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.
Dave on poverty, back to the poor house
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this is not the first report to say that the Communities First programmes has failed in many of its objectives and is too top heavy, there was a similar report a few years back that was buried by WAG because it made similar claims sitting gathering dust in Cathays Park somewhere.
Its not nice to say but most people will have forgotten about this by next week and then where does the story go, the opposition parties are totally ignored by WAG, the media isn't brave enough to challenge or investigate WAG over this and bloggers don't know enough.
I expect every CF project has delivered some good but the overwhelming feeling I have from experience of two local ones is one of empire-building bureaucracy and duplication of other organisations already in the community.
CF's money on the ground could have made a vast difference in terms of creating social enterprises and building up community and individual skills, confidence and resources. Instead, as you say, it got squandered on admin and self-justification.
It will end and in many communities will leave without a trace.
Sad may be we could call for people in the know to add to this post - if you know any one ask them to contribute.
I do get read by journalists and dragons eye so may be we could make a difference, that would be so good.
Red - there are far too many good reports gathering dust in Cathays Park,and many people people too
Communities First was implemented and defended by Labour, who viciously attacked any Plaid politician who criticised its implementation and how it had been thought through - ask Huw lewis who made hay claiming that Plaid's doubts about the scheme and how it was run was just sniping and talking down the valleys etc.
It was run by Labour apparatchiks in Labour areas and trumpeted as such as a vote winner for the first 2 assembly elections.
Now it turns out that even in their own back yard Labour can;t take care of their own people. Why? One-party state mentality. Party above people; control above effectiveness.
I'm disgusted to see much-needed money so badly and amateurishly spent.
There have been some benefits, but they're tiny in proportion to what was promised and what could have been achieved. Labour's total stranglehold on Wales has been a disaster and frankly I don;t care who gets in next because they'd do a better job. Except maybe the tories.
can't see CF has done any difference - I just thought it was Labour building up its client-state and newtorks.
Likewise, with few exceptions, I'm not sure what's the point of the Mentrau Iaith. The work they undertake could be done 'for free' if there was a decent Language Act which made sure county councils offered basic thinks like swimming lessons in Welsh.
In the States we have elected auditors who have the right to investigate all public expenditures!
That's true actually anon,Huw Lewis's parents were involved in a project in our village, and what they did closed a very successful community project here
The most direct way to tackle poverty in Wales is through the provision of sustainable well paid jobs. Easy to say, and actually not that hard to provide so long as WAG devotes resources to promoting indigenous business via a "TI" program, tangible innovation. Wales has a huge pool of experienced “little people” forcibly idled.
Harnessing the ‘can do’ spirit of innovation that exists in the ‘little people’ of Wales. For example, there are many very experienced and talented seniors with years of detailed experience of the private sector who have ideas for “doing things better”, but no hope of getting anyone to take them seriously absent having a lot of money in their bank account to finance turning their ideas into protected ideas ready to go into marketing and/or manufacture.
Then there are the younger generations – it is in their teens and 20s that Welsh people are more able to absorb knocks without threatening the best interests of their children (since they don’t have any), and who can take risks instead of being forcibly idled on the dole and essentially parked.
Then the school kids, who are not exposed to the idea of turning ideas into saleable products and services. I am not talking about opening a carpet cleaning service, but “TI” – tangible innovation. Take the kid who came up with the idea of retro-fitting kit to rolling stock to monitor track width measurements to spot train track issues before they become life threatening – and hence avoid tragedies like the Potters Bar train crash where a train jumped from damaged tracks ending up wedged on a train platform killing six people.
Instead of complaining about Welsh poverty – y don’t we prevent it with programs designed to convert ideas into TI – tangible ideas ready for commercial exploitation leading to high value job creation.
Why not give this serious consideration – after all millions has been spent by the Welsh Assembly Government on addressing Welsh poverty without generating tangible results.
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