The glossary is also available as a stand alone document which you can print off and have as a handy reference. ‘A glossary for Regeneration Outcomes’.
Action research
Studies that aim to bring about positive change in the circumstances of the target group. Commonly, action research actively involves those who are the focus of the research and self-reflection is therefore a key factor.
Activities
Activities are the services or projects delivered which aim to address identified needs among a community. The terms activities, projects, services and interventions are often used in place of one another.
Examples include:
- School holiday sports provision
- Employment advice and guidance service
- Breastfeeding network training
Additionality
Refers to the benefits or results brought about over and above what would have happened without a regeneration project or programme.
Aggregated data
Aggregated data is information presented in its entirety when it is composed of sub-groups or categories of data. When separated to allow analysis of the individual groups or categories it is referred to as disaggregated data.
Antisocial Behaviour Outcome Agreement (ASBOA)
Community Planning Partnerships were required to prepare antisocial behaviour outcome agreements, based on their antisocial behaviour strategies. ASBOAs identify key antisocial behaviour problems within their areas and set out clear and measurable targets for improvement, covering a 3-year period from 2005-2008.
Appraisal
Examination of an issue in order to establish the specific nature of the problem and consideration of the possible solutions and their associated cost, risk and potential impact. Most commonly used in regeneration with reference to project appraisal where a potential project is assessed before funding is committed. Appraisal should not be confused with evaluation.
Baseline data
Information gathered as a measure of the conditions at the beginning of a programme or study, against which subsequent progress can be assessed. Baseline data is essential in the context of regeneration outcomes.
Best Value
A government policy aiming to continuously improve the quality of local government and public sector services. The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 placed a statutory duty of Best Value upon local authorities which is audited by the Accounts Commission in Scotland. To achieve Best Value councils must improve services while addressing issues of economy, efficiency, effectiveness, equity and environmental sustainability. The Scottish Executive has not currently legislated on Best Value for central government public services.
Black and Minority Ethnic (BME)
A commonly used term referring to a number of different ethnic backgrounds. Often used in its abbreviated form.
Better Neighbourhood Services Fund (BNSF)
A £120 million fund which operated from 2002 to 2005 in twelve Pathfinder areas across Scotland. The fund was intended to demonstrate how improved service provision could help narrow the gap between disadvantaged communities and the wider population. BNSF funding was replaced by the Community Regeneration Fund from 2005.
Biased survey
Robust surveys attempt to reflect the views of a wider group of people from a smaller sample of people who take part in the survey. If a subgroup of people such as women or disabled people are not represented in the sample to the same level as they are in the wider population the survey results may be unrepresentative or biased.
Capacity building
Activities to improve the ability of communities or organisations to take the lead in their own development through for example, improving their existing skills, confidence, leadership and ability to learn.
Case study
A summary providing details about the development of a project or programme or the experiences of a project beneficiary. Case studies are often used in annual reports or evaluations to provide a greater level of information to illustrate more general findings.
Catchment area
The geographic area covered by a project or service. Commonly used to refer to the area from which schools draw their pupils it can also be used to describe the boundary within which projects such as an employment support project draws its clients.
Census Output Area
Census Output Areas are small areas of approximately 125 households designed specifically for the gathering and presentation of 2001 Census information. Being such small areas, Census Output Areas allow very detailed geographic analysis of Census data. In England non-Census data is available for Census Output Areas but in Scotland data zones have been used as the standard small area for data presentation.
Coronary Heart Disease (CHD)
The most common form of heart disease characterised by chest pains and heart attacks. It is a major health issue in Scotland. Analysis has shown that the number of CHD cases tend to be higher in deprived communities than affluent communities and regeneration programmes with a health theme often seek to address this issue.
Citizen’s Panel
Citizen’s Panels consist of local people who have agreed to take part in research to provide feedback to service providers. The panels are designed to be representative of an area's population in terms of characteristics such as gender, age, ethnic background and occupation. They can be used to gather residents’ views and experiences as well as to test specific policy options or proposals or to scrutinise policy implementation. Feedback is usually gathered via surveys or focus groups. Membership of the panel is periodically updated.
Closing the Opportunity Gap (CtOG)
A phrase first used by the Scottish Executive in 2002 when publishing details of how the Scottish Budget 2003-2007 would ‘tackle poverty, build strong, safe communities and create a fair and equal Scotland’. Six CtOG objectives were published in July 2004 and ten specific targets in December 2004.
Coding (survey)
Answers to survey questions are usually assigned a number by researchers to enable the results to be more easily analysed. For example, answering ‘yes’ to a question may be assigned the code 1 and ‘no’ the code 2 and this would allow researchers to calculate how many respondents answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’. All questions and possible responses are assigned codes.
