topic: public services

Local Councils

All local authorities in England have the same aim. Which is: to improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of their area and the people that live there. Councils, however, have different sets of powers and responsibilities for achieving this end. Councils fall into five, or six, main types.

All local authorities in England have the same aim. Which is: to improve the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of their area and the people that live there. Councils, however, have different sets of powers and responsibilities for achieving this end. Councils fall into five, or six, main types.

In more detail

In this toolkit, when we refer to ‘the council’ we are referring to the principal local authority with responsibility for local planning which is:

  • the city or metropolitan borough council, if you live in one of the old metropolitan county areas
  • the borough council, if you live in London
  • the unitary council, if you live in an area outside London or the metropolitan areas which is covered by one
  • the district council, if you live in an area outside London or the metropolitan areas which does not have a unitary council.

The five, or six, main types are of council are:

City, Metropolitan Borough and London Borough councils

There are 68 of these: 32 London boroughs covering Greater London; and 36 city and metropolitan borough councils in the metropolitan county areas: Tyne & Wear; West Yorkshire; South Yorkshire; Greater Manchester; Merseyside; and West Midlands.

These councils are the only principal local authorities in their areas and have responsibility for local planning, licensing, housing, waste collection, education, social services, public health and council tax.

Outside London, they are also responsible for transport, police and fire services.  In London, these are the responsibility of the Mayor of London alongside strategic planning and regional development.

Some authorities – like Liverpool, Salford, Doncaster and Hackney - have an elected mayor and in these cases, the mayor acts in effect as the executive head of the council (with the same powers over local planning and other services as the council has).

Councils are starting to form Combined Authorities covering, for example, Greater Manchester or the West Midlands.  These authorities will be led by an elected mayor who will have powers depending on the details of the devolution deal agreed with Whitehall, but including strategic planning and regional development and resembling these of the Mayor of London.

Unitary councils

There are 55 of these covering a mixture of urban and country areas. Unitary councils covering cities and large towns include Bristol; Leicester; Nottingham; Portsmouth; Derby; Reading; Middlesbrough; Hull; Peterborough; Slough; Blackpool; Luton; Brighton & Hove; Bournemouth; Milton Keynes; Plymouth; Southampton; and Stoke-on-Trent.

These councils are the only principal local authorities in their areas and have responsibility for local planning and the same wide range of services covered by metropolitan boroughs and cities (see above) except that police and fire services are managed at county level.

Some authorities – like Bristol and Leicester – have an elected mayor and (as above) the mayor acts as the executive head of the council.  (In other words, (s)he acts with the power of the council, not with additional powers.

Some of these authorities may become involved in Combined Authorities.  For example, the West of England Combined Authority which includes Bristol and Bath and will cover an area roughly the same as the county of Avon which was created by local government re-organisation in 1974 and abolished in 1996.  The responsibilities of Mayors of Combined Authorities would depend on agreements with Whitehall, but be likely to include strategic planning and regional development and be akin to those of the Mayor of London.

County councils

There are 27 of these covering mainly rural areas. These councils are part of a two-tier structure with district councils (below).  Districts lead on local planning, but county councils have responsibility for strategic planning, waste management, education, social services, transport, police and fire services.

District councils

There are 201 of these covering the same area as the county councils above. Some cover cities and large towns including Preston, Gloucester, Northampton, Norwich, Oxford, Cheltenham, Cambridge, Watford, Hastings, Dartford, Maidstone, Dover, Burnley, Corby, Redditch, Warwick and Worcester. They are responsible for local planning and licensing and for housing, waste collection and council tax.

Parish councils

There are about 8000 of these covering about one third of the country, mainly in rural areas. These councils may also be known as town councils or community councils.  Where they exist, they are the bodies which lead neighbourhood planning.  Where there is no parish council (which is the case in most urban areas), the lead body for neighbourhood planning is  called a neighbourhood forum.  A nieghbourhood forum is not a local council, but a partnership of people and organisations with an interest in the area.

Key Facts:

In the metropolitan areas and in towns and cities covered by unitary councils, there is one layer of local council which has responsibility for the full range of services including planning.  In London, boroughs have resposibility for most things including local planning, but the elected Mayor of London is reposnible for transport, policing and strategic planning.  Outside London, at present, elected mayors have no special powers beyond those of the local council, but devolution to Combined Authorities is likely to change this. 

