The purpose of this report is to showcase some of the work that has been undertaken within the Essex LDP and consider how and why some of the changes we have observed in the last 6 months might have come about.
This will take the form of five ‘how and why stories’, and within each of these stories we highlight areas that we want to celebrate, share our learning, explore with others and what we plan to do next.
The methodological premise of this work is a Realist informed articulation of how and why. The methods of data collection were interviews with the LDP team and partners, theory gleaning workshops run by an evaluation partner and documentary analysis. The five stories include Asset Based Community Development, Influencing the Youth Justice Sector, Essex Pedal Power, Levelling Up in Essex and Developing a Realist Evaluation Framework.
Since 2019, a proactive approach has been taken by Essex LDP to understand ABCD and use it to underpin our work. So far we have trained over 300 practitioners and system leaders across Essex and have seen a number of positive outcomes.
Criminal justice is one of the sectors that Essex LDP is aiming to work within. We positioned ourselves well and gained a place on the Essex Violence & Vulnerability Board. More recently, we have invested in a 3-year, pan-Essex project aiming to continue influencing the youth justice sector.
Essex Pedal Power is a community-based free bike scheme that has been piloted in Clacton and Jaywick Sands by Essex LDP, ECC, TAWS and TDC. So far, 200 bikes have been distributed to local residents with plans to give away 1200 bikes by 2025. There are also plans to replicate the scheme across Essex.
The “stars have aligned” between the LDP’s core principles and the Levelling Up agenda in Essex, meaning that we are well positioned to influence the development of this work and aim to ‘hardwire’ physical activity into it.
There has been a change in direction for the LDP evaluation to an approach which is collaborative and utilises ‘realist evaluation’. The new evaluation team have collaboratively developed an evaluation framework and are in the process of developing explanatory theories for the changes we are seeing and hope to see.
