The process to producing a Community-led plan toolkit was first put together by Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) using the experience of Rural Community Action Network (RCAN) members.

The important points in developing a Community-led plan are:

Launch

Step 1: get in touch with your nearest parish or town council, the wider community and volunteers who might be able to help out in different ways.

Step 2: launch the Community-Led Plan. The best way is via a public event where people can learn about the process and consider getting involved.

Step 3: start your steering group or working group. These people, who must be representative of your community, are essential for making sure that the Community-Led Plan keeps going and holds the interest of the commnuity. It’s a good idea for a steering group to get a written constitution to tell people what it does, reduce the risk of misunderstandings and make it easier to apply for funding.

You might decide that as the plan progresses you need to set up separate working groups that can work on different issues as they come up. These could be things like designing and undertaking consultation activities and doing actions specified in the plan. Working groups do not need a written constitution but can write terms of reference which tells people what the group does and how they will do it.

Step 4: make sure you have enough funding, volunteers, information and support needed to continue with your plan.

Step 5: produce a Project Plan which sets out the work that needs to be done. It can help you to think through what needs to be done when, and by who. The Project Plan can be done however you would like, but to make it easier we have provided an example template [XLSX, 18Kb] for you to download.

Email CLP@scambs.gov.uk for further help on anything in this section.

Evidence

Step 1: Gather existing facts and information about your local area to begin thinking about how you will achieve your plan. A good place to obtain local data is at Cambridgeshire Insight.

Step 2: consult with your community as they will know the local area best.

Step 3: think about what makes your local community a place where people want to live and be happy, both now and in the future. A questionnaire is always a good way to do this although there are other methods such as interviews, focus groups and webinars. We have developed a bank of questions you might want to use, please contact us at CLP@scambs.gov.uk if you would like to receive this. Alternatively, The Place Standard Tool from ‘Our Place’ is a useful resource for more information.

A sustainable community needs to have the right balance of economy, social interaction and environmental considerations. These points provide some elements you may wish to include in your consultation process and where information is available on our website links have been provided:

Social: 

• wellbeing and fitness
• housing
• community safety
• community facilities (public and private)
• community assets
• faith-based activities
• children and young people
• elderly support

Environment: 

• green issues
• biodiversity issues
• Parish emergency planning
• transport, travel and access
• highways and footpaths
• recycling facilities

Economic:

• business and digital connectivity
• employment
• education and schools

Agree

Step 1: make sense of the information you’ve already gathered. This will involve analysing the data. A good starting point is to categorise your data according to the elements needed for community wellbeing and sustainability, and look for common themes or issues.

Step 2: Test your findings with the rest of your community and prioritise the most important actions. A good way is to put the data you have collected into a short report, present this to your community and ask the following questions:

• are people in general agreement with the evidence presented?
• is there anything missing?
• are there any themes or issues that you think are the most important?

Step 3: Produce a draft plan to outline what makes your community unique, how people value it and how it can be improved in the future. This should include an action plan which tells readers how specific issues will be addressed, by whom, with what resources and by when. We can provide examples of final plans if you need them.

Deliver

Step 1: you should give members of your community one last chance to comment on your draft plan. If you have got lots of people’s opinions during the development of your plan, you should be confident that your draft plan is an accurate and fair reflection of everyone’s needs and expectations. 

Step 2: once everyone is happy with your plan, you can produce a Final Plan.

Step 3: launch the plan in a way that gains maximum recognition and support, and is likely to grab people’s attention – at weekends, during holidays or to coincide with other events in your community’s calendar.

Step 4: put the plan into action. Depending on the actions you have proposed, it could take several years to achieve what your community wants to do. You will need to be clear about what needs to be done, and continually check progress and keep your community updated. This can be done by completing the actions one by one, not all at once, celebrating achievements as they happen, speaking with local media and supporting and recruiting new volunteers. This Action Plan can be done however you would like, but to make it easier we have provided an example template [XLSX, 22Kb] for you.

Step 5: track progress of individual actions. Decide if this will be the steering group or parish/town council and how often you need to meet.

Step 6: review your Community-Led Plan every few years to make sure it is up to date and still fits with the needs and aspirations of your community.