Neighbourhood Renewal 2006-2008
Neighbourhood Renewal (NR) is the strategy launched by central government in 2001, with the goal of regenerating deprived areas so that, within 10-20 years, no one should be disadvantaged by where they live.
Overall, Bristol is a wealthy city, but there a number of neighbourhoods who do not share this level of general prosperity, both in the inner city and in some of Bristol's outlying estates. Residents in these neighbourhoods experience higher crime levels, lower educational attainment, worse health and lower life expectancy, lower income and higher worklessness and poorer housing and environment than people living in the rest of the city.
Key ideas underpinning NR are:
- that mainstream services (the police, local councils, NHS services, Job Centre Plus etc) need to deliver better in deprived areas
- that services need to work with local residents, voluntary and community organisations, councillors and businesses to identify local problems, gaps in services and ways to improve them
- that Neighbourhood Renewal funding should be used to try out ways of improving services and delivering better results for local people and
- that, if successful, these new services and ways of working should become part of the normal way services work in deprived neighbourhoods. This is usually called mainstreaming.
The overall aim of the Neighbourhood Renewal programme is to work with the Bristol Partnership Delivery Groups to close the gap in quality of life between deprived neighbourhoods and the rest of Bristol. Bristol's Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy 2004-2011, Improving Neighbourhoods Changing Lives, describes Bristol's overall approach.
Bristol has been awarded £12,198,980 for the 2006-2008 programme of Neighbourhood Renewal. There is also an additional £2,100,000 of funding under the Cleaner, Safer, Greener element of the Safer & Stronger Communities Fund. Taken together, Bristol has £14,298,980 to fund the work programme in its identified NR neighbourhoods.
The Bristol Partnership has responsibility for the successful strategic delivery of the Neighbourhood Renewal programme but Bristol City Council is the Accountable Body, responsible for the administration of the NR Fund in accordance with government conditions.
NR Neighbourhoods in Bristol
Bristol has identified seven neighbourhoods which will receive this additional funding. These are: Southmead, Lockleaze & Lawrence Weston (together called ‘The Northern Crescent’), St Paul’s, Easton & Lawrence Hill, Knowle West and Hartcliffe & Withywood.
They were chosen on the basis of the 2004 Indices of Multiple Deprivation for Bristol . Indices of Multiple Deprivation rank small areas of about 1,500 population (called ‘Super Output Areas' or ‘SOAs’) in terms of deprivation around:
Crime
Income (including Children and Older People and Income deprivation)
Health deprivation and disability
Education, skills and training deprivation
Employment
Barriers to Housing
Environment
and for all these factors combined, ‘Multiple Deprivation’.
In addition to the 7 formal NR neighbourhoods, several other areas are receiving more limited NR additional funding in recognition of particular pockets of deprivation. These are:
Henbury (around Crow Lane: Crime)
Bedminster (Crime and Health)
Markesbury Road (Crime and Health)
For a map showing the NR areas for Bristol 2006-2008, please look here.
In each Neighbourhood Renewal neighbourhood there is a local Partnership or Steering Group, which consists of a combination of local residents, service providers, community and voluntary sector partners, equalities representatives and faith groups representatives. Each Partnership is resourced with a Neighbourhood Manager, Neighbourhood Renewal Facilitator and administration. These staff co-ordinate the work of their partnership and the various Theme/Action Groups which develop work around crime, education, health, employment and the local environment within each neighbourhood. Many Partnerships have their own websites (see 'related links') and all have their own regular local newsletter which is delivered to every household in their neighbourhood.
Each area has developed a Local Neighbourhood Renewal Plan. Contact details for each NR Manager and their team can be here or looking in the Related Documents box to the right.
Neighbourhood Renewal's Funding Programme 2006-2008
The Neighbourhood Renewal programme for 2006/2008 was produced by the Joint Action Planning between neighbourhoods and Bristol Partnership Delivery Groups, and approved by the Bristol Partnership in December 2005. Larger interventions with proven impact have been supported wherever possible and the Joint Action Planning process has connected neighbourhood initiatives with broader, city-wide priorities through Delivery Groups.
NR interventions in 2006/2008 are, more than ever, working to add value to key developments in the city, working alongside SRB6 and the Children’s Fund, and supporting the Change for Children agenda, Extended School Partnerships, Neighbourhood Policing, the new Respect initiative, Choosing Health and Neighbourhood Management.