Community engagement
Encouraging communities to become more involved in decisions about local services and priorities for action. It normally refers to the relationship between community organisations and public sector bodies. It is a central part of the community planning process. Communities Scotland published National Standards for Community Engagement in 2005.
Community of interest
A group of people who share a common interest or need, and who may or may not live in the same area.
Community Plan
A strategy for the provision of public services within a local authority area. A statutory requirement introduced in the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003. See community planning and Community Planning Partnerships.
Community planning
The process of planning and delivering local public services targeted to the needs of communities. Local authorities are required by the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 to work together with all public bodies and community groups to ensure communities are actively engaged in decision making about local services. See Community Plan and Community Planning Partnerships.
Community Planning Partnership (CPP)
Community Planning Partnerships are the bodies that bring together all the partners and local communities to manage community planning in a local authority area.
Community regeneration
Process of improving the quality of life for people in deprived communities or for a particular group of people.
Community Regeneration Fund (CRF)
Communities Scotland established the Community Regeneration Fund to bring improvements to Scotland’s most deprived areas and help individuals and families escape poverty. All 32 Community Planning Partnerships were allocated a share in the £318million fund over the period 2005/06 to 2007/08. The allocation was made primarily on the basis of need as measured by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.
The CRF replaced the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund and Social Inclusion Partnership Fund.
Community
A group of people who live in a specific area or have common interests.
Cost benefit analysis
A process by which the expected impact of a service or project is assessed against the expected financial cost. The impact or benefit is measured in financial savings to determine whether the intervention is worth pursuing.
Data zone
Small areas identified for the purpose of statistical comparison which have between 500 and 1000 residents. They play a key role in Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, and can be used to develop and monitor regeneration policies at a local level.
Deprivation
An outcome of poverty which results in a lack of goods and services or an unsatisfactory physical or social environment.
Disaggregated data
See aggregated data.
Economy
The cost of securing the resources needed to deliver a project or programme.
Effectiveness
The extent to which a project or programme achieves its aims and objectives.
Efficiency
A measure of how well inputs to a project or programme are used to achieve the end results.
Employment deprived
Those who want to work but are excluded from the labour market through unemployment, sickness or disability.
Equal opportunities
The prevention, elimination or regulation of discrimination between persons on grounds of sex or marital status, on racial grounds, or on grounds of disability, age, sexual orientation, language or social origin, or of other personal attributes, including beliefs or opinions, such as religious beliefs or political opinions. More generally, equality of opportunities refers to ensuring that people have the means to compete fairly or contribute equally with others.
Equality groups or strands
Groups with an interest in promoting equality and/or having experience of discrimination or inequality. Equalities groups include: women; minority ethnic communities; gypsies/travellers; asylum seekers; refugees; disabled people; people with specific health issues; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups; young people and older people; those in specific areas (such as rural areas or peripheral estates); religious/faith groups; and those on low incomes.
Evaluation
A comprehensive assessment of the extent to which a policy, project or programme has achieved pre-determined aims and objectives, and of lessons which can be learned for future practice.
A formative evaluation is undertaken as project or programme is implemented which allows lessons to be learnt as progress is made. A summative evaluation is undertaken at the end of a project or programme to highlight the retrospective lessons.
Impact assessments
A formal process used to predict the effect that a policy, programme or development can be expected to have on communities.
Income deprived
A person is defined as 'income deprived' if they are in a household in receipt of Income Support, income-based Job Seekers Allowance, or Working Families Tax Credit/Disability Tax Credit below a low-income threshold.
Indicator
Something that measures or records a specific situation or issue.
Input
The resources that a project has available in the course of its activities, such as money, staff costs, equipment, materials and time.
Inputs enable activities or projects to take place which address the outcomes.
Intermediate outcome indicator
Where specific, measurable outcome indicators cannot demonstrate an impact over the time limited life of a regeneration programme, medium term intermediate outcome indicators can be appropriate. For example, a regeneration programme may have the objective of improving the health of a community but over the three year programme an impact on mortality rates is unlikely, however improvements in healthy lifestyles such as a reduction in the rate of smoking or increased physical activity levels are measurable over three years and would be expected to lead to reduced mortality rates in the long term.
Intermediate output
In instances where there are no specific, measurable outcome indicators which capture the wider impact of a regeneration programme over the long or medium term, intermediate outputs that capture the direct result of project activity can be appropriate. For example, a regeneration programme may have the objective of improving educational attainment levels and the number of residents gaining qualifications from a training project could be an appropriate indicator when information on the qualification levels in the population is not available.
Intervention
Another term for activity, service or project.
Lifelong Learning
The idea that learning is an everyday activity that people can be involved in throughout their lives and in many contexts, such as school, college, workplaces and leisure activities.
