national work
Enduring change
‘Regeneration’, ‘mainstreaming’, ‘community involvement’, ‘evidence-based policy’, ‘public service reform’ – all are terms central to the government’s policy programme for tackling social deprivation. But what do they mean in practice for people living in areas of multiple deprivation?
EnduringChange describes how Community Links, through its Social Enterprise Zone project, has worked in Newham, East London over the past seven years to give these terms practical meaning . The Social Enterprise Zone aims involves service users and front-line workers in service reform, generates practical ideas for changing the way mainstream resources are delivered and governed, and ensures that these ideas are tested, evaluated and the lessons shared by all involved.
The report revisits the original proposal for Social Enterprise Zones made in 1996 and reflects on how the idea has adapted to the policy environment under New Labour. It describes the setting up of a pilot Zone, started in 1999, and presents case studies of the ideas generated, how they have been tested and what their impact has been. Finally, the report explores how the project relates to wider debates about the role of communities in developing evidence-based policy and the desire to make more effective use of mainstream budgets to tackle deprivation. A new model of policy making and service delivery is proposed.
Enduring change is essential reading for anyone interested in public services reform and how to achieve it, including policy makers in central and local government, managers and workers in public sector agencies, regeneration workers, community activists, academics with an interest in social policy and poverty, and politicians.
Enduring Change was published by The Policy Press in association with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and is available for free download in PDF fomat here. Printed Copies may be obtained direct from The Policy Press
Published in association with The Joseph Rowntree Foundation