Developing Services in Community Buildings
From Norfolk RCC
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| This page is currently being developed the contents of this page may be incomplete or inaccurate |
| Page Under Development |
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| This page is currently being developed the contents of this page may be incomplete or inaccurate |
The aim of the Community Buildings Services Project was to support community buildings in developing services that reflect the needs of their community. In doing this it is hoped that the community benefit through improved services but also the building’s sustainability is improved through greater use. A service can be anything that will benefit the community and has throughout the project ranged from exercise classes right through to community run shops.
This toolkit is intended to bring together the lessons learnt, information and materials used in the project to assist other community buildings in developing services.
It is accompanied by a report that takes a more general view as to the feasibility and usage of community buildings in delivering services. It also presents two models for service delivery within community buildings: community hubs and services2gether.
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Starting Points
Throughout the project one barrier was most the significant in developing projects. It was not a lack of skills, information or even funding. It was attitude.
The type of projects being developed looked at using community buildings in ways that they had not been used before and that was often very different to what had gone before. This requires a willingness and openness to “doing different” and not being averse to the risk of being in unknown territory. Where this attitude came from in the successful projects varied; the result of newcomers to a group bringing new ideas, particularly innovative community champions or the fruit of a seed sown some time ago now reaching majority. However it is a requirement of a successful project and is the first hurdle and perhaps the most difficult hurdle to overcome.
What comes below is a document providing a guide for community buildings looking to develop their services as well as a number of different information sheets looking at particular problem areas in terms of skills that were identified during the project. An index of all pages under this category can be viewed by clicking here
First Step
"Do the essential things well"
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For the majority of community buildings their primary purpose will read something along the lines of “to provide a meeting space for the residents of….” (If you don’t know what yours is check your governing document). This primary purpose should be at the core of everything you do. It is an interesting exercise to periodically look at the time you spend doing different activities and which ones relate directly to your primary purpose; you are not the Christmas fair management committee although the time spent organising these secondary activities may often fool outsider into thinking that you are.
Getting your building as a space for hire by community groups running efficiently and legally is your first priority before seeking to develop significant service projects. Of course this may not mean everything is running exactly how you want; those windows could do with replacing or it would be nice to have a new kitchen but it is vital that you are doing the essential things well.
RCC Village Hall Advisors, the excellent series of ACRE information sheets (available from your RCC) or information on this website can help you do this. Help is available so please ask!
Understanding Change
The last twenty years has seen unprecedented change:
- The communications revolution - global information at the touch of a button, the ability to work anywhere in the world, 500 channels and still nothing on!
- The consumer revolution - 24/7 culture, the demand for higher quality, cheaper and faster, 120 different types of coffee, no more any colour as long as its black.
- The end of the cold war and globalisation- Products sources from around the world, the threat of terrorism, 1p flights and the influx of migrant workers.
- Environmental Issues- Changes in climate that may mean although we can grow more exotic plants in our gardens we risk being flooded every year or running out of the products we use in our everyday lives.
It is easy to overlook how these global changes can effect our local communities but to take one example the break up of the Soviet Union; it is possible to argue that this resulted in an increase in instability in the middle east, the result of which was a rise in the price of oil and for the majority of village halls whose largest expenditures are insurance and heating this can have quite a dramatic effect.
Some of these changes have led to what can be called the ‘Beeching effect’ on local services. When the shops gone, pubs gone, schools gone we can be left asking ourselves has the community gone as well. However it is important to realise that as our communities change so do our needs and the requirements we have for services. Services must adapt to meet the needs of our communities today.
One of the problems is that people react differently to change; some are overjoyed, other are petrified, many adopt a head in the sand approach. Change can stoke up attitudes of nimbyism (Not In My Back Yard) or create bananas (Build Absolutely Nothing Absolutely Never). However change happens whether we like it or not and the important this is to deal with it.
Identifying Community Needs
"Give people what they want and they will come running, don’t give them what they want they will run, but in the opposite direction."
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Often our local services close through lack of use. Generally the underlying reason for this is because they no longer provide the services people want or need. We can look at identifying community needs in two ways. Altruistically it is about ensuring the community and in particular vulnerable individuals have access to the things they need to retain a reasonable quality of life. From a more business like perspective identifying community needs can be seen as market research. Services are usually only sustainable through a reasonable level of use and the simply truth is “give people what they want and they will come running, don’t give them what they want they will run, but in the opposite direction.”
The simplest way to identify a communities needs’ is to ask them! There are many different ways in which you can consult with your community. Perhaps you have already completed a Parish Plans which should give you an excellent basis for identifying the needs of your community. Your RCC should be able to support you in consulting your community and information on various techniques is available on the NRCC website.
Also consider using other sources of information such as census data or ACORN life style classifications. This information can help guide the questions you ask your community, for example if you have a high percentage of people with a limiting long term illness then you might want to ask more questions about health services. They can also be used to validate the information you get from your consultation or simply provide authoritative quantitive data to back up your case. Much of this data for Norfolk is available at http://www.norfolkdata.net/
Using community consultation in relation to identifying service needs however is not without its problems.
