntary and community sector and this partnership working will be essential to the long-term success of regenerating these wards.

We offer thanks to the many partners who have contributed their time, expertise and energy required to deliver the activities funded by SSCF. We look forward to continuing this partnership working as we tackle future opportunities together.

Chief Executive of Thanet District Council, Richard Samuel        

District Councillor, Zita Wiltshire

District and County Councillor, Chris Wells

Preface

The purpose of this report is to show the impact that the SSCF funds have made to the social regeneration of Margate Central and Cliftonville West during 2006-2010. It highlights projects developed to encourage community cohesion, and those aimed at making safer, cleaner, and greener improvements to the area. It also provides the evaluation evidence of the impact made from the changes that have been implemented.

The report contains an Executive Summary followed by four main parts. These describe the context relating to the programme’s objectives; describe activities undertaken to identify local priorities, and the contribution that the individual projects themselves have made to the overall impact that SSCF has provided in the area.

• The report starts with an outline of the priorities identified by the local community during the inception stage of the programme.
• Next it provides a timeline which outlines the phases of the programme.
• Part A then presents the background to the programme in relation to national and local objectives. 
• In Part B, engagement processes used to identify community priorities which then directed funding spend are provided.
• Part C examines the overall impact of the programme through show-casing the activities of various selected ‘themed’ projects.  Case studies are used to illustrate the impact on specific lives.
• Then Part D provides a table which outlines some of the experiences that this particular programme encountered in relation to its neighbourhood management approach, hoping to provide some insight into lessons learnt and highlights.
• A summary of the quantitative output achievements against the programme outcomes is provided in Appendix 1.
• Appendix 2 is a pull-out document providing a brief outline to recognise all of the SSCF funded projects.

Executive Summary

The Safer Stronger Communities Fund has been the influential scheme in driving forward the social regeneration of Margate Central and Cliftonville West since 2006. It was seen as a way to engage the local community in the regeneration of the area and to identify the issues that residents saw as priorities, and to seek ways to address and begin to tackle these. Although the funding for this four-year programme of SSCF activity has now come to an end, there is a great success story to be told for all those who have been involved in the delivery of activities funded by this programme.

SSCF provided funds for 107 projects, which included 20 outreach posts, 4 neighbourhood champions and a mapping exercise of voluntary and community sector provision to the area. The £3.7million of government funding was matched with an additional £1.5million of partner financial and in-kind contributions. The wide-ranging activities and projects delivered sought to identify ways for statutory providers to improve access to services and for residents and community groups to work closer together to make the area safer, cleaner and greener.

SSCF Outcome: To increase the capacity of local communities so that people are empowered to participate in local decision-making and influence service delivery

• 85 consultation events were held during the programme’s lifetime, at which over 5,000 local residents were empowered to take the opportunity to influence and be involved in the SSCF programme of projects. This equates to almost half the population of these two wards (11,709 people and 5,322 households at Census 2001).
• Over 260,000 people attended either one of the 721 SSCF funded events, or had involvement or contact with one of 682 community led activities. 5 new community groups have been established in the two wards.
• 70 local voluntary and community sector organisations successfully bid for and received £1.6million of SSCF funding to deliver projects, and have provided evidence of an increase in attendance and membership of nearly 1,000 local people.
• 4,485 local residents volunteered to be involved in SSCF funded activities, providing over 41,000 volunteer hours in these two wards. These empowered local residents have provided support and help to nearly 11,000 other local people in their neighbourhood.
• 373 local third sector organisations are using the facilities and equipment funded by SSCF to improve community facilities.
• There has been an amazing empowerment progression over the SSCF period, with local residents involved in individual ‘street schemes’ now participating in a collective ‘Cliftonville Futures’ group, which provides a partnership voice for local residents. This group regularly engages in dialogue with statutory partners to discuss future regeneration of the area, and have been influential in the development of the Local Plan for the area.

SSCF Outcome: To have cleaner, safer and greener public spaces

• 895 community activities have taken place in public spaces improved through SSCF funding. Improvements were made to 43 out-door and 13 indoor public spaces, with 28 of these improvements being delivered through community-led projects. This illustrates the local community pride in these public spaces and many of these activities have continued post-SSCF funding.

• 73 of these community activities have taken place in Dane Park as a direct outcome of the SSCF funded activities and improvements to this beautiful green space. This has seen a huge increase in local families and youths using the enhanced facilities, which includes children and young people’s play areas.

