Pathfinder Final Summary Report
November 2002 marked the birth of the Rural Delivery Pathfinders when Margaret Beckett, the then Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) invited Lord Haskins to carry out an independent review into how rural policies were delivered in England.
His report, published in November 2003 identified a number of areas for improvement. This drive for improvement gave rise to several rural policies – originated by the Defra Rural Strategy 2004 - that addressed this need for change. The Rural Delivery Pathfinder programme is an element of one of these policies.
The Peak District Rural Action Zone (RAZ) was designated by Defra as one of eight Rural Delivery Pathfinders in 2005. It’s brief was to deliver innovative ways of encouraging enterprise amongst businesses and communities in rural areas.
Derbyshire Dales District Council are the accountable body for the Pathfinder, in partnership with Derby and Derbyshire Economic Partnership (DDEP) who host the project officer within the RAZ team in Bakewell. This has provided the project officer with a great deal of support and guidance from the start, allowing for a greater knowledge base.
Pathfinder – Highlight Achievements
Over the lifetime of the programme a number of significant achievements have been secured that reflect local priorities and circumstances. These can be summarised as:
1. Rural Co-location of services in the Peak District
The Pathfinder has brokered the creation of a rural co-location ‘hub’ in Bakewell, Derbyshire Dales. Vacant space at a livestock market has been transformed into a multi agency centre for rural service delivery. Occupants include Derbyshire Dales Council for Voluntary Service, East Midlands Business Ltd, Natural England, and Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber. The centre shares facilities with a range of existing users including Derbyshire Dales District Council, the Peak District Land Management Advisory Service, County Council Social Services and Primary Care Trust Farming Health support. The Bakewell Agricultural Business Centre has been transformed into a true ‘one-stop shop’ service for the rural community at a relatively low cost to Pathfinder partners.
2. Single entry point for business information
The Pathfinder had the additional challenge of working across a regional boundary. It set out to provide a ‘one way in’ for business and communities to access information and services to support enterprise across the Peak District. Recognising that there was unmet demand for “information about where to find information” the Pathfinder developed an internet based portal – Peak Directions, at www.peakdirections.co.uk – to provide a signposting service to organisations that support enterprise amongst businesses and communities in the area.
In its first six months of operation, Peak Directions received some 15,500 unique ‘hits’. The site brings together public, voluntary and community sector services which support enterprise. The service also contains news, a business directory, and a document library. Peak Directions is fully accessible, and is hosted by High Peak Community for Voluntary Service on behalf of the partnership.
An early example of a successful use is from Youth Enterprise East Midlands. They were struggling to set up a ‘Dragons Den’-style enterprise competition in the Derbyshire Dales and High Peak for 16 – 18 year olds. Within four hours of being told about Peak Directions, their Youth Enterprise Co-ordinator had lined up business champions, public sector representatives and guest speakers, all of which were found on the site, enabling the delivery of a flagship event.
3. Peak District Partnership Protocol Agreement
The Pathfinder successfully negotiated a Partnership Protocol Agreement with partners within the Peak District Rural Action Zone, and associated networks and organisations, to simplify access to and join up the promotion of services that support enterprise growth across the RAZ. The protocol has 17 signatories. By signing, they agree to share economic information, and to jointly promote and deliver services that support enterprise across the Peak District. The protocol forms the ‘umbrella’ for joint working between East and West Midlands partners to further initiatives once the Pathfinder has come to a close. Already partners have contributed to a series of Pathfinder Pocket Guides that provide local communities and businesses with information and contact details on different sectors. These Pocket Guides cover construction, tourism, engineering and manufacturing, creative industries, training, land based businesses and social enterprise. Providing this information in hard copy format (as well as online) has improved access to information for businesses which lack fast broadband connections.
4. Enterprise Fund pilots
The Pathfinder has also trialled a range of innovative local approaches to enhancing enterprise amongst businesses and communities. These have been run in partnership with local and regional organisations and include:
- Retail Survival Courses run by the Ashbourne Partnership - A pilot series of workshops aimed at the retail sector and designed to boost their business potential.
- Community Enterprise Making it Happen events - Two linked events run by Derbyshire Dales CVS, aimed at voluntary and community organisations in the Peak District.
- Young Enterprise East Midlands Young Enterprise Primary Programme – A project giving young people access to the basic concept of enterprise and helping to develop an entrepreneurial attitude.
- Peak District National Park Authority Environmental Quality Mark – Green Marketing Event - Delivery of an event and workshop to provide practical advice on marketing the green credentials of individual local businesses.
- PDNPA EQM – Taste the Peak District Event - An event to encourage food and drink businesses to source products from Peak District producers and to raise awareness of the improved economic benefits to local businesses through local sourcing.
- The Gateway Project - Feasibility Study for a Mini-Mill idea – A feasibility study to determine whether a mini-mill facility would be financially viable and how the environmental and planning considerations would determine its implementation.
- Derbyshire Arts Partnership – Festivals Toolkit A toolkit to encourage and support more effective and more sustainable running of festivals and some exhibitions within the Peak District RAZ.
- Arts in the Peak - Investing in the Creative Rural Economy Conference/Network This is a large scale Creative Industries Event running in March 08.
5. Devolution in practice – the Peak District Rural Action Zone
Local Delivery is essential to ensure effective services and project delivery. The RAZ covers the rural localities within West Derbyshire and North East Staffordshire. It is the only rural designation in the sub region solely dedicated to improving economic opportunities and services for rural communities. It has delegated funding from both regional and sub regional levels to enable it to achieve this goal. As such the RAZ is an essential counter weight to urban focused economic development interest in some county and regional level agendas. The Pathfinder has been used to review current mechanisms in the RAZ with a view to further enhancing rural delivery.
Full final summary report
Pathfinder Final Report 3.5Mb