Firstly giving people a list of services and asking which they want tends to result in them saying yes to everything regardless of their real needs. This can partially be dealt with by asking the question; which would you use, instead of; which do you want. A better way is to use some sort of prioritisation exercise to force people to identify the service(s) they think is most important.
Secondly People are often blinkered to what they expect or are use to. Ask a community about services and very often they demand an increase in number of buses but rarely identify a community car scheme or a GP outreach surgery as a solution. Similarly ask people what they want to see in a village hall and they will often come out with a list of clubs and societies because this is what they expect to see in a village hall. Yet at heart, a village hall is four walls and a roof to be use for benefit of the community, which very clearly does not begin and end with gardening club. That is not to say the gardening club is not a valuable service to the community or user of the hall, it is just not the only option for the use of the hall.
In relation to community consultation this usually means a three-step approach is required. Firstly identify the problems, challenges and issues in the community. What are the services people find difficult to access at the moment? Are there a large numbers of sick/young/old/unemployed/poor people that require support? Sometimes the issues are evident, the loss of a shop or other crisis event triggers a community outcry. However it is still important to quantify how many people are will be effected or whether the outcry is just a knee jerk reaction to change. Once the issues have been identified there is usually more than one solution. The second stage is to identify possible solutions. The third stage is then to go back to the community with these solutions to identify which ones best fit their needs and also so they can help refine these ideas and spot the bits you’ve missed. This helps ensure that community needs are met but not necessarily in the way that most people may think of.
Generating Solutions
"Take the service to the people or the people to the service"
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The first stage in any project is to generate options however it is often far too easy to start scribbling grand designs on the back of envelopes.
Whatever the service need is there are usually two types of solutions: take the service to the people or the people to the service. Both types of options must be looked at, evaluated and contrasted with doing nothing. Although a community building may be leading on a project at this stage it is important not to focus on the building itself but developing a solution to the community need. The flow of thought needs to be focused on a specific issue, then generate ideas to solve that issue and then work out the practical requirements (facilities, money, skills etc.) to make those ideas a reality. Not, 'lets build an extension and then work out what to do with it'. There are a number of different approaches to generating options you may like to use:
- Examples from other areas, it is unlike that the challenges faced by your community are unique. A page containing example services projects for community buildings can be found by clicking here
- Advice and ideas from a development worker or other professionals
- Your own creativity
At the start nothing should be thrown out, 'the impossible', or 'it would never work here', can turn out to be very possible and sometimes the ideal solution for an area. More details on this and the next stages can be found on the project planning pages.
Things to consider
Once you have identified the best solution if it involves utilising a community building to deliver services there are a number of things you should consider as part of your project planning.
Governing Document
Your governing document may limit the types of activities you can do or the purposes for which the building can be used. Common examples are the prohibition of the sale of alcohol (often in buildings gifted by the church) or restriction on commercial trading.
Giving over a large portion of your building or large amount of time to one group or activity may be seen as excluding other elements of the community. If you are constituted to benefit the whole community then their must at least be an opportunity for a cross section of activities to take place. Possibly the most common example of this 'exclusionary usage' is where a playgroup occupies the hall for the majority of the time making it difficult for other local groups to use the building. This is a careful balancing act as buildings often like regular bookers like playgroups that provide a stable source of income. One of the most common solutions is to build extensions or adaptations to the building to allow for multiple users. However think carefully about what each space will be used for so that its design reflect the needs of your community. Often a larger main hall is complimented well by a smaller meeting room better suited for clubs and events that work better in more intimate surroundings.
Finally who will 'manage' the project/service. Can the building management committee do it? If you are constituted just to run/provide the building then you have to be careful what additional activities you take on so as to not step outside your charitable objectives. It is often possible to modify your charitable objectives but this can be quite bureaucratic and time consuming see the charity commission for more details. Another option is to us the host/user model see below.
Planning Permission
In the UK every property is given a planning classification to denote the type of activities that take place within them. These are currently:
- Class A1. Shops
- Class A2. Financial and professional services
- Class A3. Food and drink
- Class B1. Business (usually offices)
- Class B2. General industrial
- Class B8. Storage or distribution
- Class C1. Hotels and hostels
- Class C2. Residential institutions
- Class C3. Dwelling houses
- Class D1. Non-residential institutions
- Class D2. Assembly and leisure
Community Buildings generally fall into D2, however if you were to start running a community shop this would obviously be A1. To date local planning departments have been supportive of attempts to use community buildings to better serve their communities. It is however vitally important you contact your local planning department early in your project to let them know your plans.
Who will manage the project - Who will run the services
Aside from the governance considerations discussed above there a basic practical considerations about who should manage a project or service. We've all been in meetings that seem to last forever, if you've got to get through all the business of running a building and then all extra items to do with the new project then things can just come unmanageable. For smaller projects or project closely related to the role of the building itself a sub-committee may be the best solution.
Larger projects and those very different from the normal role of the community building are usually best separated into a new group. There may be another local group(would older peoples group like to organise a new luncheon club) or a larger service provider (see bigger picture section below) willing to take on the project, this doesn't mean that you can't be involved and help develop the project but simply that you are no longer responsible for developing it. Alternatively you could set up a new organisation using the host/user model.
