Angus CPP Planning Day dot mclaughlin improvementservice org uk

Angus CPP Planning Day dot. mclaughlin@improvementservice. org. uk

“What would a resilient community look like? ”

DEMOS’ definition of a ‘wicked issue’ • The site of persistent (policy) failures; • The source of profound disagreement – over what the problems are, as well as over the improvements to be made; • Unbounded in scope; the issues sprawl outwards and interconnect with many other problems; • Resistant to completion; wicked issues cannot be ‘solved’ once and for all • Complex, in the technical sense of being in principle unpredictable.

Community Empowerment [Scotland] Act 2015 Provides a legal framework that will promote and encourage community empowerment and participation - More than consultation. Full participation with communities expected throughout CP process. Includes duties on partners to resource participation. Duties on CPPs to act with view to tackle inequalities. Includes preparing LOIP, reviewing and reporting on progress. Also to prepare locality plans for localities in which communities experience poorest outcomes.

Resilience: able to successfully adapt to uncertainty and plan for changing global conditions

Adaptive capacity “It’s not the strongest of the species that survives nor the most intelligent that survives. It’s the one that is most adaptable to change. ” • Perspective, • Learning, • Looking ahead

Community: a collection of stakeholders within a defined geography who are reliant on the shared resources and affected by the actions and choices of one another

Social capital “The networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively. ”

Building community resilience involves developing the ‘social capital’ of a community ‘Social capital’ describes the benefits of social networks. Having friends and being involved in groups not only secures jobs - more people secure jobs through personal contacts than through advertisements – but improves one’s health, education, and happiness… Relatively recently we saw a huge number of poor African Americans, trapped on the Gulf Coast pre-Hurricane without an exit…they were carless and lacked money for bus fare, meals, and hotels. But…also equally trapped by a dearth of social connections, especially crossing economic lines. Specifically, they lacked affluent friends to give them a ride, lacked contacts to negotiate heavily discounted hotel rates, and lacked out-of-town relatives with extra bedrooms. Boston Globe November 14 th 2005

Opposite of Resilient: Vulnerable Bonding capital - close ties between people in similar situations – such as family and close friends - builds trust, reciprocity, and a shared sense of belonging and identity. Bridging capital - looser ties to similar people, such as loose friendships, colleagues, social networking sites builds broader, more flexible identities, enables innovations to be shared across networks. Linking capital – people with different levels of power and status meet and learn from one another - the ability to access networks of power and resources beyond their immediate community.

What are the other questions you are holding? • What supports the development of community resilience? • What is the role of public services in supporting the development of community resilience? • What collaborative actions are we going to take?

uncertainty wicked There are solutions tame LEADERSHIP Ask questions MANAGEMENT Organise a process COMMAND Provide an answer Role is to ask appropriate questions and engage in collaboration critical Hard power Rational More complex and uncertain higher need for inquiry / questions / listening. Can’t be solved in Isolation. Sits outside the Hierarchy. Needs collective consent Soft power complexity Grint

Part 2

Action Inquiry • It is carried out by us into our own work – action as inquiry not inquiry into action – What questions am I holding about my own practice as a leader? – What questions are we holding together about how we collaborate? – What questions are we holding on behalf of the wider system? • We can accomplish complex tasks more effectively when we pay attention to our own learning • What we learn in the course of real work has particular value • It is open-ended: it doesn’t start with a fixed hypothesis, but with an inquiry question that develops over time. • It helps us to be intentional about noticing what we’re learning Cathy Sharp

Action Inquiry: Framing our work • How can we minimise harm and maximise opportunities for children and individuals living in chaotic homes? • How can we prevent some families becoming increasingly chaotic and hitting crisis? • How can we build personal and family resilience so that families become and remain ‘contributing citizens’? • How can we capture the learning from the project at all levels as we go forward?

Inquiry Questions Family What’s it like to be me? Practitioner

Actions we took • Reviewing the findings of Phase 1 of the project and identifying areas for further investigation • Listening to the stories of the 6 families - all have had multiple interactions with statutory and other services over a number of years. These included adult, child and teenage family members. • Engaging with local organisations who work directly with vulnerable families within the Musselburgh Ward area • Mapping and profiling services available in the area by life stage and eligibility for use • Engaging with practitioners who are working directly with vulnerable families • Considering the financial cost of vulnerable families • Recording the learning from the group through learning logs, action notes and minutes

What people said • ‘Someone could have come to help us earlier. Then we wouldn’t be here. It just got worse and worse’ • ‘Maybe had there been a bit more help to deal or keep his anger issues under control , even if it was only that, that may have helped us keep the family together at that time. ’ • ‘My son, he’s 6. But he is like stealing lighters from people, setting fires, just wrecking stuff as well. It’s really hard with my son just now. I have no one I can really talk to. ’

Key findings (1) • Reliable and consistent relationships are key to successful outcomes • We don’t react proactively to early warning signs that things might be going downhill for families • Our services are not always designed to make it easy for people to access them • At local level we value low level support but it’s importance can be forgotten as children get older

Key findings (2) • Violence and abuse are a normal part of people’s lives – is this right? • Learning difficulty and individual capacity have a big impact when life gets more complex • Poverty and debt are both cause and effect but are nearly always a compounding factor in peoples negative life experiences • Opportunity alone is not always enough – you need to be able to take and use opportunities

What can we do to support the development of community resilience? • Listening and inquiring together helps us to hear different voices and perspectives including the experience of communities and groups within communities • Being aware of working on 3 levels, “me”, “us” , “the wider system”, can help us to focus on what we’re learning and build our adaptive capacity • Questions can generate actions that we can test over time