Housing through Social Enterprise: Recommendations

First paragraph: The Housing through Social Enterprise research project examined the impacts of different approaches to housing provision on tenants’ health and wellbeing. The project included tenants from social housing and private rented sector (PRS) providers in a three-year, longitudinal, mixed methods study. This document details the recommendations from the research, which will be relevant for: policy-makers in housing and public health; housing associations and practitioners in social housing; and landlords and letting agents in the PRS

Control freakery: Understanding who really gets to take control

An accessible summary of some of the key findings from my article previously published in Local Government Studies, highlighting the lessons that can be learned from Localism and Community Empowerment for the current Brexit debate about 'taking back control'

Divergence in Community Participation Policy: Analysing Localism and Community Empowerment Using a Theory of Change Approach

The last two decades have witnessed a significant turn towards community participation in public policy around the globe, raising concerns that states are resorting to 'government through community', shifting responsibilities onto communities. In order to unpack the ambiguous rhetoric of policy statements, this article employs ideas from evaluation methodology to develop a generic theory of change for community participation policy. The model is then utilised to analyse and compare the UK Coalition Government's Big Society/Localism agenda and the Scottish Government's Community Empowerment approach, demonstrating the ways in which these represent a clear example of policy divergence, and potentially significant alternatives to state-community relations in the context of austerity. The article also demonstrates the potential wider applicability of ‘Theories of Change' methodology for policy analysis

Governance and governmentality in community participation: The shifting sands of power, responsibility and risk

Community participation has become an essential element of government policy around the globe in recent decades. This move towards 'government through community' has been presented as an opportunity for citizens to gain power and as a necessary part of the shift from government to governance, enabling states and communities to tackle complex problems in tandem. However, it has also been critiqued as an attempt to shift responsibility from the state onto communities. Using evidence from detailed case studies, this article examines the implementation of Localism in England and Community Empowerment in Scotland. The findings suggest a need for a more nuanced analysis of community participation policy, incorporating risk alongside responsibility and power, as well as considering the agency of communities and the local state. Furthermore, understanding the constraints on community participation is key, particularly in terms of the enveloping impacts of austerity and state retrenchment

Combining Theories of Change and Realist Evaluation in practice: Lessons from a research on evaluation study

A rapidly growing range of studies apply Theories of Change or Realist Evaluation approaches to get to grips with complex causal processes. Each methodology has been criticised in terms of practicality, usefulness and theoretical difficulties. The hypothesis that combining the two approaches could overcome some of these problems and generate deeper learning has been put forward, but there have been no published assessments of the combined methodology. This paper provides findings from an evaluation of community participation policy and practice, which specifically aimed to utilize and evaluate the application of the two approaches within one study. It suggests that there are still challenges in applying Theories of Change and Realist Evaluation approaches, but they can be practically employed together, and that this synthesis can partially overcome the critiques of each individual methodology

Housing through Social Enterprise: Report of Phase 1 – Research Scoping Exercise

The Housing through Social Enterprise project aims to explore the health impacts of social enterprises working in the housing/homelessness sector. The project has two phases - Phase I aims to clarify the key issues through a desk-based evidence review and scoping work with partner organisations, and Phase II examines the impacts of social enterprises through direct research with tenants. This report sets out the findings from Phase I, providing the background to the project in terms of the existing research evidence and the policy context, and summarising the scoping work that has been undertaken with partner organisations to design the research

Housing as a social determinant of health: Evidence from the Housing through Social Enterprise study

Housing is a key driver of public health. Existing evidence clearly demonstrates the ways in which health is damaged by homelessness and by living in poor quality housing. However, the routes from housing to health and wellbeing are wider and more complex than the negative effects of problems with housing. Housing as ‘home’ is not just a physical shelter, but also a foundation for social, psychological and cultural wellbeing. Hence, it is important to understand how houses become homes for the people that live in them and the ways in which housing organisations can affect this process. This report summarises findings from the Housing through Social Enterprise study. The project followed a group of new tenants from three different housing organisations to examine the health and wellbeing impacts of different approaches to housing provision across the social and private rented sectors. We interviewed more than 70 tenants at three points over the first year of their tenancy, to explore how they felt about their housing situation and their local neighbourhood, and to measure changes in their health and wellbeing. The key findings of this research are: • Tenants’ health and wellbeing generally improved over the first year of their tenancy, across all three housing organisations. • A strong relationship with a named member of staff, who respected them and understood their particular needs, history and situation, was important to tenants. • A good quality property was one that was efficient and free from obvious physical defects, but also well decorated, comfortable and homely. Condition on move-in day was especially important. • Tenants varied in terms of how much they wanted to improve or customise a property to their own tastes and whether they had the capacity, permission or resources to do so. • Financial challenges were particularly acute at the start of a new tenancy. Some tenants struggled to recover from this because of ongoing high or unexpected expenses, many of which were related to their properties or tenancies. • Tenants valued a sense of safety, friendliness and amenities, and having social support networks in their local area. • Tenants’ neighbourhood priorities depended on their personal circumstances, characteristics and prior experience. Ultimately, having a choice in where they would live was the most important aspect for tenants. • Many of the mechanisms linking housing to health and wellbeing operate through tenants being able to establish a sense of ‘home’ in their new tenancy. These findings raise a number of issues for debate and discussion among housing and public health professionals, as well as tenants’ organisations

