Frances Heywood

This report documents the results of road-testing two frameworks for assessing community participation: Active partners: Benchmarking community involvement in regeneration (Yorkshire Forward, 2000) and Auditing community participation: An assessment handbook (The Policy Press, 2000). The report examines whether the tools were useful, what worked most effectively and how the tools might be amalgamated on the basis of what was learned from the road-testing. The practical difficulties involved in using the tools were also explored. The lessons learned have enabled the production of a new companion handbook for development and assessment, Making community participation meaningful, which combines and develops the original frameworks.

This handbook is a companion volume to What works in assessing community participation? (The Policy Press, 2004) which documents the results of the road testing of two earlier frameworks for assessing community participation - Benchmarking community involvement in regeneration (Yorkshire Forward, 2000) and Auditing community participation: An assessment handbook (The Policy Press, 2000). Making community participation meaningful outlines key considerations that are necessary to ensure that community participation is effective; provides detailed sets of questions to enable stakeholders to assess the extent to which the indicators of success are being met; highlights a variety of resources which can be used by community groups to generate information and insight into the key issues and offers the real prospect of a commonly accepted assessment framework which has the authority to be adopted across sectors.

Help the Aged funded this major study because of concerns that older people living in private rented housing were vulnerable to abuse and harassment by landlords. Drawing upon detailed research with older people, professionals and landlords in six different localities, the report provides the first major study of this important issue. The report concludes with a series of recommendations to central and local government. These include the need for changes in such areas as the overall regulation of the sector, the rights of older tenants and in the housing benefit system. The recommendations also cover the need for better training for professionals about abuse and harassment, improved age related records and the need for improved funding for advice and advocacy services. This study will be essential reading for a wide range of practitioners and academics whose interests and responsibilities span older people and their reliance upon the housing and welfare systems.