Community empowerment –

Nottinghamshire
RCAN Investment Programme case study on strategic
influencing
The local RCAN member, Rural Community Action Nottinghamshire, has grown its
position of influence within the county. This resulted in it leading a review of its
Sustainable Community Strategy and developing its Rural Strategy. What made it
suited to the role and how is this shaping policy?

Brian Wilson Associates with David Atkinson Consulting

November 2010

Capacitybuilders 77 Paradise Circus Birmingham B1 2DT

T +44 (0)121 237 5100 E info@capacitybuilders.org.uk www.capacitybuilders.org.uk
Context
Rural Community Action (RCA) Nottinghamshire has activities on ‘Influencing the
Nottinghamshire Local Area Agreement’ in its RCAN business plan. The aims are to
secure a stronger rural voice and sustainable rural communities. However, whilst this
case study grew out of that work, it could be said to have developed in some surprising
ways.

Nottinghamshire (which now excludes the unitary Nottingham City) has a county council
and seven district councils. Just over 30% of its population lives in a rural area, most of it
within the three districts of Bassetlaw, Newark & Sherwood and Rushcliffe. It has a
strong industrial heritage and some rural places have marked regeneration needs.

The current Chief Executive of RCA Nottinghamshire, Rob Crowder, arrived in 2007. His
previous experience included many years as a local government manager in one of the
districts and then at the county council. It was immediately clear that establishing strong
links with the county partnerships should be a prime objective.

What happened?
The RCAN member formed a county ‘rural proofing’ group, whose members included
local authorities, public sector agencies, a body representing rural businesses, local
academic institutions and some regional players. This set about identifying which of the
then National Indicators were most relevant to Nottinghamshire’s rural communities, in
order to seek their inclusion as targets in the Local Area Agreement (LAA).

That rural proofing group suggested RCA Nottinghamshire seek a position on the
Nottinghamshire Partnership Executive, where it might represent the county’s rural
communities. At that stage, rural was not high on the local agenda and they were
pleasantly surprised when their membership was agreed.

In Autumn 2008 the county Partnership was planning to review its Sustainable
Community Strategy (SCS) – the main vision document for the area – to create a new
version for the period 2010 to 2020. It knew this would be a complex and sensitive task,
given the mix of county, district and other statutory bodies with a direct interest.

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The Nottinghamshire Partnership asked RCA Nottinghamshire’s chief executive to chair
the review working group. In their words, “Rob emerged as the natural chair” for a variety
of reasons:
• RCA Nottinghamshire was perceived as non-partisan and an honest broker (unlike
the big service provider organisations).
• It had demonstrated knowledge across a wide range of policy issues and an ability to
make connections between them. This matched the SCS review task.
• RCA Nottinghamshire had a track record for making things happen, so there was
confidence it could deliver the review.
• The chief executive was a trusted figure and seen as someone willing to take a step
back and assess new evidence.

The chair of the Nottinghamshire Partnership Executive says Rob proved very good at
encouraging debate and teasing out certain issues which might otherwise have been
overlooked. He adds that the joined up nature of much rural policy thinking seemed
particularly useful when applied to the SCS review.

RCA Nottinghamshire’s chief executive was aware that, as chair, he must not overplay
his rural hand. In fact some district council representatives pressed the rural case,
possibly seeing the chair as adding legitimacy to it. At a practical level, the chair was
able to input a lot of evidence on rural community needs and aspirations collated from his
organisation’s support for community-led planning.

“He [Rob] was able gently to promote rural issues” – a key player in the county
partnership

In 2009 the County Council had a new administration (ruling group of politicians) which
felt rural issues had been rather overlooked; the challenge of delivering to smaller
communities and pockets of deprivation had not been adequately addressed. They liked
the suggestion from the rural proofing group that a county Rural Strategy should be
produced.

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The County Council agreed RCA Nottinghamshire was the obvious organisation to lead
the work, given its role on the SCS review, knowledge of rural evidence (including
information from community led plans), links with local rural initiatives, not to mention
being the rural representative body on the Partnership. It, therefore, commissioned RCA
Nottinghamshire to research and write up a Rural Strategy.

A council officer says that “as a piece of work it was a really interesting thing to do – it
has thrown up some interesting issues”. This included identifying pockets of deprivation,
where they had been missed by earlier ward level analysis.