SSCF Outcome: To improve the quality of life for people in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods and ensure service providers are more responsive to neighbourhood needs and improve their delivery

There are many aspects to an individual’s quality of life and SSCF focused on improved delivery by service providers, both public and third sector, relating to issues identified by local residents.  

Residents consulted identified an improved waste and recycling service would improve quality of life in the area and Thanet District Council has provided 100% of all households in the two wards with a door-step recycling service, as well as installed 19 additional recycling facilities in the SSCF area.

• 15 venues and facilities in the local area have been newly provided or improved, with over 174,000 local residents to date taking advantage of this improved access to services, including 112,000 accessing the new Thanet Gateway Plus which provides a multi-partner access to service provision.
• Quality of life can be enhanced through improved skills and qualifications and SSCF funded activities which enabled 123 adults to achieve a qualification, with 37 going on to continue with further education. 4 schools received physical improvements via SSCF projects, and over 8,000 school pupils benefited from projects designed to improve attainment. 980 local people attended a wide variety of interactive workshops delivered by a range of service providers.
• In addition to this 52,000 people received access to advice and training through SSCF funded projects (excluding Thanet Gateway), with 15 organisations funded to provide advice services (14 of which are continuing post- SSCF). Nearly 1,500 local residents for whom English is another language received advice from bi-lingual support work, and over 800 residents were supported with advice relating to debt. Two business advisors, funded via SSCF, provided advice to over 200 local businesses and 10 projects provided improvements to the street scene and main business areas of the two wards.
• 5 sports venues were improved and an additional 24 leisure facilities received improvements or equipment. 51 sports and leisure activities were funded covering opportunities for all age groups in the community, and in addition to this over 70 community activities took place, with the number of organisations attending these activities at 445. 
• In addition to the improved access to services in the neighbourhood, 14 local people were employed full time (8 of these jobs sustained) and 17 part-time jobs were provided (7 of these sustained).  In addition to this Thanet District Council also created a new Community Development service, continuing the roles of three SSCF Officers and enabling the community engagement work with local residents and organisations to continue going forward.

SSCF Outcome: To reduce crime, to reassure the public reducing the fear of crime and anti-social behaviour and to reduce the harm caused by illegal drugs

• 23% of residents consulted expressed that more youth activities were required and SSCF funded youth inclusion and diversionary projects to which almost 30,000 young people attended. A majority of these activities took place outside of school and therefore reduced the level of young people perceived to be in the streets at night and provided alternative positive activities for young people to participate in.

• There is a high fear of crime among some residents and SSCF focused on activities and projects aimed at alleviating this perception. Over 3,650 personal items were security marked, 77 homes and businesses were provided with improved security, 32 new CCTV cameras were introduced across the two wards, 18 streets were provided with improved street lighting which included 29 lighting columns repaired to provide more lighting during the evening. SSCF funded an increased presence of Community Wardens, Police and Community Support Officers, an Anti-Social Behaviour Officer and an Environmental Enforcement Officer who actioned 246 Fixed Penalty Notices and 1,240 enforcement actions targeted at fly-tippers and littering.

Many of the SSCF funded activities are continuing post SSCF and are being taken forward by a range of partners and community organisations. The legacy that the SSCF programme has provided is that it has influenced a greater awareness of, not only the need for but also, the positive contribution that local communities can make when partners move towards a more community-engaged approach to regeneration of an area. The SSCF programme has enabled service providers to make a connection with community groups and residents who wish to have a say in how the future of the area is developed.

The engagement of a much wider element of the local community is the next step for the regeneration activities taking place in Margate Central and Cliftonville West. In early 2010 the government provided a small sum of funding through its Connecting Communities programme, and this is being utilised to identify ways to begin to widen this engagement across communities living in the area. Exciting opportunities for the area, such as the Margate Renewal Partnership’s Neighbourhood Plan and the Margate Task Force of multi-agency focus on social and individual needs, will hopefully utilise this engagement tool and continue to ensure that the SSCF legacy becomes embedded ensuring that the community and voluntary sector, quite rightly, continues to be a key player in future regeneration of the area that they call home.

Community Development Team

Tel: 01843 577534

Thanet District Council

PO Box 9

Cecil Street

Margate
Kent

CT9 1XZ