Top tips for top TIPs
This blog was written by two of our Town Coordinators, based on their experience working with Cohort 1 towns and considering discussions with other Town Coordinators.
Our Cohort 1 towns are currently waiting for feedback from MHCLG since submitting their TIPs back in July. Before they submitted, Cohort 1 towns across England went through a ‘TIP Check and Challenge’ process with our Service and Topic Experts before they submitted their final version to MHCLG.
Some common themes emerged from the Sessions which we’d like to share with you all to incorporate into your TIPs as Cohort 2 and 3 progress over the coming months.
So, what are our top tips for top TIPs?
Make your TIP personal
The ‘tip-ex’ test. If the name of your town was tip-exed out, does the rest of the text make it easy to identify as YOUR town? Have you told the history of the town and identified your unique features and characteristics? MHCLG are looking for the individuality and the uniqueness of a town. Some suggestions in addition to personalising the text are to:
Include a few images;
Use quotes from residents and stakeholder groups/organisations to support statements being made in the TIP; and
Ensure that your vision is bespoke to your town. If you have a strong vision, the rest of your projects have a point to relate back to.
Visit our blog post on developing a bold and innovative Vision and Strategy for more useful pointers, including how to personalise your TIP
Stakeholder Engagement
Ensure that engagement has enabled community and stakeholder ownership from the beginning and that the plan ahead continues that engagement at key stages throughout delivery to completion.
You can re-watch our event ‘Guide to good community engagement’ for helpful hints on how to use engagement to get the best outcome for your town.
The information gathered from your consultation processes is a valuable evidence base. Make sure it’s clear HOW you’ve incorporated feedback.
Sometimes you can look back at older engagement events that might have some key messages – the past, present and the future.
Evidence base
Make good use of your evidence base citing sources and quantified information - justify your statements.
Link to relevant Strategies and Plans: make sure that there are strong links to existing strategies and plans produced by others, such as; the Local Authority e.g. the Local Plan (if relevant) and the Local Enterprise Partnership e.g. the Local Industrial Strategy.
Want to make the most out of your data? You can read our lessons learnt blog post on ‘Making it Count’ to find out more.
Project Prioritisation
Check there is enough in the TIP about HOW you went through prioritising projects. Perhaps refer to this in the main section and go into an annex with more details. The method of this is something MHCLG is keen to see.
If you’re struggling to pick between all of your possible projects, then you could use our Project Prioritisation tool to help you.
Golden Thread
Make sure there is strong coherence across your identified projects, the challenges, aims and vision. You could include a table to show this in summary form.
Visualise
Visualise your projects / interventions on a map so the location of projects is visualised spatially.
Outputs v Outcomes
Make sure you are clear on the difference between an output and outcome - there is a useful tab on the excel spreadsheet (the TIP template) that explains this in more detail.
Capital Strategy
Where the LA is investing, make sure there are clear links to the Capital Strategy, as this will be one of the main strategic elements.
Risk
Be open and transparent about risks and demonstrate strong understanding of potential impacts and intended mitigations.
Governance
Demonstrate how the assurance framework and Governance has been applied and how this drives the development of the TIP.
Thank you to our Cohort 1’s for leading the charge and helping to generate this learning for other Cohorts. Feedback from towns across all cohorts and from Town Coordinators is also helping to shape future blogs, webinars and events which will be available through our website. You can keep an eye our on the website or sign up to our weekly newsletter here to receive Town Fund updates.