Shropshire Council

Keep it local for economic resilience

What is it?

We, along with five other local authorities, have been working with Locality to test the idea that by commissioning local 'community anchor’ organisations, local communities are helped to be more resilient, and services are of a higher quality and more responsive to local needs.

What has happened in Shropshire?

Locality held a workshop with Shropshire Council members and staff, and with representatives of the voluntary and community sector in Shropshire. The aim was to identify how best to test out their idea, the local factors which either act as enablers or barriers to success and which local ‘community anchors’ they could work with. The local community anchors Locality worked with were Wem Town Hall, Cleobury Country Centre and the Severn Centre, Highley.

What have we found out?

Locality has produced a final report setting out the findings of its work and the characteristics of a ‘resilient community’. It's also produced an 'Economic Resilience Framework', which sets out the ingredients for local economic resilience. It found that social value is an important enabler, but that local authorities can go further in how they use it to drive a 'fundamental change' in commissioning practice.