A Community Strategy for Barnsley 2011 - 2015 - Barnsley Council ...

The Priorities and Catalysts for Change
places where they live. More than just volunteering, it is about
finding new ways in which citizens can participate in the
decisions that affect their lives and take part in the design
and delivery of public services.
• The need for this new relationship is not just about
changing public services, but it is about building more cooperative
communities and realising that, for too long, our
culture of dependency has stood in the way rather than
supported this development. The Partnership will now seek
to do things with its community rather than do things to, or
for, the community.
What we want to achieve
Within the current service-provider model, communities are
primarily thought of as recipients of services. This often seems
to create greater dependency, with increasing amounts of
money being spent on specialist service provision. A way to get
around this is to harness the rich resources and energy that
exist in communities and grow 'Barnsley's core economy' of
family, friends and neighbours to work in partnership with public
services and the Voluntary and Community Sector. Coproduction,
or working in partnership to create something
together, will require changes in behaviour. These changes
should reflect the following four key principles of co-production:
• Recognising people as assets.
• Valuing work differently.
In many ways this type of approach turns the typical way of
allocating 'public' resources on its head. The role of One
Barnsley will increasingly involve providing the support
mechanisms to enable individuals and communities to develop
an environment that promotes their own wellbeing and
participation. To do this effectively the One Barnsley partners
will:
• be more open and outward-looking, to allow people’s
experience of local life to be a key driver of activity.
• be fully committed to engaging with communities, listening
to citizens’ views about local priorities, and harnessing
people’s knowledge, skills and enthusiasm to co-create
solutions that bring benefits to all.
• recognise the value of the core economy – the resources of
individuals, families and social networks that sustain society.
• see their role as less about fixing problems and more about
facilitating solutions.
• think less about the local population as passive recipients of
services and more about them as agents of change.
This reflects the Partnership adopting a future direction which
promotes wellbeing by fostering an approach that recognises
and harnesses the rich resources and energy that exists in the
communities and people of Barnsley: encouraging social
relationships between communities, families and citizens, and
enhancing local action.
• Promoting reciprocity.
• Building social networks.
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A Community Strategy for Barnsley 2011 - 2015