In many, less urban areas, there are two-tiers of local council at county and district level.  The district tier has responsibility for local planning and the county has responsibility for strategic planning.  Parish councils - which can lead on neighbourhood planning- exist mainly in country areas.  They can, however, be set up in urban neighbourhoods.  Where there is no parish council, a neighbourhood forum can lead on neighbourhood planning.  A neighbourhood forum is not a sort of council.   

Page Links from here

Local Government Association is the national body representing local councils in the UK.

The National Association of Local Councils represents parish and community councils in England and Wales.

You can find your local council here using your postcode and the same government site explains what services your local council provides.

Also, in the toolkit:

Councillors

Devolution

Local Democracy

Dealing with Antisocial Behaviour

Noise and Nuisance

Licensing

Planning

Managing Neighbourhoods

Delivering Local Public Services


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

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Councillors

Councillors are the representatives we elect to run our local council. A key way of improving the area and influencing services in the neighbourhood (including ones that aren’t run by the council) can be by working with your local councillors…

Councillors are the representatives we elect to run our local council. A key way of improving the area and influencing services in the neighbourhood (including ones that aren't run by the council) can be by working with your local councillors...

In more detail

Councillors  are the people we elect to run the local council.  They represent localities called 'wards'.  Wards vary in size between a few dozen people (in some rural parishes) to more than 25,000 people in large cities where each ward elects three councillors.  Councillors are usually elected for a term of four years, after which they must either stand again, or retire.  Being a councillor is an unpaid job, although councillors may be paid expenses and an allowance.  In larger councillors, the allowance can amount to the equivalent earnings from a part-time job.  For senior councillors who are chosen to serve in executive positions, the allowance may amount to the equivalent of earnings from a full-time job.  Sitting at the top of the tree in the council and accountable only to the public, councillors are reported to by the paid officers of the council.

The video below is by Areeyanan Satthamsakul.  She interviewed councillors in Birmingham about what they do and why they became councillors, as part of her Masters degree in Media at Birmingham City University:

Councillor Roles

Councillors from all the wards that make up a council area – collectively – make up the local council.  If there is no directly elected mayor, the local council chooses a council leader.  In most larger councils, the leader appoints up to ten councillors to serve as cabinet members responsible for portfolios like social services, children and young people’s services, economic development etc.  The rest of the councillors who are not cabinet members may serve on two sorts of committee:

  • Overview and scrutiny committees – these usually mirror the portfolios of cabinet members and exist to scrutinise the decisions made by the relevant cabinet members
  • Regulatory committees – these are committees dealing with issues like planning, licensing and highways which exercise particular powers given to the council by Parliament aside from the general power which local councils have to do anything that improves the wellbeing of their area.
  • Councillors may also serve on other joint boards, management committees etc as representatives of the full council.

In a few councils which have voted to return to the committee system of governance (which was mainly used before the leader and cabinet model described above was adopted), the leader of the council (who is called the chairperson) does not appoint cabinet members.  Instead the council as a whole decides on the formation of committees to make decisions about how services are run.  The voting members of these committees (who are all councillors) elect a committee chairperson who represents the committee.

As well as serving on committees and, possibly, as part of the executive of the council (ie as a cabinet member or chair of a committee), all councillors also:

  • take up complaints and suggestions and undertake casework on behalf of the people in their wards;
  • act as local leaders, for example in helping to produce local plans
  • represent the council at local events and on things like the governing boards of local schools
  • at election times, campaign for their own election or the election of other councillors from the same party.

Standards

Councillors are elected by the people and it is an important principle that whoever the people elect serves regardless of what officers of the council or anyone else may think of their suitability, skills etc.  Each council, however, publishes a set of standards which should be made available to the public.  Councillors are expected to maintain these standards.  If councillors break them, then the council can take disciplinary action.  Councillors are subject to the normal laws of the land and if they break those laws, they may be prosecuted and convicted the same as any other member of the public.

Key Facts:

Councillors are the democratically elected representatives of the people who are in charge of local government.  All sorts of local authority – parish, district, city or borough councils - are run by councillors.  They are in charge of the council - paid officers are accountable to them.  Apart from observing the standards agreed by the council and, of course, the law, they are accountable only to is - the voters - at election time.

Page Links from here

Stand for what you believe in - is the Local Government Association's guide to becoming a councillor (PDF).  It is part of their Be A Councillor resource.

