The auditor general for Wales has made some stinging criticisms of Communities First.His report makes 11 recommendations for improvement. They include making Communities First a clearer priority across its own departments;like everything else certain words in a programme automatically pigeon hole it. Community is one of those words.
The programme needs to provide additional support, such as developing skills in writing bids, to those partnerships likely to find it more difficult to access the Outcomes Fund. There is also need to work with partnerships to develop a small set of common indicators of the extent to which the programme is contributing to improving outcomes for people living in Communities First areas.
The programme had sporadic success,having seen quite a few at first hand and the much wider neighbourhood renewal programme in England,CF could learn a lot.
The main problem with it is most of the money is spent on administration and process.
This goes back to its launch where good practise and recommendations from a pilot programme were literally binned by the then minister Edwina Hart ,who wanted quick wins.The programme had never recovered.
Things have improved , but we are eight years into the ten year programme.You ask what the outcomes are, they cannot tell you ,why , because they failed to put robust monitoring and evaluation criteria in place when the programme started. Local Authorities have never played a full part either
Blaenau Gwent ,passed their part over to an outside body ,as it couldn't get a grip on the programme.
The turnover in assembly staff who ran the programme was also amazing.
The chair of the National Assembly’s audit committee, AM Jonathan Morgan,pounced on the report and said: “No-one can deny that tackling deprivation in the poorest areas of Wales should be a priority – particularly in these tough times. The Communities First programme has already ploughed £214m into a number of initiatives and it is good to see that there have been some benefits.“But what is unacceptable is that, eight years on, there are still serious weaknesses with the way the programme is being run. The Assembly Government cannot demonstrate the overall impact of the programme and is not doing enough to encourage public bodies, including its own departments, to prioritise and focus more of their work on Communities First areas.“Without some fundamental improvements, this flagship scheme will not achieve what it has set out to do. This report makes some important recommendations which should be urgently addressed.”
The programme I fear will never do that, its flawed and has history. There are gems and may be WAG should look at those examples and find out from the development staff why they have succeeded, and not rely so much on the machinations and ideas from in -house civil servants.
Tory Shadow Social Justice Minister Mark Isherwood said: “While there has been a huge amount of public investment in this vital area this report confirms our worst fears about outcomes and delivery. Despite promises to the contrary, significant amounts of money earmarked for this programme have been swallowed up in administration costs.“Sustainable community regeneration will require a complete re-appraisal of the scheme, replacing rhetoric with investment and engagement with local people and local projects. Doing so will deliver real outcomes on the ground and tackle some of the root causes of poverty and deprivation.”
Easily said,can it be turned around at this late stage or should it be lessons learned and a new fresh and deliverable programme generated,informed by very different motives and method.