The Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) is now in the final year of an 11-year programme. During the last ten years or so Hastings Regeneration Partnership has approved funding for 134 local projects, all designed to support the regeneration of Hastings, but how do the Partnership and the people of Hastings know how effective these projects have been? To find the answer we spoke to Paul Smith, Evaluation Officer.
Essentially, evaluation is about assessing the lasting impact that a project or programme has had on a particular area or group of people. Each project has been closely monitored by the Partnership, which has ensured that all spending, both from SRB and ‘match-funding’ (resources attracted from other sources), is fully accounted for and that each project has performed satisfactorily against the specific objectives agreed at the outset.
My job as Evaluation Officer is to review all that monitoring evidence and to talk to the agencies delivering the projects and their clients or ‘beneficiaries’ to make an assessment of the extent to which the projects have actually made a difference. Have they helped people most in need to gain skills, qualifications and confidence? Have they helped to reduce crime levels or improve standards of health and wellbeing? What worked well and what could have been done better?
In many cases, I’m looking to see whether SRB funding has helped to set up continuing provision after SRB funding ends. Many projects set out to use SRB funding to prove the need and benefits of a particular approach to a set of problems like truancy or youth offending and managed to convince other funding agencies to build these new approaches into forward planning – ‘mainstreaming’ and ‘sustainability’ in the regeneration jargon.
Image Above: SRB funded lansdcaping work for people needing special support at work
In 2003, the Partnership commissioned an Interim Evaluation of the full SRB Programme to check whether the projects were on target to achieve all we had set out to achieve. This was carried out by an independent agency following a competitive tendering process.
Image Above: SRB funding has improved our stations and community centres
Although it was recognised that the projects had been well managed and monitored in the early stages, it was acknowledged that further adjustments to the programme would yield even better results and these recommendations were fully implemented throughout the remaining period of SRB funding. Similarly, a full SRB Programme Evaluation will also be carried out by an external agency over the next few months and we are in the process now of inviting appropriate agencies to compete for this work.
Evaluations attempt to capture the key impacts that the projects have had on their intended targets and highlight real, measurable changes in performance, attitude and perception. By speaking to participants about their experiences in the various projects, I try to tease out what it was that made the difference. Patient and understanding staff? Imaginative and creative learning materials? Secure facilities conducive to learning? For some of the participants these projects may be their first experience of concentrated one-to-one attention to their specific needs and ambitions and the first time they have been shown how to take responsibility for their personal circumstances.
There are many benefits for the projects in working with us to produce a comprehensive evaluation. It is an opportunity to present a detailed analysis of the complexity of delivering social programmes. Projects can demonstrate, through case studies and clients’ comments, just how much work they have had to do to engage and support people. They can also identify continuing barriers and difficulties and encourage regeneration agencies to address these in forward planning. Evaluations can and should be used to celebrate success and to indicate to potential funding agencies that agencies have the skills and capacity to deliver worthwhile services.
I have produced a ‘Guide to Evaluation’ to help agencies to work with me to produce concise but comprehensive evaluations. Essentially, I remind project managers of the commitments made and objectives agreed at the project approval stage and give them a framework within which to give me the evidence I need to write up the evaluations. I typically visit the projects at least two or three times and I seek out both staff and participants to get a balanced view.
I also arrange to speak to others directly or indirectly affected; for example, I’d want to speak to a residents’ association about the effects of a crime reduction initiative in their neighbourhood. Over a number of weeks, I’ll build up the content of the evaluation, checking with project managers for their views. The final evaluation is presented in my name – it is my assessment of impact and I aim to make it as objective, honest and professional as I can but I always check the final version with project managers to give them the opportunity to challenge anything they feel may be inaccurate.
On completion, I submit evaluations to the Partnership Board and to the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), the regional agency responsible for the delivery of SRB. To ensure complete transparency, we are arranging for all evaluations to be posted online in the Hastings Borough Council website. I try to avoid jargon so that they are accessible to the widest audience.
I’ve been around too long for surprises! Although I’m a fairly recent arrival in Hastings, I have worked for and with all sorts of similar projects throughout the UK for many years and I can honestly say that I have been very encouraged by the quality of the people in the various organisations I link with. I think we are very fortunate to have so many skilled and talented people working to improve this place we live and work in. I regularly meet people giving so much of their time and creativity to finding better ways to address the many problems we face in our community and many do so without much reward or publicity. I hope my evaluations can help the wider population see how lucky we are to have these committed staff and volunteers patiently making things better, step by step.
There’s such a wide range of projects that it is difficult to pick out just one. I think, so far, I have been most impressed by those projects that go out of their way to attract those people who would otherwise continue to be ignored and then work out how to really connect with them, establish trust and begin to make a difference. I have seen that in projects working with people with mental illness issues, homeless people, school non-attendees and others.
I have also been really impressed when I meet local residents who have given up their time to get involved in creating top quality facilities and services in their neighbourhoods. The new Bridge project at Ore featured in the spring issue of About is one example – this simply would not have happened without the combination of professional, committed management and the active involvement of local residents. The end result is a beautiful new facility designed to meet the needs of the whole community. Real regeneration in practice!
Hastings Regeneration Partnership brings together the voluntary, public and private sectors to spend £26 million Single Regeneration Budget money provided through South East England Development Agency. With matched funding, the 100 local projects pull in a total of £128 million for social, economic and physical regeneration.
The Partnership can be contacted on 01424 451781.
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This page last updated: 18/07/2006