QR - SPF Building Lessons from Covid-19 Response and Recovery into Future Lessons for Local and National Policy

Project Description

This funding request is to continue the project’s established policy collaborations with three local/ regional authorities (Greater Manchester Combined Authority, London Borough of Islington and Oldham Borough Council), the Welsh Assembly Communities Team and two UK Whitehall departments; the Department for Levelling up Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and the Civil Society and Youth Directorate in Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). These partners have agreed to collaborate during the two-month period proposed. If funded this investment would extend existing research activity, develop knowledge exchange between the university and policymakers and engage the university in code signing policy solutions built on evidence-based practice.

The project has extensive findings on the models and resources deployed across the Public and Voluntary Community Sectors to meet community needs. Findings include: how resources, staff and infrastructure were pooled and redeployed; how decision-making and information systems were shared by flattening power structures and developing shared responsibility; and importantly how new resources were generated through building collaborative relationships and informal support systems by mobilising previously untapped community resources via mutual aid. These findings offer vital learning for how cross-sectoral collaboration and place-based working can support recovery and offer policymakers long-term solutions to shortfalls in meeting community need beyond the current crisis. It also evidences the added value that cross-sectoral collaboration brings to the public sector and its communities, something that is vitally important to policymakers in the current climate.