Dreams:
Chapter 7 - How The Plan will be Delivered
Ch. 7 Contents
Introduction
Proposed Structure
Monitoring
Introduction
The ability of the programme to deliver the strategy set out in our
Delivery Plan will ultimately determine the level of success the Partnership achieves.
Regeneration initiatives are often able to demonstrate good strategies and plans
but fail when it comes to effective management or delivery. It is critical therefore
that the delivery structures we establish are able to ensure efficient, quality
implementation of agreed actions with an effective means of monitoring evaluating
and controlling delivery.
Alongside the practical functions of efficient delivery is the method by which it
is achieved. Our delivery mechanism has to reflect the principles of the programme
and contribute to the long-term sustainability of regeneration in the area. Central
to this is the involvement and engagement of local people in the management and
operations of the delivery structure. Our delivery structure has been designed to
reflect the needs of the programme, the needs and capacity of the community and
the increasing role and ownership it will play in the evolution of the programme.
The Devonport NDC programme requires a delivery structure that enables those responsible
for managing the programme, at all levels, to have much greater control over the
actions taken in its name and full control over expenditure. Evolution from the
development phase of the programme to implementation is a significant one. The disciplines
and functions of delivery are substantially different to those of planning. It is
necessary to consider what type of structure is best suited to our purpose and how
that relates to the organisation we currently have in place.
Developing the Delivery Structure
The delivery structure is not an end in itself.
It is a means to an end and its design should be based on the functions it has to
undertake. Underpinning the structure is a set of core values which reflect the
views of the partnership. These values should clearly demonstrate how the partnership
wishes to do business within itself and with others and how it will be held accountable.
These values need to be determined by discussion within the partnership, as it evolves,
but will consist of issues such as:-
. Transparency of operation and decision making
. Legitimacy of representation
. Competency of participation
. Equality of involvement
The structure will need to be able to provide the following:-
. Clarity of purpose for the programme and its objectives
. A means of taking a strategic overview
. A way of deciding what will be done and what should be achieved -scale, quality and efficiency
. Checks and balances
. Accountability to government and directly to local residents
. Legitimacy in terms of participation
. Responsibility- making sure things are actually done.
The Proposed Structure - Roles and Responsibilities
Roles and Responsibilities
The delivery structure has been designed on the basis
that form follows function. The proposed roles and responsibilities of each part
of the structure are set out below.
The Board
The Board will act as the strategic body responsible for the programme. Its core functions are:-
- Strategic decision making, programme direction and the approval of key planning documents such as delivery plans
- Programme scrutiny to assess progress against objectives and outcomes and the continued relevance of the programme
- Final programme and project approval following option appraisal prior to expenditure
- Manage key external relationships to the forum, other partnerships and Government
- Management responsibilities for the staff team
The Board will not be involved in day to day operational management butmust be able to maintain a distance for the purposes of scrutiny and objective decision making. As a body the Board is likely to be established as a Devonport Regeneration Company (DRC) -a company limited by guarantee. This company exists
currently as a Shadow Board and is in the process of drawing up a formal constitution and putting in place structures which can oversee and deliver regeneration programmes in the Devonport area for the foreseeable future and beyond the 10 years of NDC.
The Shadow Board currently comprises a majority of local residents including the Devonport 5 (drawn from across the neighbourhood), a faith group representative and representatives from the black and ethnic minority communities. The Board includes 3 City Councillors, two local business people, representatives from SW RDA, the Princes Foundation, Devon and Cornwall Police, South West Devon Health Authority and GOSW.
Accountable Body
The City Council has agreed to continue to act as accountable body
in respect of the delivery of NDC for as long as the Devonport Regeneration Company
wishes it to play that role. The City has also been responsible, working closely
with local people, for recruiting staff. It is acknowledged, however, that in formulating
a constitution the Company may wish to establish independent systems and take on
that role. In the meantime the City Council's Head of Finance will have Section
151 responsibility and ensure financial propriety and accountability in the same
way as is provided for Plymouth SRB Partnership Ltd.
