Round up of Resources

Over the past few months, the experts and leaders of the Towns Fund Delivery Partner have been busy producing and curating bespoke content for towns, to help them in producing Towns Investment Plans. A number of the topics and services available to towns now include introductory guidance, to help you understand the various support that is on offer. Tools have been created to help towns navigate through key subjects, and our blog has provided a regular update on new areas of interest. This blog provides links to all the resources currently available on townsfund.org.uk .

In addition to the resources listed below, the Data Dashboard provides a range of socio-economic indicators that can be used to support the production of Towns Investment Plans with robust evidence bases. A tutorial video is also available, showing users how to navigate through the dashboard.

Recordings of some of our past events can also be found on the events page. A reminder to keep an eye out for future events, and to also let your Town Coordinator know if there is a past workshop that you think your town would benefit from being re-run.


TIP Guidance

Visuals tips to bring your tip to life

This blog provides some useful tips on how to incorporate visuals into your TIP, helping to give it a greater impact on the reader.

Top tips for your TIPs

This blog, written by our team of Town Coordinators, seeks to provide hints and tips following their involvement with Cohort 1 towns.

Total Towns Outcome Framework

The Total Towns Outcomes Framework is a tool to help you think holistically about the longer-term factors and considerations in shaping a thriving, healthy and economically-sustainable place.  The event recording will also help introduce the tool.

Lessons Learnt

The Towns Fund Delivery Partner shared four blog posts covering lessons learnt from our work with Cohort 1 towns who submitted their Town Investment Plans on 31 July. The blogs covered four key topics:

A recording of our event held on 9th September also covers lessons learnt from Cohort 1 TIPs.


Core Services

Working closely with you, the Towns Fund Delivery Partner found that some services are core to most towns' activities and have increased the resources available to support you in these areas. These services include Community and Stakeholder Engagement, Finance & Investment, Project Prioritisation and Vision & Strategy.

Please click on each topic heading to see relevant key resources.

Stakeholder and Community Engagement

Stakeholder Engagement Plan Guidance

This guidance document provides you with initial guidance when developing your approach to stakeholder engagement, and a template that can be followed to establish a stakeholder engagement plan.

Stakeholder and Community Audit Guidance

This document provides an overview of the types of information to consider when developing your TIP and identifying stakeholders to proactively engage in the process.

Bridging the digital divide

COVID-19 has meant that vital services such as education and healthcare being delivered digitally during lockdown. It is therefore important to understand how to bridge the digital divide.

Making the most of social media

Using social media effectively means that you can share information about projects, ideas and content such as videos and infographics, to engage and build advocacy amongst your local community.

Finance & Investment

A Guide to Financial Metrics

The purpose of this guidance note is to support the Towns to think through how different types of measures can be used to assess success for their intended outputs and outcomes.

Good Governance Tool

This tool is designed to help you get the best from your Towns Deal Board. It’s an opportunity for you to reflect on what a high performing board looks like, plan how you can support and improve your board and identify any extra support needs you may have. The recording of our Good Governance Tool webinar helps to explain the tool further.

State Aid

This blog explores the subject of State Aid within the Towns Fund context, and the implications of complying with rules set out in the General Block Exemption Regulations.

Project Prioritisation

Project Prioritisation 101

This blog introduces the project prioritisation process, and how it can best inform towns’ decision making.

Project Prioritisation Tool

This tool aims to help towns ensure that the projects put forward for further appraisal fit the Town’s objectives and MHCLG’s requirements. This blog supports the Project Prioritisation tool, and provides a short guide on how to use it.

Vision & Strategy

An Introduction to Strategy Planning

This introductory guide details how to use strategy planning effectively in writing your Town Investment Plans.

Bold and Innovative Ideas for Your Town’s Vision and Strategy

This blog seeks to help towns with their vision and strategy, highlighting the benefit of focussing on a small number of strategic objectives and big ideas that have the potential to make a significant difference.

Foresight Guidance

This short guide highlights the importance of a robust evidence base supporting town strategies and TIPs.