Host/User model
This is in reality the model that most community buildings use all the time- A management committee the host rents space to a user (bowls club, playgroup, yoga class). If you have read the considerations above and decided that it is not appropriate for the management committee to manage the project either as a whole or as a sub committee then you can use a host/user model to develop the project instead. You will need to create a separate organisation with a legal structure appropriate to what you are doing - you may like to look at the legal structures page. The new organisation will have a separate name, management committee and different rules.
A rule of thumb for management committee size is five or seven. This usually gives a balance between having enough heads to generate ideas yet is smaller enough to have manageable meetings. Having an odd number is just sensible in terms of voting. This does not mean the management committee has to do all the work, try and create a team of helpers that can undertake specific tasks (would the person who's good on computers mind doing the posters for an event?). This is often a good strategy in terms of volunteer recruitment, people like to take on manageable chunks of work rather than and open ended commitment to 'be on the committee'.
A WORD OF CAUTION- There is no problem, as inevitably happens in small communities, of members of the community building management committee being part of the management of any user group as long as it is done properly. If you are sitting on a management committee and discussing an issue that you have a vested interest in (such as the rent paid by another group that you sit on the committee of) then you must declare an interest and usually exclude yourself from the decision making process. If there is too great an overlap between committees then when everybody with an interest is removed you may fall below your quorum level and therefore be unable to make a decision.
Every user group should have a formal relationship with the host. For most users (bowls club etc.) a hiring agreement will be sufficient. For users that will occupy permanently a portion of the building or who have more complicated requirements an occupancy license will be required. Models and advice on these are available from your local rural community council.
Whatever the nature of the agreement the management need to ensure that at any point in the future they can always act in the best interests of the building as a whole, and therefore need to be careful about tying themselves into long term agreements.
If you are saying 'we never have any problems with our users groups why should we have some agreement' then now is exactly the time to do it. The point of these agreements is that when things go wrong everyone knows where they stand and there is recourse. If things have already fallen apart its probably too late to put an agreement in place. Which is why you should do it when things are going well and therefore safeguard yourself whatever the future may bring.
Taxation
Charities receive a mandatory 80% rate reduction and an addition discretionary 20% may be granted by local authorities. However if you plan to undertake trading/commercial activities within your building you should check what effect this will have on your rates. For example one local authority grants the discretionary 20% relief only to village halls without bars. There have also been cases where relief is recalculated and pro-rata according to the floor space taken up by a Post Office hosted within a village hall.
Legislation and Permissions
Many types of projects will come up against a myriad of legislation and required permissions. It is not possible to deal with all the potentially relevant legislation and permissions here. Whilst some may be over bureaucratic the majority is there for the protection of society. The bottom line is that you need to identify the relevant legislation and required permissions and act accordingly, your local Rural Community Council or other support agencies may be able to help.
Much of the legislation is interpreted and enforced locally so what might be permissible in one area may be prohibited in another. Two key contacts will be your local environmental health department and trading standards. In recent years these organistions have moved a lot more from enforcement to education and often are more than happy to help you develop appropriate policies an procedures.
Partners
Don't feel you have to do this alone. Lots of help is available if you ask but the idea of partnership goes further than just people who can help you do things. It is important that you take your community with you on whatever project you undertake and hopefully create a genuine sense of local ownership of the outcome (we all tend to look after better and use more the things that we see as ours). Part of this is about consultation in the early stages and about communicating progress but also about involving different people and groups in the process. Are there different groups or individuals who could form part of a steering committee for a project? This can often be a good way to make people feel involved and prevent any accusations of secrecy or cliquishness as well as helping come up with new ideas or getting useful information. One thing to remember is it can take many years to build up relationships of trust and support and a few seconds to destroy them.
Skills
New projects often require new sets of skills, these may be very different from those of running a community building.
It may be worth undertaking a skills audit before embarking on a new project. This doesn't have to be complicated, simply right down the skills you think will be needed for the project. This list needs to include both hard (knowledge of stock control, book keeping etc.) and soft (good communication, people manager etc.) skills. Then write down a similar list of all the skills the committee has, it often worth getting each member to do this themselves (you might discover that Chris was a secret expert in...). Are there any gaps?
Obviously you need to make sure you have available all the skills you require but they don't all have to come from the committee (or one person for that matter!). Try and recruit locally to fill those gaps, but remember you can involve people in a project without them becoming a member of the committee. Also consider what organisations may be able to help you, support agencies such as Norfolk Rural Community Council often have people available to support you in developing your projects. Equally organisations like Pro Help may be able to match you up with professionals who want to volunteer their time.
Inevitably with anything new their is always a bit of a learning curve but with a bit of forethought hopefully you can avoid this being vertical.
Bigger Picture
Are there any larger projects that you could link up with. For example in Norfolk a very successful village screen program exists providing mobile cinema opportunities to villages. Equally service providers such as Adult Education, Citizen's Advice Bureau or the primary care trust may have existing outreach programs in rural areas. Its worth doing a bit of research to see who you can join up with.
