History
The Welsh Assembly grew concerned that many of Wales’ communities were suffering from lack of investment, stagnation, and apathy. It embarked on research in order to identify the areas in need of most attention. In 2000, the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation (WIMD) was released. The WIMD measured six ways how County Council wards compared:
- Income
- Employment
- Health
- Education
- Housing
- Access to Services
There were a total of 865 County Council wards when the report was written and the Social Justice and Regeneration Department chose to make the 100 most deprived wards Communities First areas. The Communities First areas are spread throughout Wales with eighteen local authorities having Communities First areas within their borders. The remaining four local authorities that do not have wards within the one hundred most deprived are Ceredigion, Monmouth, and the Vale of Glamorgan, although some of these local authorities have areas of interest based on disadvantaged groups such as geographically isolated communities.
The Communities First Programme is designed as a “bottom up” approach meaning that major strategic decisions are left to the Communities First Partnership and are merely facilitated by the Communities First support teams and other stakeholders outside the community such as business and voluntary organisations.
The makeup of most Communities First Partnerships is based on one third of members being residents of the community itself, one-third as representatives of statutory bodies; the remaining third come from the voluntary and business sectors.
Read more about this topic: Communities First
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