Focusing on strengths to engage communities – Stroud District Council

Stroud district in Gloucestershire is home to a variety of diverse market towns and villages, each with their own unique culture and heritage, set against a wider rural setting. Much of the landscape is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Geographically broad, each place has its own distinct identity and is regarded as a collective of different communities.

Stroud District Council faced an ongoing challenge with engagement due to the diverse nature of places in its district. Market towns and villages have unique heritage and regard themselves as distinct and separate to others. As a result, broad general engagement often fails.

In light of this, the council worked with a local VCSE provider to research how residents and mutual aid groups coped during the COVID-19 pandemic. They found communities stepping into frontline service delivery in some places where public service infrastructure was weakened. In many communities, they lacked the tools and skills to be able to effectively manage these services.

The council decided to support this community interest and focus on capacity building. It adopted a new, neighbourhood-level place-based approach to engagement and community development with three strategic arms:

a) providing a consistent framework for council officers to work with communities outside the traditional service delivery;

b) creating the kind of place people want to live; and

c) listening to what customers and communities want.

The council hired a dedicated community engagement officer to oversee the new approach and bring together multiple projects and learnings. The council also began a partnership with funders and a VCS provider to lead support for developing Community Hubs. These two projects are highlighted below.

Community Hubs

Community hubs are established by the local community, to provide a central point for communities to connect and act as access points to a range of health and other public services in the rural locations.

Prior to COVID-19, there were two main Hubs in the district: one staffed by volunteers, another with paid staff. The hub with paid staff was able to quickly respond during the pandemic, helping the NHS vaccine roll-out. As a result, the council redirected COVID-19 recovery funding to contribute to posts in new community hubs. Funding now comes from around half the council’s community wellbeing funding for three years (c.£65k) and around £110k in grants from NHS England, COVID-19 related funds such as the Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) and the county council. The community hubs development lead also created a peer network for the hubs to interact and learn from each other.  There are now 11 hubs with the capacity to support neighbourhoods in the cost of living crisis, as well as four new hubs just getting started.

Community Engagement Board

The 2030 Community Engagement Board was established to bring together officers, councillors and volunteer community representatives to discuss how to reduce district carbon emissions. Through this board, participants are sharing issues they are hearing through their networks and working through trial projects to review what climate actions are needed to address them.

The council sought representation which reflected the area’s unique make-up of individuals and communities, and the Board is now comprised of representatives from the arts, local business, public sector organisations, families, schools, climate action networks, older people and people with disabilities, natural and built environment, finance, voluntary sector, young people, and parish and town councils.

Communities across the district are now better connected and their voices are increasingly being brought into the council decision-making process.

The community hubs are vital points of prevention, helping to keep people socially connected as well as supporting them to access services in times of need.  Most of the cost-of-living-related calls direct to the council came from areas where hubs do not exist. The council has also been able to reach members of the community that would otherwise be uncontactable, such as unpaid carers who are eligible for COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

The community engagement board has taken time to develop trust and establish relationships between participants. Through adopting an open approach, where participants are there on an equal footing, the board has fostered a collaborative culture. It now acts as a space for people to highlight action that is happening, which can then be reinforced through greater community connections and across-place working.

Community health and wellbeing is a defining part of Stroud’s mission. They are focused on creating the conditions for thriving communities, and these projects are central to achieving those aims. As a result, the council now works more closely with their local commissioning boards, and represents the community’s voice during those meetings.

This approach required a shift in mindset from the council, away from ownership and control to one of capacity building within the community. They have sought to equip local people with the skills to become more involved and are now seeking funding to employ development workers to support this.

The strengths-based approach is also embedded in the council’s own staff management, such as reviewing how to better link up projects and teams, and ensuring that work is being undertaken at the correct pay grade.

1. Invest in a specialist; a single, enthusiastic champion who can drive forward actions. Hiring a community development worker with 18 years’ experience (and contacts) has enabled multiple projects to be developed in tandem and provided opportunities for further partnership working.
    
2. Build capacity in communities in partnership with services. The work in the community has appeared alongside work with institutions and services. Being involved in the commissioning processes has enabled Stroud to develop strong relationships with NHS bodies, ensuring that the community voice is part of the wider discussions. Working closely with their county council has enabled funding to be drawn from different levels, while their relationship with their voluntary sector has brought people together. Capitalise on the partnerships which reflect the local area.
    
3. Put time into relationship building. The council reflected that it takes a leap of faith for people to join a group that doesn’t have a clear set of outcomes. It takes time and skilled facilitation to hold the space so that people feel comfortable and equally valued in contributing ideas. Setting out expectations that the aim is to learn from the process, not create a perfect outcome or solution, means that participants are encouraged to work together.