Community Engagement in Community Safety Case Study
Particip8 Overton – community engagement and participatory budgeting in
South Lanarkshire
Estimated population size of local area (Overton, South Lanarkshire): 1611
Introduction
In 2009, South Lanarkshire was one of five local authorities in Scotland successful in
their bid to take part in the Participatory Budgeting pilot ‘Community Wellbeing
Champions Initiative’1. The project built upon existing community engagement
activity in the area and sought to address the issue of antisocial behaviour, which
had been identified by the community of Overton as a priority issue. Particip8
Overton, a steering group of local representatives was established to take the pilot
forward. The group engaged the local community in a successful Participatory
Budgeting process to allocate community safety funds to a range of initiatives which
the community had identified to address the underlying causes of antisocial
behaviour in the area.
What is Participatory Budgeting?
Participatory Budgeting (PB) directly involves local people in making decisions
on the spending and priorities for a defined public budget. PB processes can
be defined by geographical area (whether that’s neighbourhood or larger) or by
theme. This means engaging residents and community groups representative
of all parts of the community to discuss and vote on spending priorities, make
spending proposals, and voting on them, as well giving local people a role in
the scrutiny and monitoring of the process and results to inform subsequent PB
decisions.
Since then, Particip8 Overton has gone from strength to strength and continues to
take forward the aims of the pilot. They act as a representative group for local
organisations and statutory partners, continuing to coordinate community initiatives
around the issues raised during the engagement process, and growing as a strong
partnership between the local community, community organisations, and statutory
agencies in the community of Overton. This case study seeks to capture the
engagement processes used in this initiative and share the learning of Particip8
Overton along the way.
The process
1http://www.participatorybudgeting.org.uk/documents/CWCI%20Prog%20eval%20report%20FINAL%
20FINAL.pdf
1
The South Lanarkshire Community Safety Partnership identified the Participatory
Budgeting pilot as an opportunity to galvanise previous community engagement
events which had identified the outcomes that informed the council’s problem solving
agenda. Funding of £20,000 was matched by the Community Safety Partnership
giving £40,000 to enable this new and innovative approach to engaging with the
community on issues around community safety and antisocial behaviour. The pilot
had strong support from the local tenants and residents association and the Housing
Area Services Manager, and built on a targeted antisocial behaviour enforcement
programme led by the council and community policing. It also linked clearly towards
the outcomes of key national policy drivers and the local Single Outcome
Agreement. These enabling factors were supported by Scottish Government’s and
COSLA’s vision for the pilot programme; that locally elected members would have a
role of ‘champion’ in overseeing the engagement and empowerment of communities,
and in developing effective local solutions to local problems.
To take the pilot forward Particip8 Overton was established. Particip8 Overton acts
as a steering group which includes local councillors, council officers, police officers,
representatives from tenants and residents groups and a residential homeless unit
service, managed by the Salvation Army. The key aims of the pilot were to:





Engage with local residents in prioritising the needs of their neighbourhood;
Allow local residents to agree community safety priorities;
Increase cross community working across the South Lanarkshire area;
Build the capacity of resident communities and
Involve the community in monitoring and evaluating the delivery of agreed
projects.
Initially Particip8 Overton carried out a residents’ survey to help them understand
local peoples’ community safety priorities and the outcomes they wanted. Four main
issues were identified including: poor appearance of local environment; high levels of
fear of crime; lack of community spirit; and lack of activities in the area for young
people. From these four priorities Particip8 Overton co-developed interventions to
address the issues and presented them back to the local community. The
Community Safety Partnership Officer played an integral role in ensuring that
the initiatives were developed collaboratively by the local partners in response
to the outcomes identified, and that local groups were part of that process:
‘It was challenging initially as although the available funding attracted many groups,
they expressed concerns about the allocation of funding to one or two short term
initiatives. So we wanted to make sure that the process had real community
ownership, and that this would be the focus of the process and with partnerships
built during the process.’ (Community Safety Officer)
The intended outcomes for the Community Safety Partnership in working in this way
were not only to reduce antisocial behaviour and improve quality of life for the
neighbourhood; but also to improve community engagement, increase community
2
spirit, enhance local democracy; and pilot a process that could potentially be used in
other ways and areas of South Lanarkshire by the Community Safety Partnership.