Also see Operation Black Vote's FAQ sheet on becoming a councillor  and the Local Leadership Centre

In the toolkit, see:

Local Democracy

Local Councils

Civil Society

 


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

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Health Service Plans

The NHS in England spends more than £120bn a year on health and care services. The way this money is spent and the quality of services provided in a locality can be significant factors in local wellbeing. The NHS isn’t the easiest organisation to influence, but there is a range ways in, starting with you local medical centre or GP practice…

The NHS in England spends more than £120bn a year on health and care services. The way this money is spent and the quality of services provided in a locality can be significant factors in local wellbeing. The NHS isn't the easiest organisation to influence, but there is a range ways in, starting with you local medical centre or GP practice...

In more detail

The National Health Service (NHS) Constitution says: ‘You have the right to be involved, directly or through representatives, in the planning of healthcare services, the development and consideration of proposals for changes in the way those services are provided, and in decisions to be made affecting the operation of those services.’

The GP practices serving your neighbourhood are the first stop for engaging with the local health service.  There are about 8000 GP practices in England.   The numbers of people they serve varies from fewer than 10 to more than 50,000 (and the number of GPs involved in each practice also varies).  The median list size for a GP practice is about 6800 people.

GP practices may have PPGs or PRGs (Patient Participation Groups and Patient Reference Groups respectively).  They are small groups of people who provide a patients’ voice in the work of the practice.  They may also be involved in health campaigns in the neighbourhood.  Some Clinical Commissioning Groups may also organise Local Patient Networks which are public forums for health related issues covering an area with several GP practices.

You can, of course, invite GPs and staff employed by GP practices to come to neighbourhood meetings and forums which are not specifically health related.  Depending on the practice and the people involved, there may be other ways in which are able to support and participate community planning aimed at making a healthier neighbourhood.

Initiatives which local GP practices have led or become involved in include:

  • social prescribing – where GPs ‘prescribe’ social activity in the local community or physical activities in the park or at a local community centre to patients alongside medical treatments
  • promotion to health centre users of cycling and walking for short trips in the neighbourhood as an alternative to car use
  • promoting and supporting community gardens and their use.

GP practices work together to form and run Clinical Commissioning Groups.

Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)

Clinical commissioning groups are the bodies responsible for planning and commissioning most healthcare services in a local area.  They are led by clinicians – GPs, nurses and other medically qualified staff.  There are 209 CCGs in England.  The areas they cover vary widely in size and population.  For example: Corby CCG covers the town of Corby in Northamptonshire with a population of about 70,000 people; Birmingham CrossCity CCG serves a population of nearly 720,000 people.  The average size is roughly equal to a borough or district council.   CCGs are made up by individual doctors’ practices which means they can have slightly ‘fuzzy’ looking ‘interwoven’ boundaries with each other.  The video below is by the CCG in Tower Hamlets - it explains what CCGs do:

Between them, CCGs manage about 60% of the NHS budget.  They commission most secondary care services which includes things like: planned hospital care; rehabilitative care; urgent and emergency care (including out-of-hours and NHS 111); most community health services; mental health services; and services for people with learning disabilities.  CCGs are able to commission any service provider that meets NHS standards and costs, including NHS hospitals, private sector providers and charities and social enterprises.  In deciding whether they meet NHS standards, they are guided by the  National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines and the Care Quality Commission's (CQC).

CCGs have a duty to involve their patients, carers and the public in decisions about the services they commission.  Each CCG publishes a plan and has its own means by which people can engage in decision making about health and care priorities.  CCGs are likely to particularly interested in ways in which better neighbourhoods might support community care.  CCGs are also members of Health and Wellbeing Boards which are run by the local council and integrate health and care services.

 Councils and Health and Wellbeing Boards

Health and wellbeing boards were set up by Parliament to integrate local health and care services.  They are organised by local authorities and draw together representatives from the council, local NHS commissioners, public health and other relevant services.  As well as strengthening working relationships between health and social care and enabling integrated commissioning, Health and Welll-Being Boards aim to increase democratic input into strategic decisions about local health and care services.  Health and Wellbeing Boards meet in public and may run consultations or invite public views on issues they consider.

Local councils in England now have the primary responsibility for commissioning public health services.  These include things like health promotion, diet, exercise and physical activity, sexual health services, services aimed at reducing dependence on drugs and alcohol and smoking cessation.  Local councils continue to be responsible for environmental health services including food safety, pest control and disinfestation, air pollution, animal welfare, noise nuisance and certain aspects of health and safety.  You can influence your local council including by working with your local elected councillors and by responding to annual consultations on council budgets, plans and initiatives.

Healthwatch

Healthwatch is a network of local bodies that aim to champion users of health and care services.  They represent ‘the voice of the consumer’ to  those who commission, deliver and regulate health and care services.  There is a Healthwatch in every local council area.

