Note from a Northern Roundtable: Levelling Up and Community Power
Summary of key points
Government needs to invest in creating legitimacy, listening and learning, and become an enabler, not a controller.
It’s important to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past - regeneration initiatives have been too top down, short-term and failed to reform the things that left people feeling powerless.
An ambitious change of direction is needed – ‘go big, or go home’. Despite many efforts over many years, too little had changed. Government must avoid prescription and micro initiatives and let communities decide how any new funds are spent. Existing funds could also be pooled and services delivered in new ways.
Community power must be built into the government’s forthcoming Devolution strategy, which starts from the bottom up. The more we can show examples of this working well, the more likely it is to happen.
Local government and public bodies must play a role in managing any new Levelling-Up funds but need to give more power to local people, following the principle of subsidiarity.
They and other organisations must do much more to ‘integrate with their communities’ through ‘radical listening’ committed to delivering the changes people want. They need to do this collectively, for example when seeking to co-produce with local people, rather than pursuing separate exercises and atomised approaches.
There must be investment in new structures, relationships and capacity building to achieve this agenda, perhaps called ‘Neighbourhood Democracy’, and the new structures must have teeth. LEPs are not the answer.
In more detail
The roundtable was introduced by Laura Seebohm, the Better Way’s convenor in the North, who explained that the issue for discussion was how can we level up in ways that lead to a sharing of power with communities, while also achieving system-wide impact. She said that the Better Way network has been exploring ways of sharing power and we have seen a growing momentum across the North for this, with encouraging examples of radical systemic change. The challenge now is to make sure that, as funding hopefully becomes available, we get the architecture and infrastructure right to place power and money with the right people at the right level. She introduced the four initial speakers who would kick discussion off.
Danny Kruger MP, who has written a report commissioned by the PM on the role of communities and levelling-up, and is also a founding member of a Better Way, said that now was a potential moment for change. Many people had been inspired by the community spirit shown in the first lockdown, and the flexibility shown by the public sector. His report, which reflected ideas gathered widely, called for more investment in social infrastructure and greater community power. The forthcoming Devolution White Paper, although delayed, would be important. He favoured a bottom up model of empowerment: this is not as clear cut as recruiting more mayors but had greater potential. He thought the Better Way principles, which he had helped to draw up, embodied how that should work.
Finally, he said that the more that we can do to show this can work through actual examples, the more likely it is to happen.
Nadine Smith, UK Director of Centre for Public Impact, said that, compared to other countries over the last 20 years, the UK Government had focused on effectiveness but far less so on being legitimate. Other countries which had taken legitimacy more seriously had been better prepared for the pandemic. There are examples of administrations in the UK that had tried to build legitimacy through forms of participative democracy, e.g. in Wigan and Camden, but we haven’t seen a ‘whole mindset shift’ in the UK, she said, even though the New Public Management model was dying on its feet. Government needs to be an enabler, not a controller, and without this the levelling-up agenda would fail. Key focus must be:
Listening, with investment in feedback loops, eg the Swedish Regional Co-ordinator approach set up after 2008 crash.
Learning – networks learning together with equity in the relationship.
Relationships - this requires equity in the relationship and time to build relationships with communities.
Chris Marsh, from Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council and People’s Powerhouse, said that he had 30 years’ experience of translating policy into action on the ground and had seen many initiatives come and go, for example, the New Deal for Communities, Total Place and Opportunity Areas. It was important to learn from the past. Such initiatives were in general characterised by three main truths:
They were nearly always short term – and not long enough to deliver real change.
They were mostly top down – what people in Whitehall thought was logical, not what people wanted.
Didn’t set out to reform the things that are really making people feel powerless.
They did not seek to change local economies or the way in which public services work, but focused on ‘better co-ordination’, with the premise that things are okay as they are, just need to be better run. They did not strengthen voice.
Going forward, he made some suggestions:
Think about local economies so that they hold wealth in eg social value procurement, as in Preston.
