Using parish plans to improve access to services

A Shropshire Rural Delivery Pathfinder project

As part of its pathfinder work, Shropshire County Council used parish plans to improve access to services. This was particularly important for people living in remote parts of the county.

The team facilitated community involvement events that helped to create the parish plans, and many techniques were used to encourage people to attend.

Background

Shropshire is England's largest inland county, and also one of its most sparsely populated. Although covering an area of 1,347 square miles, it is home to fewer than 290,000 people.

More than six out of every ten Shropshire residents live in Shrewsbury, Telford or one of the ten main market towns in the county. The remainder of the population is dispersed among the 600 villages and hamlets scattered across the county.

Agriculture forms a major part of the local economy. More than 11,000 people were employed in this sector in 2006.

Problems faced

It is not surprising that access to services is one of the major challenges facing Shropshire County Council. The council decided that this would be the main focus for the two-year pathfinder programme.

The first, and most important, step involved consulting communities to find out how well current service provision met their needs, and how it could be improved.  

Drawing up a parish plan

A parish plan is an action plan that sets out how a local community would like its parish to develop and highlights community concerns. It is drawn up by the community, with help from the local rural community council (RCC).

RCCs are charitable local development agencies, generally based in counties, which support and enable initiatives in rural communities. There are currently 38 RCCs in England.

A common approach to get local people’s views on parish plans is to send out a questionnaire to each household in the area.

Response rates for these surveys are usually high: often greater than 70 per cent of households. The survey offered the council an opportunity to get the views of a most of people in the local community. 

Once the council had gained a full understanding of the issues, it needed to find an effective way of addressing them. 

The solution was to pilot a series of parish ‘cluster events’. These brought together neighbouring parishes that had a parish plan with relevant service providers to talk about the main concerns identified in their plans. Each meeting usually lasts about two hours.

The South Shropshire parishes of Diddlebury, Culmington and Onibury were among the first to stage ‘cluster events’.

Main aims of ‘parish cluster’ events

• Give local people the chance to talk directly with service providers and state their views about how services are currently being delivered.
• Provide service providers an opportunity to hear these views and then explain what could and could not be done within current constraints.
• Make it possible for service providers and local people to agree joint actions to help address some of the issues raised in the parish plans.
• Offer the chance for neighbouring parishes to network and identify joint activities to address similar concerns.

How were the issues for discussion decided upon?

It was left to individual communities themselves to decide which topics they want to talk about at the event. These were, for the most part, determined by the priorities in their parish plans.

The first event included discussions on:  

• local communication, including the Shropshire Broadplaces and ‘Connecting Shropshire’ IT initiatives
• transport in rural areas
• making better use of village halls
• youth matters, including skills and training issues, and the South Shropshire Youth Forum

Who organised the events?

The events were organised by Shropshire County Council’s rural pathfinder team, which worked closely with the Shropshire RCC.

Three parishes that had already completed a parish plan were involved in the 2005 pilot event. These were:

• Diddlebury
• Culmington
• Onibury

Five parishes that had not completed a parish plan were also invited:

• Munslow
• Stanton Lacy
• Clee St Margaret
• Abdon and Heath
• Bromfield

The rationale for inviting along parishes that were yet to complete a plan was that it would help them learn more about the benefits of parish planning.  
 
Service providers from Shropshire County Council and partner organisations relevant to the issues were also involved. 

How the events were arranged

One of the first events – apart from the initial pilot in 2005 – was held in Diddlebury village hall in June 2006.

Time was tight when it came to arranging the event, and the pathfinder work was already taking place within a tight schedule. 
 
First, the pathfinder team needed to secure support for the idea of the cluster events. The team contacted parish plan committee members, parish council clerks, and county councillors to make sure they were interested.

Clearly if the local community were not willing to get involved or felt the event would not benefit them, there was little point in proceeding with plans. 
 
The next step involved the pathfinder team discussing the details of the individual parish plans, and deciding themes for the meeting.

The community was fully involved in decisions about what to discuss on the night. Invitations were sent out to local people who had expressed an interest in the parish plans, and the issues they raised.

However, the pathfinder team had to rely heavily on the parish plan committee members and parish clerks for pointers on who to invite. This led to some uncertainty as to whether all of the relevant people had been invited.

At the same time, invitations and briefing notes were sent to the relevant service providers. The short timescale meant that the team had to work very quickly to get the event into service provider’s diaries.

It was very important that all of the themes were represented by a service provider. Otherwise, they ran the risk that the community would feel the issues that were important to them were not being taken seriously, either by the service providers or the pathfinder team.

What happened on the night

On the evening of the event, the room was split into four workshops. Local people and service providers were invited to join the workshop that they felt was the most relevant to them.

Each table was facilitated and given the task of agreeing at least one action. Once this goal had been achieved, the facilitator then fed it back to the rest of the room. 

The second part of the evening offered an opportunity for local people to network with those from other parishes over tea and cake.

This was added to the evening’s programme because many parishes had, through their plans, expressed a desire to build stronger links and work more closely with their neighbours.

The five parishes that had not completed a parish plan were also given the opportunity to discuss the benefits of parish planning with Shropshire Rural Community Council. 
 
The pathfinder team was responsible for following up the action points and keeping everyone informed of progress. Regular updates are being sent to all those who had asked to be kept informed. 

What was achieved? 

• All of the attendees that had completed a feedback form responded positively to the evening and its aims.
• More than one action point was agreed for each theme, and some workshops came up with three or four.
• At least one parish council that had not completed a parish plan has since decided to produce one.
• Service providers felt the evening gave them an insight into some relatively simple and cost effective ways they could improve their services to the community.

Learning points, and things that could be done better next time

Secure more time for organising the event
This would give the pathfinder team more time to consult with the community. A more generous timescale would also ensure that local people have enough time to respond to the invitation and do not feel pressured into making decisions.

Invite fewer parishes who have not completed a parish plan
The consensus was that the main focus should be on addressing the issues of those parishes who had completed a plan. However, it would mean that fewer parishes would get an opportunity to hear about the benefits of producing a plan.

Produce a timescale for feedback, and stick to it
This is important to ensure that the people who are responsible for implementing the actions do not lose momentum. It would ensure that channels of communication with authorities and service providers remain open. An additional benefit would be that it would help convince people that the event was worthwhile.

More information

Clare Greener
Rural Policy Manager
Shropshire County Council
email: clare.greener@shropshire.gov.uk
telephone: (01743) 252555