Paul Dear and Chris Johnes Open the Conference

Paul Dear, Head of the Communities First Unit at the Welsh Assembly Government opened the Carmarthenshire Communities First Conference and outlined how the Communities First programme is developing and how local communities can have their say in its future.

Paul Dear, Head of the Communities First Unit opens the conference

He said Communities Next builds on the successes of the Communities First programme: strong local partnerships that involve local people in the regeneration of their communities. Communities Next represents a continuing commitment to the existing Communities First partnerships and will involve a greater focus on outcomes. Paul explained, "I want to be able to walk down any street in a Communities First area, knock on any door and ask what Communities First is doing here - and for the answer to come back clear and unambiguous." Communities Next will also involve a greater focus on local economic development and partnerships forging stronger links with other government projects including defeating child poverty and the promotion of credit unions.

Paul outlined that to achieve this a new Communities First vision framework will be introduced which will pay attention to what communities can actually achieve, but this would not be a top-down approach: "It will be a broad canvas that you can paint your local plans onto."

Paul finished by outlining the process for the next year. The consultation ends next month with its outcomes being announced in June. The new framework and funding criteria will be announced in the summer with everything being on track for the new programmes to begin in April 2009.

Chris Johnes, Communities First Support Network

Chris Johnes, the National Co-Ordinator for the Communities First Support Network followed by describing some key principles he believes underlie the proposed Communities Next programme. It will make stronger links between Communties First and what other agencies and organisations are doing in the community. Local partnerships will still drive the process and there remains a strong emphasis on community involvement. The local Communities First partnerships will remain and the funding and management levels will be largely unchanged.

He also outlined the changes he expects to see: there will be greater incentives for service providers to get involved and local partnerhsips will need to work more closely with other agencies and organisations.

Delegates to the conference now go on to discuss the changes to the Communities First programme in workshops which will feed into the consultation exercise.