SWAN has been successful in attracting funding from SWRDA to develop and provide a pilot training programme that will lead into further bids for funding from a range of sources including the lottery and the academy for sustainable communities.   

This is a one-year programme (January to December 2008) that will need to deliver a number of themes and geographically across the region.  The key themes to be piloted are likely to be:

  • skills for engagement and communication
  • Local leadership
  • Governance
  • Financial management and budgeting
  • Project development and delivery  

The project will be developed through a partnership of SWAN; the seven RCCs; the MCTA; County Market Town Fora; County Training Partnerships and Creating Excellence as the Regional delivery agent for Empowering Communities on behalf of CLG. Local Strategic Partnerships and other Training providers will also be engaged with.

The overall development process will be:

  • Project development meeting
  • Theme identification
  • Partner consultation
  • Training provider identification
  • Contracting and delivery  

Given the size of the region and the significance of this area of work for the statutory and voluntary organisations, the delivery of this programme will probably need to be conducted at a County level by the Rural Community Councils in conjunction with County Training Partnerships.  The programme, however, will be set regionally, as will the quality assurance measures. 

  • It is likely that a minimum of seven sessions will need to be held per theme (in total 35 sessions) to ensure satisfactory geographical coverage
  • Numbers of attendees will need to be limited
  • Attendees will need to be drawn from both the statutory and the voluntary sectors to ensure a good mix, and from several levels within organisations to ensure “buy-in”.

Wherever possible and practical, the actual training sessions will be delivered by experienced trainers from within the Rural Community Councils and their partner organisations, otherwise they will be drawn from panels of approved Consultants and Trainers as appropriate.  The work will have individual contracts developed between SWAN and the RCCs acting as its agents, and SWAN will maintain overall responsibility for quality control. 

Outcomes: Improved skills across voluntary and statutory sector to improve engagement in the light of the planning and communities white papers. 

The evaluation of the pilot will inform the development and refinement of future training programmes