Operational Focus Groups
Below the Board there is a mechanism that takes the themes
of the programme and key areas of activity and begins to determine specific projects,
programmes and actions. That is, to reach a view on the specific definition, or
brief, for projects and programmes. In other words to determine:-
. what needs to be done
. the options for getting it done
. what scale and scope of action is appropriate
. the outputs and impact required
. the nature and quality of delivery required
The operational focus groups will also have a role in option appraisal, although
the staff team will in practice be responsible for this process.
By using the operational focus groups to define activity this mechanism moves away
from a bi and deliver approach to one that has a greater level of contract specification.
As such we expect to be able to increase the level of integration and coherence
in programme activity by using "contract specifications" to force a greater degree
of collaboration into the local market place for delivery. Once specifications have
been agreed the projects and programmes can, where appropriate, be offered to the
"market place" to seek delivery proposals. Once projects are "contracted" the operational
group plays a direct role in monitoring and evaluation of project delivery with
project deliverers directly accountable to the relevant operational group.
The structure of these operational groups, and participation in them, may differ
over time and according to the area of responsibility. The basic premise is that
they are community led and chaired to ensure service delivery accountable to local
people and that relevant organisations and individuals are involved to provide an
informal or expert view.
The operational focus groups will be based initially on the existing six Focus Groups
used in the development of the Delivery Plan. The relevance of the current Focus
Group structure will be tested and examined as the programme becomes operational.
It is expected to evolve to improve management and impact over the course of programme
and to recognise more completely the cross-cutting nature of so many of the core
problems experienced in Devonport.
The current Focus Groups are:
1. Employment, Education, Training and Business Support
2. Health, Social Issues, Community and Leisure
3. Physical Environment including Housing
4. Crime and Community Safety
5. Youth
6. Neighbourhood Management
Staff Team
The staff team is essential in ensuring the smooth running of the whole
delivery structure. It will take day to day responsibility for the programme, ensuring
that each part of the structure is able to operate in its own right and that the
whole of the delivery is integrated, co-ordinated and effective. The staff team
will have the following key responsibilities:-
- Professional and technical advice to the Board, to the operational focus groups and to the fora
- To provide effective direct support for, and linkages between, the operational groups to ensure coherence and integration
- Procedural guidance and the establishment of robust systems for project management and for public and community accountability
- Financial accounting and management, scrutiny and diligence
- Technical monitoring and evaluation systems and procedures
- Option appraisal
- Formal reporting to the Board, Government and operational groups
- Managing the relationships with external bodies to ensure maximum input and commitment to the programme including public, private, community and voluntary sectors
Fora
Providing both direct input to the partnership and the operational focus groups
it is proposed to establish four individual forum in respect of:-
. The community as a whole
. Youth
. Ethnic minorities
. Business
The constitution and terms of reference for each forum will be determined during
the development stages and with the forum membership. It is expected that they will
include the following;-
- Nomination of representatives to the Partnership Board and operational focus groups
- Monitoring of programme activity, service delivery and regeneration impact within Devonport
- Respond to and comment on Partnership Board papers and the Annual Delivery Plan
- Facilitate consultation on specific and generic issues concerning the programme
- Contribute towards the preparation of a community engagement strategy
The establishment and development of the Fora will take a high priority during Year 1 of the programme.
Monitoring and Evaluation Framework
Evaluation is a critical component of the regeneration process. Whilst all publicly
funded economic development programmes -including New Deal for Communities -are
subject to designated monitoring systems and procedures our process of evaluation
should seek to go beyond this. In practice, the formal evaluation process will attempt
to go beyond official monitoring requirements in order to assess the wider impact
and value of the activities being delivered.
This is a critical tenet of the DETR's recently published Good Practice Guide in
Local Evaluation for Regeneration Partnerships, and one that we believe accords
very closely with our own desire to make a lasting change to our neighbourhood.
