The publication of the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) guidance, in July 2001, was heralded as a ‘new dawn’ for community involvement in governance, and, as such, was broadly supported throughout Central Government Departments, Local Authorities and agencies operating within the emerging regional government framework for the North East of England, such as, GONE and ONE.
Some of the ideas within the guidance had originated in a series of cross-sector Priority Action Teams established by the Cabinet Office when the first Blair government took office. It was seen by the senior civil servants promoting it, based within the Neighbourhood Renewal and Social Exclusion Units, as a means of government offices moving from their historic role as project and programme managers towards a knowledge management system of neighbourhood renewal. Local Authority officers saw the guidance as an opportunity to forge new partnerships with existing community networks while offering new community networks an enhanced status within an emerging regional government framework. All agencies viewed the guidance as a key component of a coherent strategy of social inclusion.
An important aspect of the guidance was the exploration of new forms of governance. It recognised that many community networks operate on the outskirts of centre-periphery relations. The guidance gave these networks the opportunity to move legitimately from the periphery by redefining the formal decision-making process within the emerging regional government framework.
Five years down the line, has this vision of ‘paradise’ gone ‘astray’?
Has the traditional Community & Voluntary Sector re-established its position as the primary Local Authority interface?
Have Local Authorities further retreated to the service procurement ‘bunker’ at the expense of the loss of the innovation of the 3rd Sector?
Have Local Strategic Partnerships had any significant impact on the base and superstructure of community development?
Has this been a ‘gooseberry and grape’ exercise? (You can shave the hairs off a gooseberry and it looks like a grape BUT it is inorganically incapable of becoming a grape!)