Rather than ‘community improvement districts’, with greater freedoms and responsibilities to design new models of local social and economic policy, as proposed in Danny Kruger’s report, think of ‘neighbourhood improvement districts’.
Market failure exists in the public sector, so set up true joint ventures with local communities at the centre. We need to think differently about how we offer support.
Use asset based approaches – a profoundly different way of delivering.
Make more use of deliberative and participatory democracy approaches – elected councillors are not enough especially in areas where people need voice the most.
John McCabe, Board member of North East Local Enterprise Partnership, amongst other roles, explained that the timing of roundtable coincided with North East LEP Recovery and Renewal Deal proposal, which they had just put to government, seeking more funding. What shone through was the importance of listening and collaboration, which they had practised in drawing up these ideas. He ran through some of the key points, including a job recovery New Deal and initiatives to create a more connected North East. His overarching point was: now was the time to be unashamedly ambitious – if not now, when?
Jill Baker, from Lloyds Bank Foundation, said she was frustrated by how little change there had been in the last 40 years, with longstanding inequalities still existing and health inequalities growing. She said that there was a lot of money already out there which could be used differently but this wouldn’t happen without ‘breaking a few things’. For this to happen, we need to listen and build relationships with real ‘live people’ and let go of egos and break down silos.
Ideas from the group
We then broke into groups to discuss the issue. Points given in feedback to the plenary included:
Integrating with communities.
We spend too much time trying to get organisations integrated, when the real focus must be to integrate organisations with communities. This needs capacity building, a bonfire of outputs and measures, and greater collaboration between multiple funders.
Organisations also need to join forces so they can jointly co-produce with communities. It is unlikely existing structures will work for them and the end result may be radical change.
Listening which produces results.
Resources need to be put into radical listening ie listening which has radical results. Too often organisations say they have listened when they haven’t, and you have to listen to what you don’t want to hear and avoid preconceptions.
Once you’ve listened, you need to connect findings at a local, regional and national level – the Swedish model of regional co-ordination was mentioned again.
Building power in communities.
Power needs to be given away but do this we need to build trust, create relationships and give people in communities space and time just ‘to be’ and express their own agenda, not ours. This requires a real culture change.
Public investment is needed in capacity building, for example through community organisers and small charities and other organisations that carry out a connecting role.
It’s important that power is equally held in a community, which it isn’t often, and help create communities and enable them to come and stay together.
Local government must be part of the picture in managing any levelling-up fund or other initiatives such as pooled budgets. But they need to work with others and work at listening.
A new architecture is needed which allows people to collaborate and engage, long term. LEPs are not the answer. All this needs teeth. There was a suggestion that this should be called ‘Neighbourhood Democracy’.
There was some cynicism about commissions, citizens assemblies etc when time and resource go into the process but nothing comes out.
A Levelling Up Fund
A national Levelling Up social infrastructure fund would be very welcome, but only if there are devolved budgets. Danny’s report needed to stop half way through at the point where the principles were outlined, and then give power to people to decide.
We also need to be honest and talk about the impact of austerity when we talk about levelling-up.
Overall, the message was: we need to be radical – ‘go big or go home’.
Note from an online roundtable: Coronavirus - building community and connection 4
4th Meeting to inform Danny Kruger’s proposals for the Prime Minister
Held on Thursday 9th July 3.00-4.30pm.
Founding Better Way member Danny Kruger MP was invited by the Prime Minister to ‘develop proposals to maximise the role of volunteers, community groups, faith groups, charities and social enterprises, and contribute actively to the government’s levelling up agenda.’
Building on recent network discussions we produced a draft paper which we shared with Danny as work in progress. This meeting, attended by 74 Better Way members, was an opportunity to further inform Danny’s proposals, and also to help the Better Way feed in thinking to other politicians in this space.
As a result of the meeting, which Danny joined at the end, we produced this 2-page paper which is a summary of our thinking on what government can do to support connection and community.
