Five tools for community-led social impact

In September AtkinsRéalis attended a roundtable at the London Real Estate Forum to discuss how to enable thriving communities through place-based interventions. Here, Laura Hampson associate social value consultant AtkinsRéalis, Zoe Metcalfe client director, local and central government AtkinsRéalis, and Palma Black head of engagement EDAROTH, reflect on the key points of the conversation.

The question that should be asked is not 'are we trying to construct, regenerate, restore developments' but, 'are we truly enabling thriving communities through place-based interventions?’  

A recurring theme at an event we recently attended was empowerment; something that has always been at the core of AtkinsRéalis’ approach; ensuring that we build on, identify and understand what already exists within a neighbourhood. This means constantly engaging from inception, understanding local people’s needs - what identity and heritage matters, recognising and building on positive foundations.

At the London Real Estate Forum, the first major property event after the general election, delegates had much to absorb and discuss following myriad announcements around housing and infrastructure from the newly elected Labour government.

Nowhere was that more evident than around the table we sat at which was set up to discuss and action ideas to ensure social value is embedded at every step of a development lifecycle.

A powerful phrase that resonated throughout the forum was ‘empowered communities are solution seekers’. This captured the idea that members of the public are not just passive recipients of outside help but are active agents in seeking and creating their own solutions, ensuring they are authentic, sustainable, and tailored to the real needs of the community.

It also brings buy-in and investment of the project, rather than individuals feeling as if change is being ‘done to them’. For example, employing community members as local researchers means they can become a true conduit between community and developers. As well, as job creation this can provide professional development opportunities and additional social capital to the community-based participants.

Social value must be everyone’s responsibility throughout the process of regenerating neighbourhoods. It is not just the job of those in community engagement roles—everyone involved in creating places need to prioritise the benefits of social value. Only by doing so can we create neighbourhoods where people thrive, and the benefits of regeneration are felt by all.

Furthermore, in order to engage diverse groups, developers and stakeholder professionals need to go to where the community is, rather than expecting individuals to come to them. Inclusive behaviour involves using everyday language and having face-to-face conversations rather than relying on official forums. Operating at a personal level builds trust.

Five approaches for strong communities 

The different ways of monitoring and reporting the impacts of community development were a key focus of the conversation and while there are tried-and-tested methods in use, such as Section 106 requirements and the social value model, there were a number of newer approaches shared by the roundtable guests.  

Citizen Prosperity Index (CPI)  

The CPI assesses the overall prosperity and quality of life for citizens within a specific region, country, or community. It includes indicators like economic stability, health and wellbeing, education and skills, safety and security, environmental quality, civic engagement, and governance and social inclusion, which all provide a comprehensive view of citizen wellbeing. CPI has been used on various projects such as the Royal Docks and was created by the University College London’s Institute for Global Prosperity. 

Quality of Life Framework 

Not dissimilar from the CPI, the Quality of Life Framework is used by organisations and Governments who can adopt or customise the framework based on their goals, cultural values, and local needs. It takes into account health and wellbeing, economic stability and employment, education and skills, housing and living conditions, governance and civic rights, and personal development and fulfilment.

Beat the Streets

Beat the Streets is an initiative by Intelligent Health and aims to provide a transformational tool for partners to improve public health and place at scale. Beat the Streets is a gamification model that is evidence-based and has behavioural science at its core. It enables adults and children to connect to where they live, work and play and empowers them to make small changes to daily behaviours.   

It combines community engagement, behavioural science, data insight, project management and marketing expertise within a digital platform that provides the window into the audience. As a result, insight and rich data down to a micro level can be accessed and demonstrates the link between nature connectedness, wellbeing and resilience.

A Resilience Matrix

This measures longitudinal wellbeing changes in a community experiencing regeneration development. Originally created to support disaster risk management, it's now used widely in health, social services, and planning to identify areas where individuals, families, or groups can build resilience. It organises resilience across two main axes of domains of resilience and resilience stages. An example of the Resilience Matrix in use was to evaluate the impact of regeneration projects on Social Resilience in Sighthill, Glasgow.

Pathways to Governance

To enable diverse voices to be included in engagement, developers can support the upskilling of community members to be confident working within planning and legislative systems of engagement. One option raised was the Pathways to Governance programme that is run by Governors for Schools, that trains people alongside supporting them to become school Governors.

Alongside these approaches, it’s important to note that measurement should always be appropriate and proportionate to the local area which will have its own specific needs; one-size-fits-all does not work when measuring social value.

The future

Communities often have rich histories and narratives that reflect their identity and resilience, and these should be considered alongside data and quantitative measurements. By using storytelling as a way to measure success, we can capture the deeper, more nuanced impacts of regeneration efforts, offering a fuller picture of the value being created.

To ensure meaningful impact, it is essential to define it with communities from the beginning and continually test it. Place-based interventions must demonstrably deliver on the community-defined impacts and outcomes. Early alignment with institutional investors and pension funds can be gained by linking these characteristics to KPIs associated with ESGs. This approach ensures that we truly generate place-based impacts that meet community needs and generate thriving places.

AtkinsRéalis and all those who attended the roundtable event agreed that looking ahead, having long-term conversations and sharing good practice will lead to progress. Decision makers taking the necessity to reach out to communities genuinely and considering investments that extend into the future will empower each individual within a community.

In attendance at the roundtable:

Laura Hampson, Palma Black and Zoe Metcalfe from AtkinsRéalis, Art Invest, Barking Riverside, Clarion Housing, EdCity, Future of London, Governors for Schools, Intelligent Health, London Borough of Enfield, Manchester City Council, Places for London, Quality of Life Foundation, Royal Docks, and Surrey County Council.