Evaluation

Doncaster Strategic Partnership
NRF Evaluation

In order to meet the DSP's objectives for the evaluation of its £23m NRF the following activities have been undertaken:

• Desk review of NRF project files;
• Consultations with "stakeholders" from across DSP;
• Consultations with Neighbourhood Co-ordinators;
• Project reviews;
• Workshop with community representatives.

Our evaluation suggests that in order to drive forward from successful foundations, NRF in Doncaster should include the following as priorities:

• Adoption, at least in part through a ring-fenced allocation of the budget, of "commissioning" of action for year 4 and 5 NRF;
• Implementation of the Mayor's Neighbourhood Management White Paper, with local budget holding trialled through the Community Action Plan approach;
• Greater emphasis on change management and the skills and knowledge associated with successful neighbourhood renewal;
• BME participation;
• A more dynamic approach to monitoring and evaluation which captures outputs, impact and process developments.

Manchester City Council
Evaluation of the Employment, Enterprise and Training City-wide SRB

We recently completed this evaluation for the City and its partners in Manchester Enterprises. Our role has required contact with programme and project managers to determine the scheme's strengths and weaknesses, consider outputs and sustainable achievements and the future of individual projects. We have also prepared case studies of beneficiaries and reviewed the partnership structures against best practice.

Wolverhampton City Partnership
Evaluation Framework for Neighbourhood Management

In Wolverhampton we recently delivered a final framework for the evaluation of the LSP's Neighbourhood Management pilots (using NRF). The framework includes both qualitative and quantitative measures for review throughout the years 2003 and 2004. It seeks to pose and answer the following questions:

• How will success be evaluated?
• When will monitoring and evaluation take place?
• How will residents be involved?
• How will lessons learnt be passed on?

The framework was developed through one-to-one and collective sessions with key staff charged with the implementation of the Neighbourhood Management pilots across the City.

South Yorkshire Coalfield Partnership
SRB5 Community Development Evaluation

We recently completed a detailed evaluation of this major SRB programme that covers the Boroughs of Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham. Our evaluation covered a review of the partnership and its strengths and weaknesses relevant to the complexities of community development, contact with project managers and beneficiaries, (that showed high levels of satisfaction with the scheme), and an update of the scheme's baselines. The result is the commissioning of more detailed work on the role for the partnership across the coalfield based upon our suggestion that the programme might achieve more if the role for community development at the South Yorkshire level was more clearly defined.

Rochdale Borough Economic Partnership
Review of Employment Intermediary Activity

Key objectives of this project included:

• Identification of key determinants to employability and employment within the labour market for Rochdale residents;
• Identification of "what works" in the delivery of employment intermediary services based on experience and good practice from the local area and national examples;
• Identification of the main labour market initiatives and services which already exist in Rochdale;
• Recommended service elements which are coherent with, and add value to, the existing framework of employment support within Rochdale.

New East Manchester (URC) and English Partnerships
Evaluation and Good Practice Guide to Local Recruitment and Retention Support for Inward Investors

The Asda Eastlands development adjacent to the City of Manchester Commonwealth Games Stadium is the largest superstore in Europe. It has created some 1,000 jobs at the store and the recruitment to these opportunities was the subject of a compact between New East Manchester and Asda. We have provided the independent evaluation of the recruitment process. This involved the establishment of exact numbers of local people who have gained, and retained, employment at the store, their previous labour market status and aspirations etc. We also reviewed qualitative evidence and lessons to be learnt for future large scale support to investors and job seekers, including employment support for hard to reach groups. The evaluation was used as the basis for our guide to the local recruitment and retention process which is to be used by English Partnerships to promote good practice across the country.

Renaissance of Blyth SRB Partnership
Strategy Review and Programme Evaluation

The Renaissance of Blyth is an SRB Partnership seeking to alleviate the worst impacts of industrial restructuring on the port and town of Blyth. Through contact with stakeholders, a review of the masterplan for the area and discussions with current and potential inward investors we have produced a thorough review of the local strategy. The results included proposals for better involvement of the local community in the regeneration initiative and suggestions for improvements to the project appraisal process.

The Villages Initiative SRB Programme
Mid-term Evaluation

The Villages Initiative is an ambitious seven-year programme designed to transform a large housing estate in Stoke-on-Trent into five urban village communities. The concept and progress to date has been founded upon community participation rather than community consultation.

The Meridienpure role has been to map out achievements to date (outputs and outcomes) and identify future challenges. This has involved us working closely with residents to identify their interests and the breadth and depth of capacity building among the community. In particular we interviewed 200 households and asked questions about the social, economic and environmental impact of the programme. The programme steering group recently accepted our report and recommendations about the steps needed to make the programme sustainable.

Villages SRB
Community Enterprise Strategy Review

The Villages SRB project in Stoke-on-Trent has been disappointed with the development of community enterprise under a number of its SRB projects. The partners and residents, through their community development trust, asked Meridienpure to provide an evaluation of the community enterprise projects, overall approach and links to the programme's forward strategy. A best practice model of community enterprise development, incorporating case studies from elsewhere, was constructed as a benchmark for the strategy that had been pursued by the Villages Initiative.

Our report has been presented to both the SRB programme Board and the development trust board. In accepting the options appraisal included in the report and choosing the option recommended by the consultants the local partners have endorsed our findings and are investing in a new approach to community enterprise development that concentrates on outcomes and forward strategy.