The main elements of the NR Programme are described in the Neighbourhood Renewal Outcomes Framework and the Neighbourhood Renewal Support Framework .
Young People Enjoy and Achieve
Multi Agency Preventative working in a number of areas across the city has been highly innovative in improving life chances for young people at risk of social exclusion and offending. Projects such as EMAP in Easton, Better Together in Southmead and Lockleaze and Project X in Knowle West have helped re-integrate young people into education and provided streamlined, one-stop access to families struggling with a wide range of issues.
The multi-agency model is consistent with the goals and methods of Every Child Matters and Neighbourhood Renewal has committed a total of £1.5 million to develop a core multi-agency models in all NR areas over the next two years which can be mainstreamed within the emerging Children and Young People’s Services.
£920,000 will provide continued support for supplementary schools working with ethnic minority communities through the City Academy at Key Stages 2, 3 and 4, as well as revision classes and transition summer programmes for African Caribbean and dual heritage young people, and interventions among refugee communities.
Under this theme, NR is supporting Extended Schools working in neighbourhoods, providing an additional £1.8 million for a menu of services which improve links between schools and NR communities. £300,000 will fund co-ordinators to further strengthen this approach with schools.
Safer Communities
Safer Bristol will deploy Community Safety workers in each NR area. They will work with local people around Neighbourhood Policing, support multi-agency work around anti-social behaviour and the emerging Respect agenda, and manage a small ‘Designing Out Crime’ budget.
NR is adding £500,000 to the Drug Strategy Team’s funding for community-based drugs work to supplement the commissioned service, particularly in NR areas of high need.
£986,000 is available to fund area-specific interventions, such as extra Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), work around Domestic Abuse, and other work with a proven impact on reducing crime and the fear of crime in neighbourhoods.
Healthier Communities
Primary Care Trusts will manage £200,000 to connect successful community-based initiatives and share good practice, and to fund tobacco control workers to increase the number of smoke-free environments in NR areas.
Local neighbourhoods will spend £800,000 on work around healthy eating, transport, exercise, smoking cessation and mental health/well-being. £400,000 will continue to expand the Teen Confidential service, providing sexual health-trained nurses in secondary school drop-ins and youth venues across Bristol.
Improve the Economic well-being of communities
NR is targetting £800,000 at bringing together employment and enterprise work in the North Bristol, Central and South Bristol NR areas. A further £200,000 will support a range of neighbourhood interventions, such as the Stapleton Road Action Plan, community transport accessing employment sites and work around youth employment.
Satisfaction with the local environment
Park Improvements in NR neighbourhoods will receive a boost of £670,000 and Bristol City Council is also seeking Lottery funding to add to this sum.
Neighbourhoods have Liveability funding to pay for local pieces of work to improve the appearance and quality of public spaces in their areas. Other work includes the Stapleton Road Action Plan in Easton, which is combining Crime, Liveability and Employment money to support improvements through an ambitious development plan for a key site in Easton and Lawrence Hill.
Graffiti in NR areas is being tackled through a Graffiti Removal service to act as a fast response team at a cost of £240,000.
Equalities work
Equalities work continues with an allocation of £310,000 to support interventions addressing hate crime. SARI (Support Against Racist Incidents) will continue to provide their additional casework support to residents in NR areas; EACH is supported to run their crime helpline and support victims of homophobic hate crime, as well as working in schools. Hate crime against disabled people is also being prioritised by this funding.
Finally, the funding will support increasing representation of people from equalities commmunities within NR work and improving access to mainstream services.
Learning, Communication and Capacity Building
The NR Learning Plan will support residents and service providers to work better together by sharing skills, information and good practice, whilst communication work, such as area newsletters, will be fostered under the Support Framework.
A Small Grants Fund of £250,000 will enable informal groups of local people and community/voluntary sector groups to contribute activities which engage residents in their local NR work, and contribute to the 5 Priorities identified by the NR Outcomes Framework.
If you would like to find out more about the Small Grants Fund, please go to the information link in the 'Related Documents' panel to the right or click for the Small Grants Fund Guidelines and the Small Grants Fund Application Form.
top of page
