What are learning points?
Learning points share what people have learned from their experience in regeneration - from people working or talking together, or from research into issues and evaluation of what is happening. Learning points can help people and organisations to improve their practice through identifying what works and what doesn't.
The views described in learning points do not mean that the Scottish Centre for Regeneration (SCR) or the Scottish Government necessarily support them. They simply reflect what has been debated and what those involved in the event considered useful learning and lessons from their perspectives.
What is this learning point about?
This learning point summarises the learning from the What Next for Wider Role conference delivered in partnership between Employers in Voluntary Housing (EVH) and the Scottish Government. It looks at the key issues being faced by Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) working to make an important contribution to regeneration across Scotland in their role as developers and managers of social housing. It considers how RSLs can continue to improve on their positive contribution by building on their connections with the communities they serve: using their commercial experience; experience of managing large projects; and sustainable income streams. These strengths, alongside the fact RSLs are owned and managed by local people, places them in a unique position to extend their contribution beyond core housing.
The content of the conference was designed to reflect the issues that most influence the impact of wider role at the local and national level. These issues highlight the process involved in delivering wider role but are also the framework that defines how a diverse range of individual projects together represent a major contribution to community regeneration nationally. The conference showcased best practice from around Scotland and the UK and considered how best to protect and maintain this contribution in the future.
What do we know already?
- Wider role is the term given to the many different ways in which housing associations help to tackle the problems affecting their communities that go beyond immediate housing need. Over the years many projects have been funded that have successfully addressed the wide-ranging problems affecting communities across the country.
- While there are many very good and effective projects, the quality of delivery across Scotland is patchy and inconsistent.
- There is a general lack of coherence to the effort as a whole and no clear picture of the many projects that are out there, how they fit together and where the gaps are.
- Many practitioners work in relative isolation within their own organisations and areas and this can be a barrier to the sharing of good practice and effective project delivery. Some are not wider role specialists and may not have the experience or expertise to easily develop initiatives to address the problems experienced by the communities they serve. Networks of practitioners do exist and information on good practice is available but in practice too many people are not able/ sure how to access this support..
- There is continuing reliance on grant funding in general and wider role funding in particular on decisions about projects. The pressure on public spending over the next few years underlines the reality that the current approach is not sustainable.
What are the issues?
- Strategic planning - How can we get better at identifying and defining the problem that is to be addressed, and planning how best to tackle it?
- Partnership working - How can we get better at identifying existing strategic and local provision and developing partnerships for delivery of services, where appropriate?
- Measuring impact - How can we get better at measuring the impact of the interventions that we have made, quantifying the changes that have been achieved and communicating the return achieved on the investment?
- Funding and Sustainability - How can we continue to resource and sustain wider role activity as we move into a new funding environment?
- Networking and learning from others - What lessons can the housing association movement learn from the experience of other parts of the Third Sector, in particular Social Enterprise? And how can we get better at sharing these lessons across sectoral boundaries?
What have we learned?
The term 'wider role' has for many become obsolete. There is no longer a need to encourage associations to go beyond their core remit, the work is now integral to what they do. The emphasis should shift to ways of improving delivery, maximising its impact and integrating it more effectively as a key element in local and national approaches to community regeneration.
Strategic planning
- Set clear objectives from the start. Once these have been set, all further opportunities that are developed can be based on achieving this goal and on the principles that underpin it.
- There are different ways in which need is defined and evidence gathered to support taking action. This can include: feedback from tenant satisfaction surveys; complaints from tenants; consultation with the local community; consultation with other local agencies; statistical information such as the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation; and appraisal of the options available.
- There is an acceptance amongst practitioners that a more strategic approach to delivering wider role will help to retain support from the Scottish Government and position housing associations favourably with strategic agencies and funding bodies. This should not be difficult to achieve if more is done to help practitioners to network more effectively and to map the contribution their collective efforts represent.
- Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) lead the process that translates government strategic priorities into local plans at the community level. Involvement with local CPPs is a way for housing associations to secure support for their wider role activity and to enhance their prospects of securing grant support.
- Improving access to information on wider role would greatly assist many of the developments that practitioners would like to see and help to avoid duplication of effort. A lot of information is available to share but is not available from one central point.
Partnership working
- There is a recognition that working in isolation is no longer an option. The sector has to work more effectively together on wider role initiatives and to work more effectively with local and strategic agencies such as Community Planning Partnerships.
- Partnership working takes many forms from informal understandings to service level agreements and detailed contractual arrangements.
- In every community in Scotland there are strategic and local agencies already providing services. It is important to consult with these agencies to clarify what value a wider role project can add.