Note from an online roundtable: Coronavirus - building community and connection 3
Note of a third online roundtable on the coronavirus crisis and the power of connection and community, 18 June 2020
Summary
We started with speakers who set the scene, then went into four breakout groups, and came back into a plenary discussion in which the groups reported back. The key messages were:
A common purpose in the Covid-19 crisis is driving collaboration. Can we create a future common purpose as we emerge from the crisis?
The surge in mutual aid, and the Black Lives Matter protests, have raised fundamental questions about the role of many institutions. A shift in power, and a letting go, is clearkly required. But there will be resistance.
The state and charities have a tendency to ‘colonise’ human connections to validate their own work. But we know from excellent examples it need not be like this.
The recent procurement guidelines have encouraged collaboration rather than competition, and these need to be maintained.
The role of local community anchors as ‘cogs of connection’ has been undervalued. And we need to better appreciate the different roles that individuals, community groups, established voluntary agencies, businesses, as well as local and national government can best play.
2. In more detail
Caroline Slocock, co-convenor of the Better Way, introduced the discussion. She explained that this was a third meeting on Covid19 and the power of connection and community. Our Call to Action for a Better Way called for a radical shift to liberate the power of connection and community and in recent weeks across the country we have seen inspiring examples of this, despite physical distancing.
The discussions have highlighted both opportunity and danger. Many of the things we have set out in our Call to Action (collaborative leadership, sharing power, changing organisations and shifting practices in favour of human relationships) are happening, sometimes faster and better than we could have imagined. There has been more solidarity and sense of purpose, flexibility, creativity, a speed of response, new connections and collaborations, as well as more humanity and kindness. But the future is more likely to be a negative one, with more inequality, more command and control, and more suffering. So what can we do collectively and individually to turn this into a moment where things go better in the future, not worse? And in particular this meeting will consider how we can we build on the collaborative leadership that is already happening, to change for good.
Nick Plumb, Locality
Nick highlighted findings from the new Locality report ‘We were built for this’. Local collaborative relationships are being built in many places, driven in part by shared purpose across sectors and across public agencies. Collaboration has especially flourished where there were pre-existing relationships with community organisations. Community organisations were often able to take the lead and move quickly, not waiting to ask permission. National procurement guidance issued at beginning of the crisis allowed greater flexibility and this also helped to create favourable conditions for partnership.
The report contains recommendations on community powered economic recovery, on ways of turning community spirit into community power, and on collaborative public services. These include a shift from the competitive mind-set which has underpinned public services for many years to a new collaborative mind-set. In the wake of a decade of cuts in public spending the report calls for a review of local government finance including new fiscal powers to reverse cuts to preventative services, and tackle inequality. The recent very welcome cabinet office guidance on procurement should be further embedded, rather than a return to normal. Government should also promote models of service transformation partnerships between councils, community organisations, and health agencies and peer learning programmes such as the Locality-hosted The Keep it Local Network should be expanded. There are several opportunities to influence government investment and policy to support a shift in favour of local collaboration, including the long-promised UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the forthcoming Community Ownership fund, and the forthcoming Devolution White Paper.
The report also explains that community-led anchor organisations can play a critical role in establishing ‘cogs of connection’ in a locality, but as Nick pointed out this not always recognised and rarely funded through public sector contracts, and that needs to change
Becca Dove, Camden Council
Becca is head of family support and complex families. She described a recent Zoom call led by the manager of Kentish Town Community Centre, with local residents, a council colleague who runs food hubs, a local GP delivering social prescribing by bringing people together in a garden, and partners from University College London. In the meeting there was no distinction between the council staff, residents, community workers, and academics. ‘Lanyards were left on the floor’, said Becca, and people made on the spot offers to help each other: ‘I can do that for you.’ There was a strong sense of the commons, of everyone seeing themselves as stewards, wanting to leave Kentish Town in a better place, and seeing connection and relationships as the way to do that. Becca wrote an article in April, recognising that the state doesn’t always have the answer, and that during the emergency the community have given the solutions to a problem in countless ways. The job of the council is to lend hand and hearts to the constant collective effort, making a contribution, respecting what residents need and want, and recognising the widespread goodness in the community. New public management forced everyone down the wrong road, but there are a lot of public servants who think and feel as Becca does, she feels.