GCPH Briefing Paper 52: Housing through Social Enterprise

A scoping study explored the potential role of social enterprises in protecting and enhancing the health of low-income and otherwise vulnerable households in Glasgow. We consider how different kinds of social enterprises operating in the housing sector might work to improve access to affordable, stable and good quality homes for those in need. We begin by outlining the level of housing need in Glasgow, the barriers to quality housing for low-income households and the impact of housing and health, before describing a number of ways in which social enterprises have the potential to improve public health. We finish by outlining the next steps in this programme of research

Four simple ways landlords and letting agents can make life better for tenants

First paragraph: Everyone knows how important it is to have a home. It’s no surprise that being homeless is bad for a person’s health: it can even kill. And it’s just as obvious that housing which is damp, cold, overcrowded or riddled with toxins is a recipe for poor health. Yet the place you call home can also affect your health and well-being in subtler, but similarly important, ways.https://theconversation.com/four-simple-ways-landlords-and-letting-agents-can-make-life-better-for-tenants-11531

Assessing the impacts of community participation policy and practice in Scotland and England

Background: Community participation has become an integral part of many areas of public policy over the last two decades. For a variety of reasons, ranging from concerns about social cohesion and unrest to perceived failings in public services, governments in the UK and elsewhere have turned to communities as both a site of intervention and a potential solution. In contemporary policy, the shift to community is exemplified by the UK Government’s Big Society/Localism agenda and the Scottish Government’s emphasis on Community Empowerment. Through such policies, communities have been increasingly encouraged to help themselves in various ways, to work with public agencies in reshaping services, and to become more engaged in the democratic process. These developments have led some theorists to argue that responsibilities are being shifted from the state onto communities, representing a new form of 'government through community' (Rose, 1996; Imrie and Raco, 2003). Despite this policy development, there is surprisingly little evidence which demonstrates the outcomes of the different forms of community participation. This study attempts to address this gap in two ways. Firstly, it explores the ways in which community participation policy in Scotland and England are playing out in practice. And secondly, it assesses the outcomes of different forms of community participation taking place within these broad policy contexts. Methodology: The study employs an innovative combination of the two main theory-based evaluation methodologies, Theories of Change (ToC) and Realist Evaluation (RE), building on ideas generated by earlier applications of each approach (Blamey and Mackenzie, 2007). ToC methodology is used to analyse the national policy frameworks and the general approach of community organisations in six case studies, three in Scotland and three in England. The local evidence from the community organisations’ theories of change is then used to analyse and critique the assumptions which underlie the Localism and Community Empowerment policies. Alongside this, across the six case studies, a RE approach is utilised to examine the specific mechanisms which operate to deliver outcomes from community participation processes, and to explore the contextual factors which influence their operation. Given the innovative methodological approach, the study also engages in some focused reflection on the practicality and usefulness of combining ToC and RE approaches. Findings: The case studies provide significant evidence of the outcomes that community organisations can deliver through directly providing services or facilities, and through influencing public services. Important contextual factors in both countries include particular strengths within communities and positive relationships with at least part of the local state, although this often exists in parallel with elements of conflict. Notably this evidence suggests that the idea of responsibilisation needs to be examined in a more nuanced fashion, incorporating issues of risk and power, as well the active agency of communities and the local state. Thus communities may sometimes willingly take on responsibility in return for power, although this may also engender significant risk, with the balance between these three elements being significantly mediated by local government. The evidence also highlights the impacts of austerity on community participation, with cuts to local government budgets in particular increasing the degree of risk and responsibility for communities and reducing opportunities for power. Furthermore, the case studies demonstrate the importance of inequalities within and between communities, operating through a socio-economic gradient in community capacity. This has the potential to make community participation policy regressive as more affluent communities are more able to take advantage of additional powers and local authorities have less resource to support the capacity of more disadvantaged communities. For Localism in particular, the findings suggest that some of the ‘new community rights’ may provide opportunities for communities to gain power and generate positive social outcomes. However, the English case studies also highlight the substantial risks involved and the extent to which such opportunities are being undermined by austerity. The case studies suggest that cuts to local government budgets have the potential to undermine some aspects of Localism almost entirely, and that the very limited interest in inequalities means that Localism may be both ‘empowering the powerful’ (Hastings and Matthews, 2014) and further disempowering the powerless. For Community Empowerment, the study demonstrates the ways in which community organisations can gain power and deliver positive social outcomes within the broad policy framework. However, whilst Community Empowerment is ostensibly less regressive, there are still significant challenges to be addressed. In particular, the case studies highlight significant constraints on the notion that communities can ‘choose their own level of empowerment’, and the assumption of partnership working between communities and the local state needs to take into account the evidence of very mixed relationships in practice. Most importantly, whilst austerity has had more limited impacts on local government in Scotland so far, the projected cuts in this area may leave Community Empowerment vulnerable to the dangers of regressive impact highlighted for Localism. Methodologically, the study shows that ToC and RE can be practically applied together and that there may be significant benefits of the combination. ToC offers a productive framework for policy analysis and combining this with data derived from local ToCs provides a powerful lens through which to examine and critique the aims and assumptions of national policy. ToC models also provide a useful framework within which to identify specific causal mechanisms, using RE methodology and, again, the data from local ToC work can enable significant learning about ‘what works for whom in what circumstances’ (Pawson and Tilley, 1997)