The video below is by Healthwatch UK and explains what the organisation aims to do:

NHS Trusts

An NHS Trust is a part of the NHS with a given responsibility either in terms of geography or function.  They include hospital (or acute) trusts; mental health trusts; ambulance service trusts; and community health trusts.   They are, in effect, public sector corporations which are part of the NHS and are commissioned by CCGs to provide services as part of the NHS.  They can also sell some of their services outside the NHS.

Any NHS Trust can become a Foundation Trust, depending on the quality of its performance and systems.  Foundation status enables greater autonomy.  Rather than being led by a board of directors (as non-Foundation trusts are), a Foundation trust has a Council of Governors.  Governors are appointed by members of the Trust. Anyone with a connection to the Trust – such as living in the broad area it serves or working for it can join it as a member.

All NHS Trusts produce plans and Foundation Trusts have their governing bodies elected by an open  membership.   They operate as public sector businesses and are likely to be influenced by ideas and initiatives which will increase their ability to offer competitive services to commissioners.

The video below is by the independent charity The Kings Find and presents an 'Alternative View of the NHS' organisation:

NHS England

NHS England is the body which oversees the National Health Service; sets priorities and direction; and manages the NHS budget of about £96bn a year.  It passes about £66bn of that budget to Clinical Commissioning  Groups in each area of the country and uses most of the rest to commission primary care services and pay for the costs of drugs and prescriptions.   Primary care services are things like GPs and medical centres, pharmacy services, dentists and opticians.

NHS England publishes a Five Year Forward View, which sets out the direction for the NHS as a whole.

 

Key Facts:

Influencing the way the NHS serves your neighbourhood may be more relevant to improving the locality than making a local neighbourhood spatial plan.  Or it may be that - through community planning - you can do both.  There are a number of levels at whoch you can influence the NHS.  The starting point is the local GP surgeries and health centres serving the neighbourhood; there is also the CCG, Health & Wellbeing Board, Healthwatch and NHS Trusts (which run things like hospitals).  All have ways of engaging with and involving the public in their plans and the delivery of their services.
 

Page Links from here

Public Health England provides an easy way in to locate GP practices nad view information relating to them including perfornance measures .

NHS England has a list of links to Clinical Commissioning Groups and publishes a Guide to the NHS as a PDF

The independent health charity The Kings Fund has a directory of contacts for local Health and Wellbeing Boards and has published an Alternative Guide to the NHS

Find your local Healthwatch

In this toolkit, see also:

Public Health

Commissioning

Local Public Services


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

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Local Transport Plans

Transport is a key issue affecting neighbourhoods; neighbourhood plans can influence a range of transport issues. There are, however, other ways of influencing issues like parking, cycling and traffic management both at strategic and neighbourhood level.

Transport is a key issue affecting neighbourhoods; neighbourhood plans can influence a range of transport issues. There are, however, other ways of influencing issues like parking, cycling and traffic management both at strategic and neighbourhood level.

In more detail

Neighbourhood plans enable communities to influence those aspects of local transport issues that relate to how local land is developed.  For example, plans can (given sufficient evidence and so long as what they say is in line with existing local and national policies):

  • set out the requirement for new roads to support development
  • earmark sites to encourage ‘modal shift’ away from car use to public transport, walking and cycling
  • set out measures to tackle the challenges identified in the local transport plan which might include: accessibility; cycleways and footpaths; parking; street traffic and signage.

There are other ways of influencing local transport plans however other than through making a neighbourhood plan.

Who is responsible for what?

There are a number of different types of authority with responsibilities relating to transport:

  • Highways authorities are responsible for the upkeep of roads including things like potholes,re-surfacing works and .
  • Traffic authorities are responsible for the way they are used – including things like speed restrictions, parking, road closures and re-design and traffic calming measures.
  • Strategic transport authorities are responsible for producing local transport plans for their area.

The table below summarises who acts as the Local Highway Authority and Local Traffic Authority; and the Strategic Transport Authority in Metropolitan Areas (West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Tyne & Wear, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire), London and the rest of England:

Metropolitan Areas London Rest of England
Highways authority for the local road network City and borough councils

 

 London boroughs Unitary or County councils
Traffic authority for the local road network City and borough councils

 

 London boroughs Unitary or county councils
Strategic transport authority Combined Authorities

 

 Mayor of London Unitary or county councils/ Combined authorities

 

Local councils are only responsible for the maintenance and use of the local road network – which does not include motorways and major trunk roads.  The table below shows who is the Highway and Traffic Authority in respect of the strategic road network (motorways and major trunk roads) in the Metropolitan Areas, London and the rest of England:

Metropolitan Areas London Rest of England
Highways and traffic authority for the strategic road network Highways England Transport for London Highways England

Local Transport Plans and Consultation

The first thing to say about local transport plans is that they are not very local.  Strategic transport authorities are required to produce them under the terms of the Transport Act 2000 updated by the Local Transport Act 2008. As you can see from the table above, the strategic transport authority is either the Combined Authority (covering several million people), the Mayor of London (serving eight million people) or – outside the metropolitan areas and London - the county  or unitary council.

