Communities First

BACKGROUND

Communities First is a cross-cutting programme with the following objectives:

• build confidence and raise the self-esteem of people living in the community
• increase the incomes of local people (including reducing costs of food, heat, credit etc.)
• improve health and well-being
• encourage and improve education and skills training for work
• create jobs
• make communities safe, secure and crime free
• ensure public services are delivered in ways which are more responsive and more locally accountable
• improve housing and the quality of the environment
• encourage active citizenship.

Each eligible Communities First area is expected to establish a Local Partnership, membership of which is based on the ‘three-thirds principle’ (community/statutory/voluntary-business). Partnerships are supported by a Lead Officer (Co-ordinator) and a Development Team who, working alongside the Partnership, are collectively tasked with assessing community-needs and developing and implementing  Community Action Plans. A central requirement of the Communities First Programme is to engage with and involve a broad range of local people, particularly marginalised groups, in the process.

COMMUNITIES FIRST IN MERTHYR TYDFIL

The County Borough of Merthyr Tydfil contains a higher percentage of eligible areas under the Communities First Programme than any other Local Authority in Wales. The eleven Electoral Divisions which make-up the County Borough all are included in the programme either at a Full-Ward or Sub-Ward level. As of April 2007, approximately 36,000 people (out of a total population of 56,200) reside in a designated Communities First area.

Since the introduction of Communities First in 2000-01, nine Local Communities First Partnerships have been established (or in the process of being established) across the County Borough. Each area at very different stages of development with most Partnerships having Community Action Plans designed to address a broad range of locally identified issues.

Health improvement is a key component of the Communities First Programme within Merthyr Tydfil providing a diverse ‘package of support’ at the community-level which mainly focuses action across the broader ‘determinants of health’ spectrum. In particular, Communities First Partnerships seek to support health improvement through collaborative approaches to building communities capacity to engage with health promotion and prevention programmes including;

• Increasing the communities understanding of their role in health improvement,
• Creating the local environment in which the communities efforts to improve health can be maximised, and
• Enhancing the communities capacity to deliver on the health improvement agenda

Information on the work of Communities First Partnerships, including local action plans and activities aimed at addressing health improvement issues can be accessed through the following contact details.