Manor & Castle Development Trust

BACKGROUND

The people in the Manor & Castle areas of Sheffield pride themselves on their strong community spirit. Employment and community projects were set up from the late 1970’s and formed the basis by which Manor & Castle Development Trust would embrace the 1990’s concepts of “urban regeneration”, “social inclusion” and “capacity building”.

By the mid 1990’s the Manor Initiative had built credibility as a forward thinking community project and put together a bid for Single Regeneration Budget Challenge Fund Grant (SRB). It was recognized that a new structure would be necessary to administer such a large grant.

The Manor & Castle Development Trust was established in August 1997 “ to create a bright future for the people of the Manor and Castle wards of Sheffield by breathing new life into the area through new housing and at the same time, improving both the quality of life and the environment ; creating jobs and employment opportunities and encouraging local enterprise throughout all facets of the scheme”.

The Manor & Castle Development Trust is the partnership driving the economic and social regeneration of the Manor & Castle areas of Sheffield. This is being achieved through the improvement of housing, better access to healthcare, the creation of jobs and employment opportunities and developing the skills and confidence of the community.

The Trust encourages community involvement and ownership at all stages of the regeneration process.

The Trust is a Company Limited by Guarantee.

THE PARTNERSHIP BOARD

Includes representation from:

• The Communities of Manor, Castle and Woodthorpe
  
  3 Board members are drawn from the local fora, (Park Community Action, Wybourn Action Group and Manor Assembly). A fourth is elected by the community conferences to maintain an overview of the area.

• The private sector
  
  4 Representatives : currently drawn from the key property developer, Bellway Homes ; the Co-operative Society ; Dixons and North British Housing Association.

• The local authority

  4 Representatives : 3 elected representatives from local wards and the fourth from the Council’s Senior Management Team.

  The Board’s role is to oversee the regeneration process, make decisions and to determine the strategy and policy of the Trust.

There are 52 staff employed by the Trust across three working divisions:

The Regeneration Team

Much of the workload of the Regeneration Team is concerned with the management of the MCDT financial systems. This includes payment of regeneration grants to projects, reporting progress to the funders, managing the company accounts. The team are also responsible for the fundraising strategy for the Trust.

The Neighbourhood Renewal Team

The Neighbourhood Renewal Team co-ordinate and draw together development work and projects within the area. The team act as the go-between for the community, the Trust and other partner agencies. The team work closely with the Regeneration Team in smaller groups in an effort to help support community groups effectively.

The Central Team

The Central Team manages the day to day business looking after buildings and property, administration and personnel, communications and PR.

STRATEGIC PRIORITIES

Seven strategic priorities have been identified:

• Housing investment - improving the quality of public sector housing, building new homes for sale and rent and improving the housing mix.

• Training and employment - creating ways into work for the unemployed and young people through targeted training and job entry initiatives and improving educational attainment.

• Business development - encouraging the growth of local enterprises, attracting new companies and creating community enterprises.

• Community Development - encouraging strong and effective community organisation working with a common purpose.

• Environment and heritage - restoring the environment and heritage and pride within the locality.

• Health Action Area - improving the health and well being of residents through coordinated, multi-agency preventative action.

• Young People - engaging young people in the life of the community through schools and volunteering initiatives.

Addressing social exclusion is a priority for MCDT. A Soclal Inclusion Strategy has been developed to promote and enable economic and social inclusion within the Manor and Castle wards and the communities who live and work there.

The purpose of this is to enable individuals to overcome or remove barriers to the realisation of individual potential and participation in the social and economic mainstream. This is reflected in the mission statement of the strategy, “to champion the right of every individual in the Manor and Castle area that is denied opportunity and choice”. A community conference focusing on social inclusion clearly confirmed that the direction and work of the Trust is in line with the Government’s Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy.

The Trust has also developed a Community Participation Strategy which will further strengthen and develop the existing mechanisms and infrastructure for participation.

The Trust achieved accountable body status for SRB 3 programme and for Priority 5 of the European Objective 2 funding. In 2001 it took over responsibility from Sheffield City Council for the SRB 2 programme in specific areas of south Sheffield.

THE APPROACH

The Trust is founded upon simple principles:

• Local people must benefit economically as well as socially from activities.
• Investment into the social infrastructure must not lag behind investment into physical infrastructure.
• Wherever possible regeneration should build upon existing successful local initiatives.
• Local people must be encouraged to take ownership of the process.
• To develop partnerships between public sector, private sector and the community.
• Successful partnerships involve the public sector, private sector and the community.
• A holistic approach is required that recognises the links between unemployment, poor health, run down environment, crime and poor housing.

Throughout the Manor & Castle regeneration programmes the emphasis is on supporting “not for profit” locally based enterprises, developing the skills of local people and helping to build community capacity. Trust and good networks re vitally important to success.

The Trust ensures that the community is firmly at the centre of all it does and that all projects:

• Benefit the section of the community they are designed to serve.
• Meet the strategic objectives of the partnership.
• Meet output targets set by funders.
• Are locally owned wherever possible.

PARTNERSHIP SUCCESSES

• With Sheffield City Council starting the process of physical regeneration, moving families into 400 new homes that have been built on derelict land and replacing 1000 council homes, many of which were unfit for habitation. This is an incremental process, building quality homes and creating 250 construction jobs per year.
• In Sheffield’s first Health Action Area.
• In the Education Action Zone.
• Establishing new ways into work for 3000 unemployed.
• Creating 750 new jobs for local people in the area.
• Building a new sense of community by involving over 1200 people in voluntary work, 2900 young people and their families in educational initiatives and over 100 community and voluntary projects across the locality.
• Winner of BURA Best Practice in Regeneration Aware in 2001 and English Partnerships Award for Partnership in Regeneration.