LTPs contain an assessment of the transport needs of the area and sets of proposals for improvement including short term and long term (15-20 years) measures.  In general Local Transport Plans: set out the current position with regard to transport, accessibility and pollution in the area; identify targets for improvement; set out the programme for achieving these objectives.   This may be split between separate strategy and implementation plans.

LTPs are not neighbourhood level plans but they set the strategic framework within which more local transport plans can be formed.  A local transport plan can be a 'material consideration' in determining a planning application.  You can find the most recent version online: they were originally to be revised every 5 years, but strategic transport authorities may now produce them as and when they see fit.

The over-arching aims for LTPs are set by government.  They include: supporting economic growth; cutting carbon emissions; contributing to safety, security and health; and improving quality of life and the local environment.  Local Transport Plans contain an Environmental Assessment which looks at the impact of what is proposed on the environment.

LTPs are subject to public consultation.  Groups that must be consulted include public transport user groups, bus and train operators and groups having a special interest, eg disability groups and environmental groups.

 

The video above is by Bristol Green Capital Partnership - an independent partnership which promotes sustainable transport in Bristol.  In the video, Liz Zeidler suggests how transport planning could improve her city.  The video is part of a series produced by the partnership to promote Bristol's Good Transport Plan.

Key Facts:

Local Transport Plans (LTPs) are strategic documents which set out how transport will develop in your city or region over the next 15-20 years.  Neighbourhood plans can address local transport and traffic issues but they must fit in with the strategic objectives set out in the LTP.  The local authority must consult before producing an LTP.

Page Links from here

In the toolkit, see:

Infrastructure

Spatial Planning

Local Public Services


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

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Policing and Police Plans

Local planning plays a part in community safety – but working with, and influencing the plans of your neighbourhood police and local police force are probably more effective and direct ways of making a safer neighbourhood…

Local planning plays a part in community safety - but working with, and influencing the plans of your neighbourhood police and local police force are probably more effective and direct ways of making a safer neighbourhood...

In more detail

Community safety is an important factor in local quality of life.  How well the police do their job – and how well they work with communities and the other agencies  – plays a big part in this.  Working better with the police and other local agencies might be a more effective way of improving your neighbourhood than starting out on a neighbourhood spatial plan.

Policing in England is provided by 39 local police forces.  Six of which - covering London and the metropolitan county areas of West Midlands, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Merseyside – serve a total population of more than 19 million people in the largest conurbations in the country.  Police forces outside London are headed by a Chief Constable who is accountable to an elected Police and Crime Commissioner. The Metropolitan Police is headed by a Commissioner who is accountable to the elected Mayor of London.

Police forces divide their areas up into Basic Command Units (BCUS, but also called Divisions, Local Policing Units, Operational Command Units or Districts depending on your local force).  The boundaries of Police BCUs tend to follow the same boundaries as the local councils.  A BCU in an urban area might cover  about 300,000 people (the size of a borough council), but it varies from place to place.  Typically, a BCU is headed by an officer with the rank of Chief Superintendent.

Neighbourhood Police

Neighbourhood policing has its roots in the Scarman Report on the riots in Brixton in 1981; and the development of community policing in the United States from the 1970s onwards.  (Although the idea that the police exist to work with the consent of community can be traced back to the principles set down by Sir Robert Peel in founding modern policing in the 1820s).

In response to Scarman, a Reassurance Policing Programme was piloted in eight force areas in the1990s.  It aimed to reduce crime and the fear of crime and improve public confidence by engaging with communities, targeting their main concerns and priorities and providing a visible and accessible presence in eight forces.  This led to the rollout of A Neighbourhood Policing Programme across England in 2005 with dedicated neighbourhood policing teams and including the (then, newly  introduced) Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) .

