Chapter 23

Cross-Departmental Review of Government intervention in deprived areas

Scope

The cross-departmental review of Government intervention in deprived areas considered how best to achieve the Government's objective of narrowing the gap between the most deprived areas and the rest of the country by dramatically improving outcomes in the most deprived areas - with more jobs, better educational attainment, less crime and better health. In particular, it sought to identify ways in which lessons from the New Deal for Communities and other area-based initiatives could be rolled out through main social, economic and environmental programmes.

Background

23.1 Compared with the rest of England, the 44 most deprived local authority areas have nearly two thirds more unemployment; 30 per cent higher mortality rates; and a quarter more children who do not get a single GCSE. Burglary rates in deprived areas are often many times the national average. One of the reasons for this is that public services are often poor in deprived areas, where they are needed most. Another is that they often fail to work with each other, the community, and the voluntary and private sectors.

23.2 Only by tackling these problems can the Government deliver opportunity for all. In the 1998 Comprehensive Spending Review, the Government introduced the New Deal for Communities, to pilot new approaches to Government intervention in the most deprived neighbourhoods. Other area-based initiatives - notably Education Action Zones, Employment Zones and Health Action Zones - have been established on a pilot basis. In parallel, the Social Exclusion Unit has drawn together a National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal, which has been the subject of a major consultation exercise.

Outcomes

23.3 The review concluded that, in future, core public services like schools and the police should be equipped to become the main weapons against deprivation. This means refocusing main programmes to ensure that improving life in deprived neighbourhoods is one of their key objectives; creating new and stronger coordinating mechanisms at the local level to enable services to work together more effectively; and ensuring that area-targeted initiatives play a role that is genuinely additional to main services rather than attempting to compensate for their failings.

Refocusing main programmes

23.4 As part of the 2000 Spending Review, for the first time, departments are setting specific targets to start narrowing the gap between the most deprived areas and the rest of the country. Deprived area targets for each of the four key outcomes of the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal - education, employment, health and crime - are set out in Box 23.1 along with a target for social housing.

Box 23.1: Key PSA targets - tackling deprivation

In education, the Government will increase the percentage of pupils obtaining 5 or more GCSEs at grades A* to C (or equivalent) to at least 38 per cent in every LEA by 2004. A target to reduce the attainment gap at Key Stage 2 (age 11) in English and maths will be announced in due course.
Over the three years to 2004, taking account of the economic cycle, the Government will ensure an increase in the employment rates of the 30 local authority districts with the poorest initial labour market position. It will ensure a reduction in the difference between employment rates in these areas and the overall rate.
The Government will reduce the level of crime in deprived areas so that by 2005, no local authority area has a domestic burglary rate more than three times the national average - while at the same time reducing the national rate by 25 per cent.
In the light of the cross-departmental review of Government Intervention in Deprived Areas, a health inequalities target will be announced in the National Plan for the NHS.
The Government will ensure that all social housing is of a decent standard by 2010 with the number of families living in non-decent social housing falling by one third by 2004, and with most of the improvement taking place in the most deprived local authority areas.

23.5 To ensure that these targets are delivered, each department will review its funding allocation processes to ensure that sufficient extra funds reach deprived areas. As a first step, authorities covering the most deprived areas will benefit from a new Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, worth £100 million in 2001-02, £300 million in 2002-03 and £400 million in 2003-04, to allow them to start improving services in poorer communities.

Encouraging local partnership and bringing services together

23.6 Research by the Social Exclusion Unit, the Performance and Innovation Unit and others shows that main services need to work together at local level to improve outcomes - in particular to tackle the joined-up problems facing deprived neighbourhoods. Building on the new Community Planning duty and the wide range of existing cross-sectoral partnerships, service providers across the country will be encouraged to establish Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) bringing together the public, private and community sectors, matching investment with reform. This will also form part of a wider drive to encourage the rationalisation of existing partnerships into simpler and less bureaucratic structures.

23.7 LSPs in the most deprived areas will receive start-up funding through the New Deal for Communities. This will ensure local people and communities are empowered to play their full part in setting local priorities and determining local action to turn around their neighbourhoods. The role of LSPs will be set out in more detailed guidance in the autumn.

Reforming area-targeted initiatives

23.8 Government initiatives targeted at specific areas will be reviewed to ensure their role is complementary to the refocused main services. The next phase of the New Deal for Communities will focus on supporting more, smaller schemes. It will provide additional support for helping local people influence public services, promoting community involvement at local and neighbourhood level, establishing a National Centre for Neighbourhood Renewal to improve access to information on 'what works' in deprived areas, and providing better neighbourhood-level data.

23.9 An Action Plan for the implementation of the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal - including further details on the initiatives set out in this chapter - will be published in the autumn.

Spending plans

23.10 Spending plans for the New Deal for Communities and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund are set out in Table 23.1. In addition, deprived areas will benefit from the significant increases in main services set out in earlier chapters.

Table 23.1: Key figures

£million
	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04
New Deal for Communities	120	290	420	490
Neighbourhood Renewal Fund	0	100	300	400