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An Independent Panel on Community Development
CDF's independent expert panel was set up to consider the context and future role of community development. It also looked at the development and support needs of communities and community development in the light of new and emerging policy agendas.
The panel was selected to provide CDF with outside input, and to inform our own work and our work with partner organisations.
The coalition government’s manifesto speaks of 'an army of community organisers'. We are expecting big changes in coming years, as public services are delivered in different ways, and power is decentralised down to give more control to communities. This is against a backdrop of global issues affecting us all – climate change and a recession leading to significant reductions in public spending.
The panel considered three themes relating to community development. The themes were:-
- The context of community development – where is CD now, the role of the occupation, the state of the profession, recent policy and developments;
- The future role of community development – background - the future context and drivers for change, including the economic recession, Total Place, the outsourcing of CD activities – looking forward to the gaps and growth areas of work;
- How will community development need to develop to fill the new demands placed on it, and the new space it must occupy.
Background and briefing information to enable the group to consider the themes was provided by CDF, sourced from work being carried out within CDF or available to it from partners.
About the panel
The panel members were drawn from a diverse range of organisations and individuals that all have knowledge of and insight into community development, social policy and more broadly into the issues that face local communities. They included: Lorna Prescott (Chair, CDX), Jagwant Johal (Trustee, CDF), John Low (JRF), Professor Marj Mayo (Goldsmiths), Professor Anne Power (LSE), Councillor Adele Morris (Southwark Council), David Brindle (The Guardian), Graham Parry (Groundwork Manchester), David Emerson (Chief Executive, Association of Charitable Funders), Claire Dove (Chair, Social Enterprise Coalition), Julie Wilkes (Chief Executive, Skills – Third Sector), Derith Powell (Trustee, FCDL), Maria Adebowale (Director, Capacity Global).
Our chair, John Benington, Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Governance and Public Management at Warwick Business School, formerly worked in Coventry as part of the original Community Development Projects of the late 1960s.
Although we supported the panel, it was independent to CDF, and its views and opinions sometimes differed from those held by CDF.
Panel Meetings
The panel met several times during autumn 2010.
Panel deliberations
In addition to the background information supplied to the panel by CDF, the group welcomed external feedback. They considered the current context for community development and encouraged anyone interested in the future of CD to send in their thoughts, based around the questions below.
- Do you share our analysis of the current context for CD? How does your perspective differ from ours?
- What are your experiences and views of the contribution and current state of CD? How did we get here?
- What are your initial thoughts on the priorities for building a more positive status and profile of the workforce?
- What do Coalition policy priorities mean for communities and community development?
- How can CD maximise the opportunities and overcome the challenges presented by the Coalition’s ‘localism’ and ‘Big Society’ agendas during a period of reduced public spending?
- We would like to consider responses from across the sector, so whatever your involvement in community development is, we look forward to hearing from you.
The debate was held on CDF's Facebook here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Community-Development-Foundation/136364383057314
For more information, please contact Mark Walton, Co-director, partnerships and innovation, at mark.walton@cdf.org.uk
Submissions and panel findings
- To see the reports and publications submitted to the panel, click here.
- The panel's findings were published in December 2010. To see their final report, click here.