London Burough of Newham: Neighbourhood Management and Renewal - Coursework Example

London Burough of Newham NEIGHBOURHOOD MANAGEMENT AND RENEWAL Introduction In the heart of East End, three miles from the of London, the London Borough of Newham is situated north of the River Thames. Newham’s important location as the gateway to London has influenced its past, and will impact its future (Newham, 2008). Neighbourhood management and renewal of Newham is being undertaken, to improve health, environmental sustainability of community, meeting people’s housing needs, crime control, access to education and employment, improved infrastructure and essential facilities (NIMS, 2007). The purpose of this paper is to reflect on plans and action taken by Newham’s local authority and regeneration partnerships. These include the nature and extent of local problems needed to be addressed, the composition of key actors and agencies and their role in the partnership, the proposed and actual outcomes of the schemes and the extent of community involvement. Discussion The Unitary Development Plan (UDP) provides the framework for sustainable socio-economic, environmental, physical regeneration, land use planning, towards guiding physical change and improvement in the Borough. It inocorporates the objectives of the Council’s urban regeneration strategy which aims to achieve by 2010 a Borough that will be a major business location and a place which people will choose to live and stay. The Council, by harnessing regeneration and partnership resources seeks to “strengthen and diversify Newham’s economy, create a high quality environment, increase access to jobs and improve the image of the Borough” (Document on Urban Regeneration, 2008). Through raised development aspirations the Council is seeking a future that benefits the Borough within Europe. The regeneration of the area as a major growth support for London will stimulate the revival of the region while enabling local people to share in these benefits. Plans for transforming and regenerating Newham are underway, with respect to housing, transport, education, employment, leisure and community facilities within the regeneration areas, while ascertaining that the more established parts of the borough benefit both from their own improvements and from the main development opportunities. The emerging Local Development Framework (LDF) will eventually replace the UDP. The LDF consists of a series of documents containing plans for the development and regeneration of the Borough over the next 20 years. (Newham Borough, 2008). The main issues that need to be addressed relate to raising social capital and the role of networking and partnerships, community development, empowerment and participation, policies underlining community regeneration, local strategic partnerships, health and neighbourhood renewal and health promotion (NIMS, 2007). Raising Social Capital: The Role of Networking and Partnerships. Social capital plays an important role in developing healthy communities. People are healthier when they have supportive social bonds and networks, hierarchies and inequalities in society are reduced to a minimum. In partnership working for community regeneration, social capital involves the building of networks to aid communication and mutual cooperation. In a community, such networks facilitate social cohesion and consequently promote health. Four areas in which social capital increases the development of health promotion are: 1) Since social capital is developed by the interaction of individuals with the social system, thereby creating networks and partnerships, it focuses on the community and not on the individual. 2) Social capital incorporates the broad determinants of health, for finding solutions to the inequalities. 3) It highlights the processes for networking between people and organizational structures which are crucial for enhancing partnership working. 4) Social capital works across disciplines and could help develop new theoretical frameworks to enhance partnership development for health promotion (Balloch & Taylor, 2001: 190). Community Development, Empowerment and Participation Agenda relating to shaping sustainable communities at Newham Burroughs include improvement of local parks and more efficient waste disposal systems. Other important issues relate to meeting people’s housing needs, investing in young people through better education, employment through business growth and increased access to jobs, and making Newham safer by tackling crime (NIMS, 2007). Community development through regeneration initiatives involve empowerment of local people as well as their participation along with partnerships with relevant local groups, organizations and service providers. “Community development aims to build social capital which are the ties within and across communities, and promote the active involvement of people in the issues that affect their lives” (Russell, 2001: 40). Community development involves empowering groups of people to plan and carry out a programme of action based on their concerns. Examples are: improving playing space in a neighbourhood, providing a medical centre to meet the health needs of residents, undertaking teaching and training of skills, etc (Naidoo & Wills, 2000: 99). Empowerment is different from participation and involvement, and makes it possible for people to exercise