As previous attempts to engage communities through traditional methods had not
been very successful, Particip8 Overton decided to hold a fun day at which
residents were able to find out more about a shortlist of projects, which had been
proposed by local organisations and groups in response to the priorities identified
through the residents’ survey. Information about the projects was distributed to
residents in a leaflet prior to the open day, at which residents voted on to determine
which should be allocated resources. The funding and voting event was viewed as
an incentive to get local residents to take those first steps to become involved in
helping to tackle the community safety issues that they had raised during the
consultation process, through deciding where funds should be allocated. At the
voting event residents voted for six interventions:






Overton Garden Care Club
Overton Safer Streets
Overton 2gether
Communities Doing it for Themselves
Move the Goal Posts
Youth NRG Overton
Voting options were distributed to residents ahead of the voting day
“It wasn’t just about how money was to be allocated; it was how the community felt
about making decisions and evaluating the projects identified” (Community Safety
Officer)
The commitment of time from the staff of the partners involved, and the local
representatives was vital in shaping the success of the process.
“It was challenging as my involvement in the group was in addition to my existing
duties, but very quickly I was able to see the impact of the additional time spent on
this as Monday morning calls in relation to community safety issues were greatly
reduced”. (Housing Officer)
The sense of ownership of the process by the community has helped increase
engagement overall. There had been ‘apathy in the community’ due the extent of
anti-social behaviour, but now that the impact of the initiatives is visible, residents
are more confident in working with the police and partners to tackle issues as they
arise.
3
“The tenants association would not have been able to respond to these kinds of
concerns alone, so the partnership has allowed us to address the concerns of the
community”. (Tenant & Resident’s Association member)
Outcomes
The projects prioritised by the community in the process have had a significant
impact on the levels of reported anti-social behaviour - the key issue which brought
the partnership process together. And in addition, the group has continued to deliver
an annual fun day and a series of other annual community events which have
attracted up to 1200 participants.
Of significant impact has been the Garden Care Club which has been developed in
partnership with a local Salvation Army homeless service users centre, Eva Burrows.
Service users from the homeless service users’ centre are trained by Environmental
Services to provide gardening to local residents who do not qualify for Council
gardening services. The group reports that this has not only developed the
skills and confidence of the centre’s service users, but has also helped break
down barriers and stigma associated with homelessness in the wider
community. The involvement of services users in the planning and delivery of the
annual fun day and participatory budgeting process, has been a particularly positive
outcome from the perspective of the Eva Burrows Centre. .
Community capacity building has been a key aim of the process for the partnership.
The group was keen to build confidence in the community. In Overton, many people
were highly skilled in local industry which has now gone from the area. As a result,
many local people no longer see themselves as able to contribute to the community.
Particip8 Overton feel that they have had an impact on the capacity of
individuals to engage in community activity, particularly through increased
participation in Particip8 Overton group itself, the tenants and resident groups, and
young peoples’ initiatives. Particip8 Overton also feel that community capacity
has increased, which is evident in the active and informed contribution of the
community to a consultation on local development plans.
Residents have reported a reduced incidence of antisocial behaviour at weekends,
as a result of Move the Goal Posts, a targeted football initiative for young people.
The initiative has been highly successful in engaging ‘inter-territorial’ groups and, as
such, has increased turn out at community events, in particular families from
neighbouring communities, something which would have been a concern in the past
due to anticipated antisocial behaviour.
“There is a flicker of harmony there now” (Mary, a local resident)
Although the initiatives chosen by the community through the voting process have
been resourced by the Particip8 budget, the group have found that the partnership
4
process has also brought ‘in kind’ support from local business. For example,
contributions to the Christmas event,
“Other areas nearby now ask to be involved in the Christmas event, people are still
talking about it!”
Learning
In terms of establishing the partnership, the group quickly identified that the
support of the Housing Officer would be vital in ensuring a successful
engagement process. Particularly in relation to their knowledge and understanding
of the geography of the area, and the direct access they could provide to the
different communities within Overton.
