What is Neighbourhood Management / Community Counts?

Community Counts Team Neighbourhood Management is a national regeneration programme that is funded by the Department of Communities and Local Government. It is designed to target resources into small geographic areas of the country where residents are experiencing significant disadvantages, simply because of where they live, and to improve their quality of life.

To identify these priority areas, the government uses a series of measures across a number of themes. As well as evaluating levels of unemployment, crime and disorder, and the state of people's health, the government also looks at issues such as the condition of local housing, how well schools are performing, the level of cleanliness and residents' overall satisfaction with their environment.

These measures make up what's known as the 'Indices of Deprivation', and Barton, Tredworth and White City all have high scores against these measures.

So what does Neighbourhood Management actually do?

The purpose of Neighbourhood Management is to influence the way public services are designed, developed and implemented, so that they will be most effective in meeting residents' needs. Local services of all kinds impact on the everyday lives of local people. For instance, do services on offer match local needs? Do local agencies work together to ensure a seamless provision or is there duplication?

Influencing these services is achieved by identifying and harnessing the local knowledge, expertise and needs of residents and matching this with the specialist knowledge and expertise of service providers. This partnership approach helps ensure that:

vital information can be widely shared between agencies
decisions based on this information will bring about more innovative and effective services
duplication in service provision is minimised
any gaps that exist in services can be identified and closed
and that the area is better able to meet the neighbourhood renewal targets which guide the programme nationally.

In Gloucester, the organisation working to bring this about in the Barton, Tredworth and White City areas of the city is Community Counts.

What is Community Counts aiming to achieve in Barton, Tredworth and White City?

When the Neighbourhood Management programme first started in 2002, Community Counts spent time consulting with people who live or work in the area and who care about its future. We talked to local residents, faith groups, local businesses and representatives of community and voluntary organisations and asked them to tell us how they wanted Barton, Tredworth and White City to grow and to develop. It was these comments, ideas and aspirations that helped us to shape the direction of the Community Counts programme as it is today.

Our ongoing commitment to supporting and contributing to these aspirations is demonstrated through our mission statement:

Our Mission Statement

Barton, Tredworth and White City will become better connected to the heart of Gloucester, with an improving and growing economy. It will be a place where people are proud to live, where they feel safe and where the community is welcoming and at ease with itself, valuing cultural differences.

It will be a neighbourhood where individuals can expect and are encouraged to succeed, where there is access to good public services and where there is equality of opportunity for all the community.

We are going to achieve these challenging aims by working together in partnership, so that the community is directly involved with public agencies and the private sector in making the decisions that affect their area.