Effective monitoring and evaluation are key management tools and should be organised
in such as way as to contribute to the evolution of the programme in a formative
way.
Our approach to monitoring and evaluation will adopt the following priorities:-
- the importance of ensuring that evaluation makes timely contributions to the delivery plan; evaluation needs to be phased into key milestones within the delivery programme as a whole
- results from evaluation should support partners in making their decisions about both the broad strategic direction of NDC and the role of individual schemes and programmes in sustaining that strategy
- evaluation will be 'user-friendly'; the model to be adopted is one based on mutual trust, a shared understanding of where the strategy has come from and where partners want it to go
Monitoring
Project level monitoring
It is clearly important for the base monitoring information
to be embedded in our system. Project specification and approval processes will
define at the outset of projects the expected expenditure patterns, outputs, milestones
and outcomes. These will form the basis of formal reporting between the project
and the staff team and accountability procedures to the operational focus groups
Ethnic minority monitoring
Special monitoring arrangements will be put in place
to ensure that those individual projects targeted at ethnic minorities are separately
tracked and monitored, together with monitoring of the impact on ethnic minorities
of the overall programmes.
Programme level monitoring
T o ensure that we and Government Office for the South
West understand how the programme as a whole is performing, the Partnership will
undertake the following assessment and reporting processes:
- Twice yearly annual reporting summarising progress towards all agreed expenditure, outputs, milestones
and outcomes
- Performance Reviews -the Partnership will undertake two performance reviews. The
first will be a mid-year review which will be led by the Partnership and forms one
of the key elements of programme management. This review will look at progress against
planned delivery, milestones and key outcomes and will result in a short report
to Government Office. (In practice the Partnership Board may choose to undertake
these formal reviews on a more regular basis).
The second, an Annual Review, will take place at the end of the first year. It will
encompass both the review of activity to date, set against plans made, and the proposed
rolling forward of the programme over the next three year and 12 month periods.
This Annual Review will be undertaken formally with representatives from Government
Office.
Evaluation
Our approach to evaluation is threefold:-
1. Formative evaluation -on-going collection of information and data using local
as well as external organisations to continually inform the management process and
direction of the programme
2. Democratic Evaluation -recognising that those involved in delivering the programme,
or as beneficiaries, should be most critical of its performance and by seeking their
views strive to attain continuous improvement. The delivery structure will be used
to promote active and continuous evaluation of activity.
3. External comparative evaluation -the objectivity of an external agency undertaking
regular periodic evaluation of performance and impact locally,against our baseline
and as compared to other areas, is recognised to be of key value and is a further
layer of evaluation we will wish to consider.
Training Plan
It is recognised that the NDC programme will need to entail substantial
training for all those involved in the delivery structure. In particular, working
with others, managing the process, internal and external communication, building
the Partnership, project appraisal, monitoring and evaluation.
These three approaches together will, we believe, provide a robust framework which
will enable the management of our programme to be as effective as possible. It will,
at the same time, provide Government with an accurate understanding of the progress
we have made. In designing the detail of the framework we will wish to ensure that
this is not only configured around the agreed local Delivery Plan but also is able
to reflect the plans and priorities of national evaluation procedures.
A key part of the formative evaluation approach will be to establish a means of
tracking the progress of targeted groups of people within the Devonport community
over the course of the programme. The detail of this will be determined during the
first stages ofour programme delivery but may include:-
- Tracking young people resident in the area and their social and economic progress
- Tracking the progress of minority groups within the area and their economic and social progress
- Tracking community involvement and engagement throughout and across the NDC programme.
Chapters ...
1. Forward, Summary; Vision
2. Devonport - Our neighbourhood
3. Devonport - The Present
4. Devonport - The Future
5. Devonport - The Plans
6. The Forward Strategy
7. How the Plan will be Delivered