3. Achieving more collaborative leadership
Participants broke into smaller groups to discuss the question, ‘What can be done nationally and locally to achieve more collaborative leadership in the coming months?’ Feedback from the breakout sessions, and the subsequent discussion, included the following points:
Common purpose
There is an underlying power imbalance, and while people have generally put aside competitive behaviours and organisational roles in the crisis, we can’t assume that will continue in future.
A sense of shared endeavour in the face of a common enemy has been critical to encourage collaboration. We will need to establish a new common cause in the months ahead, one capable of determining how we behave towards each other and which will maintain the shift from ‘I AM’ to ‘WE ARE’.
We will need to describe and name the future we want to see as clearly as possible.
Letting go
In times of crisis institutions have discovered they do not have the flexibility to respond to community action, and when they do respond, they often do so in ways which seek to validate themselves. They need to learn to let go and trust. Where that has happened it leaves a positive legacy and the foundations for a different kind of relationship.
The conventional charity model may not be the way forward. It has been challenged by the wave of mutual aid, and by the recent Black Lives Matter protests. Some organisations are thinking deeply out their purpose and role and how they work. But there are many in institutions of all sectors who are not ready or willing to let go, and will want to hold on to their power.
Understanding different roles
There are different and distinctive roles that can be played by community self-help, established community organisations, and the public authorities.
There is an unresolved debate about role of the state. Is the role for local government, for example, to protect citizens, by taking action directly, or should it adopt a more hands-off role which allow people to take action on their own terms?
It was suggested that charities achieve most when they see their role as meeting the purpose of individuals.
Businesses have been compelled to rethink their purpose, and a new alignment between communities and businesses might be possible.
Commissioning and procurement
The prevailing commissioning system is hard-wired to drive competition between groups, and that produces weak and transactional relationships. But good commissioning can encourage collaboration. Human Learning Systems, developed by Better Way member Toby Lowe, with Collaborate, presents an alternative to new public management methods, and sets out a better path for commissioning and procurement.
The Moral Economy
It’s not always about money, but it is always about connection, it was felt. The term ‘moral economy’ describes economic activity that can take place without money changing hands. This can happen on a very big scale (for example in the Arba’een pilgrimage in Iraq which can include 20 million people and where people are fed without money for days on end).
Civic immune systems – the precious nature of relationships between human peoples, can be infected and damaged by funding, interventions of voluntary agencies, or the state. Individualism on the political left and right has led to outsourcing many things that we used to do as families and communities. We should not seek to go backwards, but human life is enriched when we do things together. The distinctions between labour, work, and action made by Hannah Arendt may be helpful in our thinking on this.
Creating conditions for collaboration to flourish
Community spaces and other forms of local infrastructure can encourage connectivity and help to build a more equal and mutually supportive society, as Eric Klinenberg’s book Palaces for the People explains (and see an interview with him here).
We need to understand what it takes for people to relate to each other well. The language we use can help, or can get in the way. Many terms in widespread use (like complex families, vulnerable people) reinforce them-and-us divisions, and we need to frame our story in different ways.
A strong signal from central government in favour of collaborative practice, in service of local communities, and to create the conditions for people to do things on their own terms, would be helpful, and would confer permission for those in the public sector and beyond to do things differently. But it is best not to depend on that, it is always better to seek forgiveness than to ask permission.
Some things, mutual aid groups for example. are best left alone, and certainly not regulated.
4. Next meeting
We agreed we should organise a further meeting, in a few weeks’ time. Suggested topics for discussion:
The unifying shared purpose beyond the COVID-19 crisis.
The changing and distinctive roles of individuals, community organisations, charities, and the state, and the contribution each can make to the social architecture we want to see in the future.
Better Way members are invited to contribute blogs and video clips on these or related topics.