power and have more control over their lives. This includes having a greater right to have a voice in institutions, agencies and situations which affect them. Empowerment is taken, rather than given as a gift from a higher power. Hence, user groups need to challenge and claim power for achieving self-empowerment (MacDonald, 2003: 46). Empowerment enables people to take charge of their lives including changing their behaviour, and work towards achieving community regeneration (Naidoo & Wills, 2000: 82). Participation and community involvement increases the effectiveness of regeneration programmes by improving decision making, supporting more effective programme delivery, and ensuring that the benefits of regeneration programmes are sustained over the long term. Regeneration partnerships based on community participation are unsuccessful if participation structures are unsatisfactory, participation is limited to certain policy and programme areas, or participation is only in a token form, without any power or influence. Participation does not have beneficial outcomes when mutual expectations and understandings about the parameters, purpose and likely outcomes are not clearly planned (Russell, 2001: 40). A community development approach to service delivery focuses on communities taking charge, identifying and meeting their own requirements. The aim is to change the culture of “dependency” when tackling concerns about health and health services in Britain (Burke et al, 2002: 12). While applying the theory of change, local strategies for community regeneration are multi-faceted and complex community interventions (Hunter & Killoran, 2004: 3). Community regeneration strategies can be considered as successful only when they are equally effective for all members of the community, especially for those in the lowest socio-economic group. Interventions that are generally effective may not have any impact on the disadvantaged group. The inverse care law states that in areas where the need is greatest, the supply and quality of provision is the poorest. Inequity and poor access is frequently seen in primary care and prevention services. For example, there are fewer general practitioners to attend to the health needs in more deprived areas, as compared with the more affluent areas. In inner cities, among the black and minority communities, healthcare is inadequate, because recruitment and retention of staff in medical facilities is lower (Hunter & Killoran, 2004: 14). Implementation of Policies for Neighbourhood Regeneration of Newham Borough Policy Context of Community Regeneration “Policy has moved from the piecemeal, project-based and compartmentalized towards the integrated, strategic and mainstream” (Russell, 2001: 4). Critical to partnerships at a strategic level and integration of a range of national and local organizations, is an approach developed by the Local Government Association called New Commitment to Regeneration (1999). Applicable to both urban and rural areas, it involved whole local authorities or combinations of local authority areas; the mainstream budgets and programmes of all the public sector agencies in the area; national government as a key partner; and used freedom and flexibilities in developing national programmes. The above approach to community regeneration took into account that deprived areas cannot be treated in isolation since they are part of the wider economic scene, and need to be seen in the context of their inter-relationships with other neighbourhoods. Further, more poor and excluded people live outside than inside deprived neighbourhoods. Equity issues need to be tackled through “wider interventions, mainstream programmes and a different deployment of resources at a wider spatial level” (Russell, 2001: 2). The policy integrates coherent strategies and focuses on responsibilities of area-based regeneration schemes and core public services, while balancing social, economic and environmental goals in areas widely differing from each other. Policy Context of Local Strategic Partnerships Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) emerged from the Local Government Act 2000, for the purpose of improving local quality of life in deprived localities. Extensive progress has been made in terms of representation, establishing a common vision, and shifting to genuinely collaborative working among local groups. Local Strategic Partnerships have a critical role in continued development of consistent service provision and genuinely sustainable communities. In England there are at present, over 360 LSPs, out of which eighty six are in areas that currently receive Neighbourhood Renewal Funding (Forum, 2006). The LSPs operations are based on policy areas covering economic, social and environmental well-being, community development, labour market and social inclusion. They include the Sustainable Community Strategy, Local Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy, Local Area Agreement, Local Development Framework, implementing performance management systems, and developing techniques for monitoring and reporting progress to the partnership and local people. Further, LSPs are seen as the “partnership of partnerships”, working in area-based or thematic partnerships and the wider community and in the local area. It has a board made up of senior personnel from the public sector as well as representatives