Defra Rural Social and Communities Programme

Introduction

Lord Haskins’ Rural Delivery Review in 2003 recommended that key decisions about rural delivery should be taken more at regional and local levels, and that current funding programmes should be streamlined and simplified.  Defra’s new Rural Social and Communities Programme 2006-2008 was designed to do this by building on the Countryside Agency and Defra social and community programmes (such as parish plans, rural housing enablers, community development workers and rural transport partnerships) and bring them into a single funding programme, directed by local priorities. The Voluntary and Community Sector was intended to lead the preparation of sub-regional business cases, based on local evidence, through the appropriate sub-regional partnership.

RSCP in Bedfordshire

BRAF was tasked with developing the business case in Bedfordshire. The Business Plan for Bedfordshire identified five inter-related areas of activity for funding under the Rural Social and Community Programme.  Each of the project areas had as its basis the use of community development processes that would, by working with individuals and communities collectively, contribute to improving and enhancing social capital and cohesion, community self-help, participatory governance and to sustainable involvement:

• Developing collective rural community capacity through support of the Bedfordshire Rural Affairs Forum;

• Building rural capacity at parish level;

• Building capacity of the rural voluntary and community sector through sustainable volunteering and targeted development support;

• Tackling rural disadvantage through improving access in rural Bedfordshire;

• Ensuring affordable housing in rural Bedfordshire.

Detailed report and case studies on RSCP activities in Bedfordshire 2007/8

Detailed report and case studies on RSCP activities in Bedfordshire 2006/7

Download Bedfordshire’ RSCP Business Case (614Kb)