Local Outcome Agreement (LOA)
Under the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund, local authorities were invited to draw up a Local Outcome Agreement outlining the work that would be undertaken with BNSF funding, and the difference that this would make to local communities and target groups. This approach has been carried forward into the Community Regeneration Fund, with the localised Regeneration Outcome Agreements.
Mainstreaming
Taking account of and reflecting the needs of disadvantaged or excluded groups within policy making and service delivery, rather than having specific supplementary strategies to address their needs. In practice this can mean bending mainstream funds to sustain projects. But it can also mean mainstream services taking on board new ideas and approaches that have been tested through initiatives and projects.
Milestones
Key events with dates, marking stages in a project or programme, used to track progress.
Monitoring
Regular collection and analysis of data on project or programme inputs, outputs and outcomes.
National priorities for community regeneration
Six national priorities for community regeneration were set in August 2003: building strong, safe and attractive communities; getting people back into work; improving health; raising educational attainment; engaging young people; and the cross cutting priority of effective community engagement.
Needs analysis
A structured assessment of a particular issue so that the key issues are highlighted and the response is tailored to the specific nature of the problem. It can be based upon quantitative and qualitative information.
Neighbourhood satisfaction
Residents' perception of the attractiveness of a neighbourhood as a place to live, often based on factors such as cleanliness, crime levels, or vandalism. It appears as an indicator in the Scottish Household Survey.
Objective
Many regeneration programmes have broad, overall goals or objectives. These objectives can relate to particular groups or to the neighbourhood or area as a whole. In simple terms, objectives are the ultimate goals that a regeneration programme intends to achieve. Each objective usually relates to one issue and sets out a broad desire to make improvements of some kind. Objectives are not normally quantified. Objectives are usually quite broad in their definition although sometimes they can be much more specific.
Here are some examples of objectives:
- Creating working and learning communities.
- Maximise the benefits of economic growth for priority areas and groups, focussing on helping excluded people to enter and progress in the labour market.
- Make significant progress towards being one of the healthiest areas in Scotland
Outcome
Outcomes refer to long term changes that are anticipated for an area or a group of people as a result of regeneration activities. They focus on a particular problem and describe the anticipated change. They are closely related to objectives, but they are more specific. They may or may not be quantified.
These are examples of outcomes which have not been quantified:
- Improving performance of all S4 pupils.
- Improved participation in the labour market for school leavers.
- A clear and sustained year on year increase in women breastfeeding their baby.
Different funders have different expectations of the exact form of outcomes. For example, funders that fund individual projects (such as the Big Lottery Fund) look for outcomes that relate to that individual project, while wider programmes such as the Community Regeneration Fund (CRF) anticipate more wide ranging outcomes.
Outcome Indicator
Ideally, outcomes will be quantifiable. They may have one or more indicators which identify the amount of change achieved as a result of the regeneration activities. An indicator is the measure which is used to demonstrate change – generally a score, a ratio or a ranking.
Here are some examples of outcome and the indicators used to measure change:
- Increase average Unified Points Score (UPS) for all S4 pupils in ROA data zones from 20 to 21 in 2008.
- Decrease the proportion of 16-19 year olds not in education training or employment from 28% to 20% in 2008.
- Increase the rate of women breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks after the birth of their child from 15% to 50% by 2008.
The Regeneration Outcome Agreements Guidance requires outcomes and outcome indicators to be stated separately. However, this distinction between outcomes and outcome indicators is not always made. In other contexts, it may be assumed that the outcome itself will include reference to the indicator, as in the examples above.
Output
Outputs provide a direct measure of activities or project delivery. Outputs should always be capable of being quantified. In regeneration projects outputs often refer to the number of users of a service or a project.
Here are some examples of outputs:
- 200 children involved in enhanced transition from primary to secondary schools.
- 35 young people benefiting from employment access and support.
- 104 new mothers benefiting from Breastfeeding Network training.
Pathfinder
A pioneering initiative used to test an approach or idea. For example, the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund operated in twelve Pathfinder areas across Scotland while there are nine Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders in England.
Policy
An approach to tackling a particular issue which has been agreed by a group with the appropriate authority to set out a policy. The policy may be national or local i.e. stem from the Scottish Executive or local authority/Community Planning Partnership.
Practitioner
A person, usually a paid employee, who is directly involved in the operational management or delivery of a project or programme.
Primary data
Information that is collected specifically for the purposes of a report or research project such as a residents’ survey or a focus group with residents of a particular community.
Priority
Something that has been identified as an important issue to be addressed. In a regeneration programme the priorities are the key issues identified by the analysis of need. Sometimes the phrases priority and objective are used in place of one another.
Programme
Programmes consist of a number of projects or services aimed at tackling identified problems in a community. Examples include the Community Regeneration Fund or its predecessors the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund and Social Inclusion Partnerships. As well as referring to all the projects in one specific location, the phrase can refer to all activity across Scotland – we can therefore talk about the CRF programme in Argyll and Bute for instance as well as the CRF programme in Scotland.