Additional Support

Our wider team of service leaders and topics experts have also compiled a number of key resources, that will be integral to a number of towns depending on their own characteristics and ambitions. A number of the topics and services available to towns now include introductory guidance, to help you understand the various support that is on offer.

Please click on each topic heading to see relevant key resources.

Climate Change

You’ve declared a Climate Emergency…what next?

This short guide helps break down the challenge of tackling climate change, based on our experience of helping local authorities around the world to develop and deliver effective climate action plans.

Taking Account of Net Zero in your TIP

This guidance note seeks to provide towns with an overview of what ‘net zero’ means in the context of their Town Investment Plans, and offer practical guidance on how to incorporate decarbonisation in towns proposals.

Promoting economic recovery and addressing the Climate Emergency through your TIP

This blog explores the topic of Clean Growth, and how it can be approached through the lenses of both production and consumption.

Crime and Security

An Introduction to Crime and Security

Protecting people in outdoor spaces

This blog provides advice on how to protect people in outdoor spaces, which is becoming increasingly relevant with COVID-19 creating greater emphasis on operating outdoors.

Key Considerations for Security in your TIP

After recent tragic events, there is a renewed focus on developing a holistic approach to the security of public spaces. This blog provides insights into how to ensure that your proposals are safe, and how to design out risks.

Data Services

Sustainable Growth Index

Grant Thornton’s Sustainable Growth Index provides a useful tool for analysing the different components that create successful places. This document provides guidance on how to effectively use the Index.

Covid Vulnerability Tool

The purpose of this tool is to assist in understanding the full impact of Covid-19 on your town, providing data on a range of indicators that start to describe an area’s vulnerability to the effects and impacts of Covid-19.

An Introduction to Theory of Change

This short session will provide you with an introduction to “Theory of Change” – what it is and why it matters for your Town Investment Plan.

Education, Skills & Enterprise

An Introduction to Education, Skills & Enterprise

Environmental Monitoring & Impact Analysis

An Introduction to Environmental Monitoring & Impact Analysis

Biodiversity Net Gain Webinar

This recorded webinar provides an introduction to the topic, providing advice for towns in considering Biodiversity Net Gain in their proposals.

EIA Screening Guidance

It is recommended that Towns undertake an internal EIA Screening exercise for all projects in their TIPs, and this note sets out the process as well as providing a checklist for Towns to screen projects against.

Fire

Introduction to Fire

Health and Wellbeing

An Introduction to Health and Wellbeing

Including Health and Wellbeing in your TIP

This document sets out some high-level considerations for health and Wellbeing as you develop your TIP.

Housing, Homelessness & Repurposing Buildings

An Introduction to Housing & Homelessness

Innovation & Digital

The Future of Digital High Streets

This blog introduces the topic of Digital High Streets, and how towns can ensure a comprehensive coverage of connected services as we move into a more digital world.

An introduction to 5G

This guide provides an introduction to 5G and addresses some of the key questions that we have received from towns thus far.

Planning, Social Impact & Public Sector Equalities Analyses

What does the Planning White Paper mean for Towns Fund?

On 6 August, the Government launched Planning the Future, which sets out the biggest proposals for planning reform in decade. This blog explores how this may affect the Towns Fund programme.

Regeneration, Place Design & Built Environment

Lighting & Regeneration

This short learning burst looks at the role of lighting in supporting town centre regeneration and economic recovery, and includes real life examples of how to use lighting to overcome key challenges that towns may face.

Transport

Cycling for Everyone

This guide provides a number of recommendations that local councils can follow to make cycling more inclusive in towns.

You’ve declared a Climate Emergency…next steps: Transport

This guide focuses on practical actions towns can take now to encourage sustainable transport, while creating social, economic, and health benefits for residents.

Youth, Urban Childhoods & Inclusive Environments

An Introduction to Youth, Urban Childhoods & Inclusive Environments

Designing Inclusive Environments

This short video simplifies the concept of inclusive design and can be used in consultation and engagement when considering the projects in your Town Investment Plan.


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