Neighbourhood police teams in large cities like Birmingham and Manchester typically consist of a sergeant, between two, and a dozen, police constables and two, and a dozen, PCSOs.  In London, Safer Neighbourhoods Teams cover smaller areas and are more often made up by a sergeant, a PC and a PCSO.  Each police neighbourhood area  may produce a list of neighbourhood priorities and a plan for achieving them in consultation with local residents and people who use the area, councillors and businesses.  Neighbourhood policing may also support groups of residents acting as neighbourhood watches and organize regular public Neighbourhood Tasking meetings or walkabouts.

Getting to know your neighbourhood policing team and taking part in meetings and consultations that help to set their priorities are ways of influencing how your area is policed.

Police and Crime Commissioners

Police and Crime Commissioners are representatives of the residents, elected every four years, who are: responsible for holding the police to account on behalf of the public; and specifically for holding the chief constable to account for the performance of officers and staff.  There is a PCC for every local police force except the Metropolitan Police (which covers the area represented by the elected Mayor of London).    The PCC holds the funding for policing in a force area and, after consulting the chief constable, is accountable for how it is spent.  The video below is by the PCC in Norfolk - it explains what Police and Crime Commissioners can do:

The PCC sets the strategic aims and direction for the police force in a Police and Crime Plan.  The PCC must produce this plan in the first financial year after they are elected.  The Police and Crime Plan for your area must include:

  • The PCC's police and crime objectives
  • The policing the Chief Constable is to provide
  • The financial and other resources the PCC will make available to the Chief Constable to provide policing
  • How the Chief Constable will report to the PCC about policing
  • How the Chief Constable's performance will be measured
  • Information about any crime and disorder reduction grants to be made by the PCC, any conditions made.

A Police and Crime Plan can last for a PCC's whole term in office or they may update it during their term.  In any case, the PCC is required to produce an annual report to the public on progress in policing against the plan aims and objectives.  The PCC can sack the chief constable if circumstances require it.  The PCC is responsible for appointing a new chief constable.

The work of PCCs is scrutinised by Police and Crime Panels which are made up of a representative from each of the local government districts covered by them and two independent co-opted members.  You can influence police plans by taking part in the consultations organized around the PCC plans for your area and by making contact with the PCC and/or their deputy and the member of the Police Panel representing your area.

Key Facts:

You can work with and influence the police at three main levels: the neighbourhood police team which is led by a sergeant; the Basic Command Unit which probably covers the same area as the borough you live in and is run by a Chief Superintendent; and at the level of the Police and Crime Commissioner who oversees the work of the whole of your local police force.  For neighbourhood and resident groups, the first link to make is with your neighbourhood team.  They may organise local tasking meetings or you can invite a member of the neighbourhood policing team to a local meeting you organise.

Page Links from here

The Police UK site provided by the government gives you information about policing and links to your local neighbourhood policing team, the force covering your area and your local PCC.  You can also see the Crime Map for your neighbourhood.

The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners has a map of PCC areas and more information about PCCs

The Police Foundation, a thinktank which focuses on policing, published a review of Neighbourhood Policing: Past, Present and Future in 2015 as a PDF

On this site, see:

Antisocial behaviour

Noise and nuisance

Local public services


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

created: 2016-06-13 11:45:04 by: admin status: f published

Neighbourhood Management

Neighbourhood planning is based on the idea that a place should be developed according to a shared vision. Neighbourhood management is based on the idea that a place should be managed in the same way…

Neighbourhood planning is based on the idea that a place should be developed according to a shared vision. Neighbourhood management is based on the idea that a place should be managed in the same way...

In more detail

When you start work on a neighbourhood plan, you are likely to find that  people often want to talk about issues that are only indirectly related, or unrelated, to the way local land is used.   Residents, for example, often have a lot to say about the way services are delivered including:

  • Public services – things like waste collection; road repairs; schools; policing and the emergency services; the local health service; community centres.
  • Utilities, transport and housing providers – power and water companies; bus and rail operators; landlords – both social and private; telecoms and cable companies and mobile and broadband coverage.
  • Local businesses – small shops and high street traders; markets; pubs and cafes; supermarkets; restaurants and nightlife.

In an urban neighbourhood, there is usually a higher density of service issues to talk about, than in a rural town or village. There are more shops and businesses; more transport links and more disruption to them; and more households served more intensely by a wider range of public services.  This is one reason why wider community planning – which covers how the neighbourhood is managed as well as planned – is likely to particularly useful in urban places.

Joined-up Services

Neighbourhood management is the idea that places can be managed  and served in a joined-up way locally.  (Rather than public services delivering the same service everywhere regardless of how well it meets local needs and works to local strengths.)  Managing services in a joined-up way can add more social value and enable people and businesses to make more of where they are based.  A neighbourhood management plan is a document like a neighbourhood plan but which describes policies and objectives for managing the place in a joined up way, rather than developing local land use.