- Effective networking and partnership working at the local and national level can be critical in securing commercial opportunities. For example, in Hill Holt Wood, efforts to exploit the natural materials of the wood to construct sustainable buildings led to links with university design and architecture departments which have turned into commercial developments (including a design service for the commissioning of sustainable buildings using natural materials and employing energy conservation techniques).
- Partnership working with other housing associations or suitable other organisations is increasingly attractive to funders. It spreads finite resources more widely, maximises the impact of those resources and helps ensure that associations embed their projects into local plans and therefore add value to the overall regeneration effort in their area.
Measuring impact
- There is a recognition that the sector has to get better, smarter and more consistent in delivering outcomes that reflect the substantial investment there has been in wider role. Much good work is being done but standards need to be consistently high through the application of methods and processes that represent best practice. The impact of wider role can be illustrated by the social return on the financial investment. Various models such as Social Return on Investment and Social Accounting can be employed to quantify this impact.
- There is clearly a need, particularly in the current economic climate, for a base-line to be identified in order to be better able to measure progress and the overall return on investment in wider role. A clearer picture of provision across the country can inform decisions taken at a local level, share good practice, avoid duplication and maximise the use of resources.
Funding and sustainability
- Reducing dependence on grant funding is essential for the long-term sustainability of wider role. Grants will continue to be important but associations must be well enough informed to be able to exploit funding from a wide range of sources.
- It's important to identify and make the most of your assets. In Hill Holt Wood, the starting point was to teach volunteers environmental conservation and training in these areas has been the foundation on which much of the business has developed and profit has increased..
- Most housing associations have a degree of commercial expertise and some have extended this experience into commercial projects separate from mainstream housing development and management. An example of this type of initiative would be the creation of commercial workspaces for rent. Any profit from such commercial activity could be used to subsidise the wider role involvement of a housing association.
- A number of housing associations already contribute their own money towards wider role projects. For example, a number of associations see welfare rights and money advice support provided to tenants as directly contributing to core business objectives and have saw the value in mainstreaming such projects i.e. paying for them through their core budgets.
- Trading activity must also be an option if wider role is to be sustained and the social enterprise model represents one of the most likely areas of opportunity for doing this.
- Improving the quality of the wider role 'product' will be crucial when competing for support in a more competitive funding environment. This will require all projects to demonstrate that they have considered each of the important issues that have been highlighted above.
What next?
Wider role network
Discussions are under way for the two existing wider role forums to work more closely together, possibly as one national Wider Role Network, in order to strengthen the collective voice of practitioners as well as to help address many of the issues highlighted by the conference.
Vision statement and guiding principles
There was strong support for the idea of a vision statement and guiding principles that would
- act as a focus for the work of wider role practitioners
- help to strengthen the networks of wider role practitioners
- help to communicate the importance of wider role to government and other strategic agencies
The wider role forums (or 'network') will be asked to agree a Vision statement/ set of principles that frame their involvement in wider role and act as a focus in communicating the sector's work. Jointly organising an annual wider role conference is one of the issues they will consider.
A toolkit
A wider role toolkit will be developed to direct practitioners to a range of practical advice that will support them to develop, manage and resource wider role projects and activities. An information 'hub' will be created as part of the Scottish Centre for Regeneration's website and efforts will be made to make this a key portal for information and advice in relation to wider role project development.
Find out more
East: Peter Rae (Linkwide), 01324 417166
West: John Gordon (Housing Associations in Govan), 0141 440 2339
Scottish Centre for Regeneration
This learning point is published by the Scottish Centre for Regeneration. The Centre is part of the Housing and Regeneration Directorate of Scottish Government. We help to achieve Scottish Government's Purpose, Targets and National Outcomes through supporting our public, private and voluntary sector delivery partners to become more effective at:
- regenerating communities and tackling poverty
- developing more successful town centres and high streets
- creating and managing mixed and sustainable communities.
We do this through:
- coordinating learning networks which bring people together to identify the challenges they face in delivering regeneration and to support them to tackle these through organising events, networking and capacity building programmes
- identifying and sharing learning through undertaking research, developing capacity building tools and highlighting lessons learned and good practice
- developing partnerships with key players in the regeneration sector to ensure that our activities meet their needs and support their work.
Scottish Centre for Regeneration
Scottish Government
Highlander House
58 Waterloo Street
Glasgow
G2 7DA
Tel: 0141 271 3736
E-mail: contactscr@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
www.partnersinregeneration.com
The views expressed in learning points are those of participants at various events and are not necessarily shared by their employers, the Scottish Centre for Regeneration or the Scottish Government.
November 2010