Rural Strategy priority issues:

• Tackling the fear of crime.
• Planning that supports farm diversification.
• Providing more affordable homes.
• Providing better access to education and healthcare.
• Responding to the growing demand for older people’s services.
• Countering the closure of rural shops and post offices.
• Improving access to broadband.
• Improving access to green space in arable areas.

The intention is that the Rural Strategy informs delivery of the new SCS, so County
Council officers aim to have it formally adopted by the Partnership and by their own
politicians.

Impacts
One of those most closely involved with these events says the end result of RCA
Nottinghamshire’s efforts is undoubtedly a stronger rural dimension within the new SCS.
Rural concerns are among its priorities, such as better access to schools, shops and
banks, and improving broadband provision.

The Rural Strategy should develop this further and RCA Nottinghamshire can take much
(if not most) credit for the fact it has been produced. The County Council acknowledge
that RCA Nottinghamshire’s involvement with both documents has strengthened the
read-across between them.

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One major impact has come from a related work-stream, to address the rate of closure
among rural shops and post offices (flagged by RCA Nottinghamshire in the Rural
Strategy).

In 2009 they successfully bid for County Council money to fund research on the state of
surviving shops. This was a significant piece of work, quantifying their declining turnover
and likely closure rate – over half were expected to go within a decade. Particular
support needs of rural retailers were identified. Despite tightening budgets the County
Council took action, most obviously by establishing a rural shops scheme. Whilst this
wasn’t exactly what the report had recommended, the County praised the report for its
strong evidence base and for demonstrating a clear need for action.

Resources
‘Influencing the Nottinghamshire LAA’ activities have been allocated around £70k per
year by RCA Nottinghamshire. Around £20k of that is Defra money from its RCAN
Investment Programme. However, it should be stressed that these activities go
considerably wider than the sequence of events described above.

With that same caveat, the staffing allocation has been around 1.3 full-time equivalents,
including a sizeable proportion of chief executive time. Pursuing this work is said to have
been time intensive, but the RCAN member feels it had to put in the effort around
Partnership meetings to build its working relationships and credibility.

What worked well?

Things which worked in the RCA Nottinghamshire approach have been:
• Initiating a rural proofing group to influence key policy processes and documents.
• Obtaining a seat at the table of the Nottinghamshire Partnership Executive.
• Chairing successfully the working group to review the county SCS, acting as an
honest broker whilst allowing new or rural issues to come through.
• Gaining agreement to production of a Rural Strategy which can inform SCS delivery.
• Producing a convincing evidence base in the Rural Strategy and by commissioning
research on rural shops.

A County Council officer says it was a good model, having RCA Nottinghamshire produce
the Rural Strategy but with support and input available from the Council. One result was
that a great deal of evidence and data held by both parties was analysed.
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Links with key organisations and individuals within those organisations have played a
significant part in this story. A notable factor is the previous career experience of the
chief executive at RCA Nottinghamshire, as a policy manager at a district and the County
Council.

The change of administration at the County Council in 2009 could also be seen as
helpful. While the new administration was less interested in the SCS as a process, it
nevertheless gave a higher priority to rural concerns.

RCA Nottinghamshire has benefited from widespread support within the county and
across the region. Even representatives from largely urban districts seemed to support
its chief executive as chair of the SCS review working group. He, in turn, is clear about
RCA Nottinghamshire being seen as a credible organisation. He also thinks the right
balance must be struck between strategic influencing and support or delivery work.

“Too strategic and you will not be seen as actually doing anything; only delivery and you
will just be consulted when the statutory sector wants something done” – RCA
Nottinghamshire chief executive

What could improve?

Inevitably, the financial position for local authorities could be healthier and more certain.
At a general level, there is concern that cuts could undermine engagement work. More
specifically, it is not known whether the rural shops scheme can have a long term future.

Where next?
Assuming organisations on the Partnership do soon adopt the Rural Strategy that will
help it make an impact by informing delivery of the SCS for the benefit of rural
communities.

Initially, the County has commissioned delivery of the rural shops scheme only until the
end of March 2011. Like everything else, the subsequent position is under careful review
and dependent on the funding position from 2011/12 onwards. However, the scheme has
“in principle” endorsement from County Council members and it may be possible to find
other external funding sources.RCA Nottinghamshire concludes that it must continue to
demonstrate how its work is integral to mainstream policy delivery in the county and that
rural work is not just an add-on.