Top-Down and Bottom-Up

A neighbourhood management plan is not necessarily a community plan.  The council and otehr bodies can try to integrate the way neighbourhoods are managed centrally and top-down.  The same as you can try to plan the development of neighbourhoods from an office in the city centre and without visiting the place you are planning for.  In general, however, locally made 'bottom-up' plans are probably more effective because they are: better informed about local resources and opportunities; more likely to focus on the critical points in the locality where a little effort can yield valuable results; and they are more likely to be used in practice.

Planning neighbourhood management at the same time as making a statutory neighbourhood plan might save time and produce more effective results.

Key Facts:

Neighbourhood management is an approach based on managing places rather than individual services.  It covers a lot of the things which people and local businesses care about and that add value to the local area.  It is likely to be particularly important in urban neighbourhoods.  Neighbourhood management can be done 'top-down' by the council and other organisations working together.  But a bottom-up (community based) approach is likely to be more successful.

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Local Public Services

Council Powers

Civil Society


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

created: 2016-06-12 11:23:38 by: admin status: f published

Designated Bodies

The ‘community rights’ in the Localism Act can be exercised by certain designated groups on behalf of the community…

The 'community rights' in the Localism Act can be exercised by certain designated groups on behalf of the community...

In more detail

The Localism Act 2011 designates which sort of community organisations can take on and lead the exercise of the various 'community powers' it sets out.

Neighbourhood Planning/Neighbourhood Development Orders

Neighbourhood planning (including neighbourhood development orders) must be led by the local parish council if one exists.  In places where there is none - as in most urban neighbourhoods - then neighbourhood planning may be led by a 'neighbourhood forum'.  The law says: forums must have at least 21 members; have membership which os representative of the area they cover (including business and public sector representatives); and have a written constitution.  These requirements apply to existing bodies as well as to bodies formed for the purpose of neighbourhood planning.  So, you may find that existing residents' groups and even bodies called neighbourhood forums and accepted by the council as such, do not qualify as designated bodies.  In which case, you will have to set up a new body or change the constitution etc of an existing body in order to have a suitable body to lead on neighbourhood planning.

Assets of Community Value/Right to Bid

Any eligible community or voluntary organisation can nominate land or buildings to be included on the register of assets of community value kept by the council for the purposes of 'Right to Bid'.  To be eligible, groups most be either an unincorporated association (like most residents' associations) with at least 21 members in the council's area; or a parish council, registered charity, indistrial and provident society (which is a form used by cooperatives), a company limited by guarantee or community interest company or a local neighbourhood forum as defined above.  Neither the council, nor profit-making businesses may nominate assets for the register.

When land or buildings which are listed on the register of assets of community value is put up for sale by its owner, then suitably qualified 'community interest groups' have a six month window of opportunity within which to submit bids offers to buy the asset before the landowner is allowed to sell it on the open market.  To be eligible as a community interest group, you must have a local connection with the asset and be: a parish council, a registered charity, a community interest company, a company limited by guarantee or an industrial and provident society.  Neighbourhood forums (unless they are also one of the above) and unincorporated bodies can nominate assets for listing, but cannot exercise the right to bid.

Right to Challenge

Voluntary and community groups, charities, social enterprises, parish councils, local council and fire and rescue authority staff can express interest in running local council services where they believe they can do so differently and better. If the council accepts the written expression of interest (and if it doesn't, it must explain why), this triggers a procurement exercise in which the interested group may take part alongside any other organisation, including profit-making businesses, that are fit to deliver the service.  So, businesses, which cannot trigger the challenge, can nonetheless bid to run the service if the challenge is accepted by the council.

Key Facts:

Parish councils and neighbourhood forums that have been constituted according to a legal minimum can exercise powers relating to neighbourhood planning.  Parish councils, neighbourhood forums and a wide range of other non-profit groups can nominate assets of community value, but neighbourhood forums cannot exercise the subsequent righ to bid if and when it arises.  Parish councils, a wide range of non-profit bodies and groups of staff who work for the council or the fire and rescue service can use the right to challenge the way a public service is run.  All suitably qualified bodies, including profit-making businesses may take part in any procurement exercise arising from a successful challenge.
 

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In this toolkit:

Neighbourhood Planning

Neighbourhood Development Orders

Who Leads on Neighbourhood Planning?

