Neighbourhood Renewal In Halton

Neighbourhood Renewal in Halton

What are Local Strategic Partnerships?

The Government promoted the idea of Local Strategic Partnerships in 2001. These partnerships are designed to bring the main service deliverers and agencies of the area together, the result being that the public, private, community and voluntary sectors meet at a local level.

A Local Strategic Partnership is involved in many of the major decisions about priorities and regeneration funding for their area. They aim to:

• Help key service providers including the voluntary and community sector work better together.

• Help meet the needs of local communities and narrow the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the country.

• Guide regeneration through Neighbourhood Renewal Funding.

The Halton Partnership

The Halton Partnership was formed in 2001 and is the Local Strategic Partnership for the area. To get a better understanding of the challenges facing Halton, the Partnership undertook a programme of research, including consultation with the public to find out their views on a wide range of subjects.

Based on this research, and from the facts and figures about conditions in Halton, five priorities were been identified for the area. They are:

• Improving health

• Promoting urban renewal

• Enhancing life chances and employment

• Increasing wealth and equality

• Ensuring safe and attractive neighbourhoods

Five Specialist Strategic Partnerships were set up to tackle these priority areas.
They are lead by the Halton Strategic Partnership Board which is responsible for an overall strategic view of the work being carried out. The Board’s membership is made up of senior representatives from the following organisations:

Cheshire Church Leaders
Community Safety Strategy Group/DAT (Cheshire Constabulary)
Greater Merseyside Connexions Service
Greater Merseyside Enterprise Ltd
Greater Merseyside Learning and Skills Council
Halton Association of Secondary Heads (St Chad’s Catholic High School)
Halton Borough Council
Halton Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise
Halton Health Partnership (Halton Primary Care Trust)
Halton Housing Partnership (Liverpool Housing Trust)
Halton Learning Partnership (Halton College)
Halton Sports Partnership
Halton Together (Community Empowerment Network)
Jobcentre Plus
Northwest Development Agency
Urban Renewal SSP (Halton Borough Council)
Wealth and Equality SSP (Halton Children’s Fund)

Board members often represent more than one perspective – an example of this is the Principal of Halton College who also represents the Halton Learning Partnership.

Halton Together’s representatives on the Board are Andy Guile and Mike Fry. There are also observers at Board meetings from Government Office North West,
Halton Disability Services and Halton Voluntary Action.

A Community Strategy for Halton

A Community Strategy was drawn up for Halton to provide a framework in which the many different organisations and groups of the Partnership can work together. The strategy sets out the Halton Partnership’s plan to tackle the five priority areas and runs until 2005/6.

Where does Neighbourhood Renewal Funding come into it?

The 88 most deprived areas in the country qualify for Neighbourhood Renewal Funding (NRF). Between 2001 and 2006 Halton will receive more than £20 million of NRF. This funding is designed to help improve services, narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of England. Particular attention is paid to tackling key Government floor targets.

The approach that has been taken in Halton differs from many other parts of the country – the Halton Strategic Partnership Board decided on a ‘commissioning’ approach, rather than a ‘bidding’ approach. This means that work is specifically commissioned, rather than people or groups putting in bids for a pot of money. As a result, the NRF Halton receives is used exactly where evidence shows it’s needed most.

In addition to this £20 million, a further £40 million of match funding – extra funding we’re able to access because the NRF pays part of projects’ costs – is expected to come into Halton by 2006.

On top of this, a similar amount of funding from other sources will be brought in to build on work paid for by NRF; this enables other projects to go ahead.

In Halton, each Specialist Strategic Partnership has an allocation of NRF with which to commission initiatives in their particular area of expertise.

So what is it spent on?

More than 80 projects are currently running in Halton using NRF. Examples include:

• A Five-a-day programme raising awareness that five portions of fruit and vegetables a day may help reduce the risk of heart disease and some cancers.

• Treating areas of contaminated land to bring them back into use. An example is the transformation of Wigg Island into a thriving community park.

• The Neighbourhood Travel Team - offering personalised journey planners and special transport arrangements for local people to get to work or college.

• The Benefits Express - a mobile unit that takes benefit advice, debt counselling and welfare rights advice to the doorsteps of those people who may need it.

• Blue lamp - helping to reduce crime and the fear of crime through high visibility foot patrols by wardens and police.

There are many more examples of NRF-funded projects in Halton – you can find out more information by getting in touch with the Partnership Team on 0151 424 2061 x 1023. Alternatively, from April you will be able to visit the Halton Partnership website – watch this space for more details!

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