Project appraisal
See appraisal.
Qualitative evidence
Information in a narrative or descriptive form, rather than numerical. Examples include the findings from depth interviews with stakeholders, focus groups with members of the community, or previous research.
Quantitative evidence
Information which can be expressed in numbers or statistics. Examples include official data sources such as the claimant unemployment rate and the measurable findings of residents’ surveys.
Quota sample
A method of selecting people to take part in a residents’ survey to ensure it is representative of the wider population. Targets are set for the number or proportion of people to be interviewed based on personal characteristics such as age, gender or economic status which are known to be true of the wider population.
Register of Sasines
A legal document that records the transfer of ownership of a piece of land or of a building following its sale or an inheritance. It will normally detail the names of the new and previous owners and will give a basic description of the property transferred. The register of sasines can be used to gather information on land/building transactions in an area to inform the needs analysis.
Regeneration Outcome Agreement (ROA)
Three-year agreements which define the regeneration strategy which Community Planning Partnerships will adopt to regenerate a deprived area. These agreements must be approved by the Scottish Executive and are required in order to access money from the Community Regeneration Fund.
Risk assessment
Consideration of the potential problems associated with a course of action. A risk assessment is undertaken in order to minimise the impact of identified risks.
Routings
Within a survey, routings are a means of directing respondents to relevant questions.
Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD)
An index which identifies the most deprived areas across Scotland. It is based on 37 indicators in the seven individual domains of: Current income; Employment; Housing; Health; Education, skills and training; Geographic access; and Crime. Information is available for the seven domains as well as a composite measure of multiple deprivation.
Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics (SNS)
Data at the local level, on topics such as health, education, poverty, unemployment, housing, population, crime and social or community issues. Available on the SNS website.
Secondary data
Information that has already been collected for some other purpose such as Census results .
SMART outcomes
SMART is an acronym of:
- Specific: tightly defined, relating directly to the issue.
- Measurable: provide information that records the situation at the start of the period and at the end.
- Achievable: can realistically be achieved within the timescale,
- Relevant: have a strong connection to objectives and activities.
- Time-bound: relate to specific time periods.
Service delivery partners
The organisations involved in the provision of projects or services.
Social exclusion
Social exclusion refers to people who are ‘excluded’ from society and who do not play an active part in community life because of a range of factors, such as poverty, unemployment, a lack of access to services and a general lack of opportunities. Social inclusion is the process of reversing social exclusion.
Social Inclusion Partnership (SIP)
Partnerships of local public, voluntary, community and private sector representatives who worked together to tackle social exclusion in disadvantaged communities and among disadvantaged groups such as minority ethnic people. Forty eight area based SIPs and thirteen thematic SIPs were established during the period 1999 to 2005.
Stakeholder
Individuals or organisations that have an active interest or a stake in a particular issue. In regeneration this could include funders, local and central government, service delivery partners, beneficiaries, volunteers, community representatives, and the community.
Statistical data
Facts in the form of numbers that can be analysed to provide information about people, communities, services and policies.
Statistical reliability
The degree to which statistics - including the results of a survey - are consistent. Reliability does not imply validity.
Statistical validity
The degree to which statistics measure what they are supposed to be measuring. The validity of survey results measures how representative the survey results are of the population as a whole.
Strategy
A detailed document for achieving success or improvement. Strategy and plan are sometimes used in place of one another.
Sustainable Development
Defined by the Brundtland Commission (1987) as development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It includes concepts of social justice, equity, concern about the long-term future, a responsible approach to environmental resources and development which provides a better quality of life.
Target
Targets represent the position that we want to reach by a certain time, usually the end of a programme (though there may be interim targets). Targets contained in ROAs relate to the changes that partners intend to achieve by 2008.
Targets can apply to outcomes/outcome indicators or to outputs.
Target group
Groups of individuals or sections of the community which are the focus of regeneration or development activity and are expected to benefit from those activities.
Value for money
An assessment of whether the cost of delivering a project or programme is justified by the benefits it produced. The benefits are measured in terms of a key result such as the number of people securing employment. Comparison with previous projects or programmes allows the relative value for money to be established.
Void levels
The number or rate of empty houses in a specific area. Void rates are commonly used to signify the relative demand or popularity of an area. Usually applied to housing rented from the local authority or other Registered Social Landlord as data is more accessible than data for the private rented or owner occupied sectors.
Worklessness
Worklessness is a wider term than unemployment used to describe those without work and those who are out of work but would like a job. Definitions of worklessness include: unemployed claimants; those who are out of work and actively looking for a job; and those who are economically inactive, such as those with family or caring commitments, or those who have taken early retirement.