Community Right to Bid

Parish Council

Community Group


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

created: 2016-06-07 09:53:35 by: admin status: f published

Social Housing

About 1 in 5 households lives in a property rented from the council or a housing association. In some urban areas, the proportion is much higher. Tenants and social landlords have important parts to play in shaping neighbourhoods…

About 1 in 5 households lives in a property rented from the council or a housing association. In some urban areas, the proportion is much higher. Tenants and social landlords have important parts to play in shaping neighbourhoods...

In more detail

Social housing is housing that is provided by landlords for social benefit rather than private profit.  This means it is offered to tenants at rents below the market rent that would be charged by a profit-making landlord.  Social housing tenants also generally enjoy greater security of tenure than private tenants.

Social housing is provided by some councils, housing associations, housing cooperatives and some companies and charities.   These social landlords offer housing to people, not on the basis of who can pay most, but on the basis of an allocation scheme based on housing need (and possibly some other non-money factors).

The video below was produced by the National Housing Federation (which is the trade body for housing associations) - it presents the case for enabling housing associations to build more homes:

The 2011 Census showed that just under one in five (18%) of households in England lives in social housing and these tenancies are concentrated in urban neighbourhoods.  So that the proportion of households living in social housing in the metropolitan areas and London is:

  • Inner London 33%
  • Tyne & Wear 27%
  • West Midlands 23%
  • Greater Manchester 22%
  • South Yorkshire 22%
  • Merseyside 21%
  • West Yorkshire 19%
  • Outer London 18%

In London Boroughs, including Southwark, Hackney, Islington and Tower Hamlets, more than 2 in 5 households live in social rented housing.

The Homes and Communities Agency list of social landlords (2016) shows that these  properties  are owned and managed by more than 1700 social landlords - of which just under 200 are local councils and most of the rest are housing associations.  As well a general purpose housing associations, there are specialist landlords which may provide sheltered housing for older people or accommodation and support for refugees and asylum seekers etc.

Social landlords vary greatly both in the quantity of housing stock they own and manage and in its spread.  Local councils generally own properties in their own areas, sometimes concentrated in housing estates and sometimes scattered throughout neighbourhoods.  A relatively small number of very large housing association groups have housing in many different regions and are in effect national social housing providers.  A larger number of relatively small housing associations have housing stock concentrated in one or two local authority areas, or in a single neighbourhood.  Each social landlord produces its own plans for development, re-investment in and the estate management around the housing for which it is responsible.  The extent to which they co-ordinate their plans varies between landlords and between neighbourhoods.

Affordable Housing

‘Affordable housing’ is a phrase which is frequently used in the context of local plans and the obligations housing developers may take on when building new housing for sale in a neighbourhood.  It means any housing which is provided to people below market cost and is allocated on the basis of need (at least in part).  It includes affordable housing for sale (for example to key workers) as well as social housing for rent.

The video above is by Cambridge Centre for Housing Research and is about Affordable Housing and the shortage of housing.

Social Housing and Planning

Social housing matters in community and neighbourhood planning for a numbers of reasons, including:

  • Tenants – a large proportion of people live in social housing and they are concentrated in urban neighbourhoods. Social landlords and their tenants are both significant investors and stakeholders in urban neighbourhoods and making them better places to live.
  • Affordable housing – it is an important government policy to create more affordable housing and the planning system plays a key part in this.
  • Re-investment – as well as developing affordable housing, social landlords re-invest revenues in improvements inside, and to the outside of, their tenants’ properties.
  • Estate and neighbourhood management - social landlords have an interest in and some responsibility for the overall management of housing estates (where their property is concentrated) and wider neighbourhood management (where it is spread throughout a neighbourhood) and can be allies in lobbying for and working with others to provide better local services.
  • Tenant Panels – tenants are involved as the co-regulators of their landlords through a system of landlord-specific Tenants Panels. These bodies, other tenant groups and the social network around them are potentially significant community groups to involve in neighbourhood and community planning.

Key Facts:

Social housing matters when doing neighbourhood and community planning because tenants make up a large proportion of householders particularly in urban neighbourhoods; and affordable housing, in particular can be a key area of policy. Social landlords play an important part in shaping neighbourhoods and may take on the role of neighbourhood managers.  Tenant panels are important groups to involve in the local community network.

Page Links from here

The Homes and Communities Agency keeps the register of social landlords 

In the toolkit see:

Neighbourhood Management

Tenant Panels

Empty Homes

HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation)

Local Public Services


OR you can use the navigation menu above right to look at other parts of the toolkit.

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT DEFINITION SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

created: 2016-05-29 14:17:08 by: admin status: f published