£4.3m funding available to extend Neighbourhood Community Budget Pilots to 100 more areas.

Ministers have announced a further £4.3 million funding package to extend the Neighbourhood Community Budget Pilots. It lasts for 18 months and is aimed at enabling at least 100 communities to design and deliver local services that focus on local priorities and reduce costs. It is hoped that at least 20 of the 100 new areas will come up with new and ambitious proposals focusing on large or complex services. DCLG is conducting a tendering exercise.

Under the 'Our Place' programme, DCLG officials hope to build on the success of 12 pilots which were smaller scale that the four major 'whole place' schemes. The £4.3 million sits alongside a £350,000 boost to the existing pilots to speed up and improve the implementation of their programmes.

Most of the pilots were at principal council level, however, Ilfracombe Town Council (pop. 12,500) has most relevance to this tier of local government.  A presentation which summarises why the Town Council wanted to try this approach and what they feel they got out of it is here

The aim of the town council was for 'Greater community influence, responsibility and control to ensure that services and investments in the town are utilised efficiently and targeted to better suit the needs of Ilfracombe people at lower cost.'

The council proposed to take over services and assets from North Devon Council (litter bin emptying, street cleaning, dog warden, harbour management, car park management, grounds maintenance for parks, public toilet cleaning), Devon County Council ( a community centre) and PCSO's from Devon and Cornwall Police.

Following the success of the pilot programme, on 9 July 2013 DCLG announced a wider roll out of Our Place. The Government is providing £4.3m of new financial support over 18 months to enable at least 100 communities to design and deliver local services that focus on local priorities, and reduce costs. It is hoped at least 20 of the 100 new areas will come up with very ambitious proposals focusing on large or complex services, such as adult social care or exploring complex delivery models, such as payment by results or the use of social finance.
DCLG is conducting a tendering exercise for a contractor to deliver support to new areas. The contractor will provide direct technical advice and support, and grant disbursement. It is hoped to have a contract in place by the end of September.
- See more at: http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/community-budgets/-/journal_content/56/10171/3691921/ARTICLE-TEMPLATE#sthash.EWvBDJ8Q.dpuf

More information here on the DCLG website