One area of learning was in relation to ensuring maximum attendance from the
community at the voting event. Particip8 Overton felt the fun day attracted a lot of
attention and enthusiasm; however numbers at the voting event itself were lower.
Although this meant the community had longer to digest the information about the
initiatives on offer, the group felt they would hold the voting at the fun day if they
were to do it again in order to ensure larger numbers voting in the participatory
budgeting process.
The National Standards for Community Engagement2 were key in guiding the
process to ensure that it was as participative and inclusive as possible.
Although the pilot was externally evaluated, the group felt they would have benefited
from having more time built into the process for evaluation and to record their use of
the National Standards.
It is important to note that at the beginning of the process residents, and
partners working in the area didn’t fully understand the underlying principles
of Participatory Budgeting, and that a change of approach would be required,
by handing over ‘power’ directly to local residents.
The sustained engagement by Particip8 Overton with the wider community, and the
way in which the participatory budgeting process evolved, meant that the
membership of Particip8 Overton changed through time. Now, it is predominantly
made up of local agencies, local authority staff, and local residents who are keen to
develop the learning from the process, and who have a sound understanding of the
positive relationship with the community that enabled the pilot to be taken forward.
In terms of the experience of staff involved in the process, officers did express
concerns over the intensive level of support required:
“Participatory budgeting is quite time intensive, and there were concerns about
whether this could be justified during the current financial climate being experienced
particularly within local authorities, and the additional demands being placed on
staff.” (Community Safety Officer)
Staff also felt that other community agencies and services were often working in silos
in the community and had limited connection with local residents or other agencies.
2
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/engage/standards
5
The critical role of Particip8 Overton in bringing the different local partners
together quickly became apparent as this provided the basis for a shared
understanding and a shared platform to deliver more inter-connected and
effective services in the area.
This enhanced partnership working has helped to build excellent working
relationships between staff from local agencies, council, and local residents,
to better plan and coordinate services or joint initiatives in the community,
towards a more ‘co-produced’ model. On an individual basis, this approach allows
staff to be more effective in their areas of work, and how they deliver services,
because they have a better knowledge and understanding of the community, all of
which is starting to improve the quality of life for local residents and those in the
surrounding areas.
Particip8 Overton sought to support the community to tackle the underlying causes
of the incidents of antisocial behaviour that were occurring in the community, and
feel that there have been short term outcomes from the Participatory Budgeting
process which have shown that there has been some progress towards this.
However, they are committed to working in partnership, to support the community in
developing responses to the issues which are important to them, and wish to build
on the assets and capacity of the community to achieve sustainable long term
impact.
Next Steps
Particip8 are continuing to resource the activities identified in the budget, and have
found that the original pilot has unlocked much of the capacity and assets within the
community, meaning the resources have gone much further. The group has
extended the opportunity to further develop the Participatory Budgeting approach
and will continue to ensure that the initiatives supported demonstrate that they were:




Sustainable;
Have a long term difference to the community;
Build local capacity; and
Provide public reassurance to the local community.
The next step for the group is to develop the Overton 2gether initiative, which seeks
to share the learning gained and spread the activity out to the surrounding areas.
The group have also managed to secure increased access to the community hall,
the only remaining community facility in the area, and are keen to engage the
community in this process in order to ensure sustainability of the resource for the
future.
Due to financial constraints on council budgets the Community Safety Partnership
recognises that it cannot, particularly during these financially challenging times,
provide a dedicated budget on an annual basis for all participatory budgeting
initiatives that are currently being rolled out in other communities across South
Lanarkshire. However, the Partnership believes that the process in Overton has
6
evolved towards a co-production model, where local agencies, council
officers, elected members, and police and local residents are all working
together on the issues affecting the local community by using mainstream
budgets and resources. It is anticipated that each participatory budgeting
initiative being carried out in South Lanarkshire will evolve towards an
embedded ‘co-production’ model.
Contact:
Linda G Cunningham
Community Safety Officer
Housing & Technical Resources
Floor 10
Almada Street
Hamilton
ML3 0AE
Tel: 01698 45 2258
linda.g.cunningham@southlanarkshire.gov.uk
7