from the private, community and voluntary sectors (Forum, 2006). Community regeneration through community initiatives, individuals’ participation and local partnerships to address inequalities in neighbourhood conditions and health status. Interventions for environmental sustainability, civic safety and security, pollution control and public health covering all aspects of natural, behavioral and environmental sciences, help to prevent and treat diseases and improve quality of life. Policy Context of Health and Neighbourhood Renewal The Department of Health published the national health inequalities strategy as Tackling Health Inequalities: A Programme for Action (DH, 2003). This set out plans to tackle health inequalities over the next three years to reduce the gap in infant mortality across social groups and to raise the life expectancy in the most disadvantaged groups at a faster rate than for other groups. The Programme for Action was developed, taking into account that health inequalities are persistent and difficult to change, and the inequalities are widening and will continue to do so until a different approach is adopted. Further, not only the short-term consequences of avoidable ill health, but also the long-term causes had to be addressed. The four themes of the strategy for completion by 2006, included supporting families, mothers and children; obtaining the services of communities and individuals; preventing illness and providing effective treatment and care; and addressing the fundamental determinants of health (Dowler & Spencer, 2007: 24). The Neighbourhood Renewal National Strategy Action Plan is based on the government’s response to deal with deprivation in England’s poorest communities which are impacted by “poor economies, unemployment, poor health, educational failure and crime” (DH, 2007). The action plan aims at narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of England, so that serious disadvantages caused by the area where individuals live, will be removed. The government’s purpose is to ensure for the poorest parts of the country: economic prosperity and reduction of unemployment, safe communities with less crime, high quality schools and better educational facilities, improved housing and better health. Thus, through the action plan, neighbourhood renewal works in partnership with commercial enterprises, local government, service providers and the voluntary sector. Participation by individuals in the community is ensured, for identifying and solving local problems. The programme uses funds from key government departments, rather than depending on an occassional regeneration budget. Health Promotion Policy Three complementary types of action to improve health, based on the policy Saving Lives: Our Healthier Nation (Secretary of State for Health, 1999), are: 1) Individuals and families taking action to resolve their health issues, 2) Communities working together in partnership, and 3) Government action to address the major determinants through policy on areas such as jobs, housing and education. The National Health Service (NHS) Plan (DH, 2000: 6) and subsequent papers from the Department of Health such as Tackling Health Inequalities: A Programme for Action (DH, 2003) have continued to map out the civic responsibilities of the community and cross-government, for resolving health inequalities (Adshead & Thorpe, 2006: 30). Further, policies such as the NHS Improvement Plan (DH, 2004) and the Choosing Health delivery plan (DH, 2005) provide a map for the future and answer the criticism that the NHS needed to reduce demand on its resources by increasing the promotion of health and the prevention of disease. The policies express the need to focus on people, connecting with their lives and empowering them to develop on their own efforts towards improved health and behavioural changes (Adshead & Thorpe, 2006: 30). Conclusion This paper has highlighted neighbourhood management and renewal of the London Borough of Newham. Community regeneration through special initiatives as well as implementation of governmental policies have been discussed. The initiatives by the British government and international projects such as the World Health Organization to improve community health and reduce the growing inequalities among populations, is creditable (Balloch & Taylor, 2001: 196). The social processes, building of social capital and policies that impact development at Newham Borough have been determined. These are especially important in forming partnerships for building sustainable communities, meeting housing and infrastructure needs, investing in young people, supporting the elderly, and in health promotion and care. Social capital is an important resource for achieving successful partnerships and in maintaining social cohesion. Reduction of health inequalities is important especially when disadvantaged and socially excluded groups are taken into consideration. By addressing these issues, neighbourhood regeneration is carried out optimally. References Adshead, F. & Thorpe, A. (2006). Public health in England. In New perspectives in public health. Griffiths, S. & Hunter, D.J. (Eds.). The United Kingdom: Radcliffe Publishing Ltd. Chapter 2: 29-36. Balloch, S. & Taylor, M. (2001). Partnership working: policy and practice. Great Britain: The Policy Press. 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