Go Barrhead! is the brand behind East Renfrewshire Council’s integrated localdelivery of the Scottish Government’s “Smarter Choices Smarter Places” and“Health Weight Communities” initiatives in the town of Barrhead. Life changingresults have been achieved through new approaches to project delivery;innovative methods of engagement; and consistent messages delivered through astrong brand and social marketing campaign.
PLANNING / · a clear rationale, defined processes and focus on stakeholder needs· contributes to organisation’s goals and addresses current or emerging challenges
The key aim of Go Barrhead! is to increase awareness and encourage behaviourchange through promotion of a healthy and active lifestyle with a focus on activetravel choices and maintaining a healthy weight. This recognises the aspirations ofthe Scottish Government and reflects the distinctive social and demographiccharacteristics of Barrhead in relation to poor health and deprivation.
Rationale. The starting point for Go Barrhead! was the creation of an innovative delivery model; bringing together a multi disciplined project management structure with shared outcomes and best value at its core. The rationale for this team structure wasthe recognition that physical activity, obesity and healthy lifestyles have a complex and interwoven relationship with the ability to make active transport choices and access high quality neighbourhood green spaces. Furthermore while research demonstrated these links and local and national programmes were in place the complex nature of the problem was not matched by a suitably multi disciplined solution. This required new ways of working and thinking; whereroads engineers realised their capacity to influence health outcomes and health professionals designed streets and green places. By bringing together the expertise of transport planners, health professionals, park mangers and regeneration specialists traditional barriers were overcome, internal working practices transformed and outcomes successfully delivered.
Project Need. It was a priority to ensure that the objectives of the project met the existing social, economic and geographical profile of Barrhead where 31% of the population live in communities among the 25% most deprived in Scotland. The Scottish Government provided £813,000 funding for social marketing measures and infrastructure projects to deliver the main theme “Promoting a Healthy and Active Lifestyle”and theaccompanying objectives which were:
• To raise awareness of what is meant by the terms active travel choices andhealthy weight
• To sustain programmes of activities that support more adults, children and young people to adopt healthy choices around active travel and maintain ahealthy weight
• To add value to existing initiatives with the aim of promoting active travelchoices and reversing current obesity trends
• To influence the work of wider partners to ensure that healthy travel choices healthy weight and childhood obesity is embedded within local strategicplans.
The objectives support the national policy: testing the effectiveness of the sustainable travel and health interventions against the National Performance Framework (particularly Greener, Healthier and Safer and Stronger)while delivering outcomes in Council’s Delivery Plan under “Our people are healthier, more active and inequalities reduced”. Targets were set for the number of residents participating in social marketing exercises, school participation, length of cycle path created and the number of public events
DELIVERING / · implemented in all relevant areas and across all the required stakeholders· carried out in a structured and logical way , using robust and sustainable methods
Involvement of Stakeholders. With 20 projects to deliver the projectmanagement group incorporated project managers from across theCouncil working in Transport, the Community Health and Care Partnership, Educationand Active Schools, Planning, Communications and Barrhead Regeneration. Project managers were given responsibility for specific projects andprogress was reported at regular managers meetings. Sub‐groups focused on specific elements of the programme. This ensured that all project managers had an understanding of how their individual projects contributed to the wider programme, whilst having a level of autonomy to forward projects which were within their expertise. Thefocus was on integrated delivery, shared outcomes and maximising theeffectiveness of existing resources.
Efficiency and effectiveness. Bringing together people from across the Council who currently deliver projects in their own field ensured joint working with willing people at the right level in the organisation. Duplication was reduced and quality outcomes achieved. The creation ofAuchenbackCommunityParkprovides good evidence: combining expertise in infrastructure and health improvement with extensive community work a plan of improvements to neglected green space resulted in the Park opening in year 1 of the Go Barrhead project. The Park encapsulates how shared outcomes and practice produce multiple benefits: sustainable travel use has measurably increased; the green space provides much needed healthy play and recreational opportunities that tackle health inequality and early completion boosted the credibility of GO Barrhead! in the eyes of the community.
Barriers Overcome. Three principle barriers were identified and successfully overcome: uniting officers who don’t usually worktogetherat an operational level, thecomplexity in defining clear shared outcomes and indicators of success across 2 programmes “Smarter Choices Smarter Places” and“Health Weight Communities, andovercoming scepticism in the local community where people wanted real improvements rather than rhetoric
Communication and engagement. Quickly established communications with the local community were equally important to successful delivery. It was essential tocome up with a strong brand, upon which consistentand continuous messages could be delivered whichmet the objectives of the combined projects. A brand was developedin‐house and tested in the community under the heading Go Barrhead! Innovativemethods of community engagement also supported the project for example residents were given digital cameras to take photographs of things they did and did not like around their community.
Measurement Processes. Indicators were identified at project initiation as was a programme of continual evaluation. Indicators covered participationlevels; changes in travel patternsand personalised assessments of health and well being. The evaluation results are particularly important and will be used by the Scottish Government to inform similar approaches elsewhere.
INNOVATION + LEADING PRACTICE / ·Demonstrates leading practice, and is capable of replication elsewhere·Achieves genuine innovation or new ways of working
Innovation. Theforesight tolinktwo pilot projects“Healthy Weight Communities” and “Smarter Choices” within the same project boundaryunder a mutli-discipline project team. This improvedresource efficiency, ensured a consistent message to the target segments of the Barrhead population and nurtured strong networksand new understandings and appreciation of the works of other departments and services.
Best practice & Evidence. The Go Barrhead! delivery model has produced significant benefits to the Councilincluding:
- Effective and efficient use of staff and resources across the Councildemonstrating a best value approach. Project budgets were pooled and used to greater effect and external funding applications were more creative and successful in attracting additional money.
- The creation of an integrated way of working with increased awareness ofservices across the partnerships enhancing staff development and deliveryof other Council projects.
- The redesign of services and community health activity by integrating the projectwithin existing Council activity. The Joint Health Improvement Plan have used the project example and ideas and the project has been instrumental in delivering the Councils’ Local Transport Strategy..
- A joined up performance management and outcomes approach with sharedoutcomes and project indicators being integrated by Community PlanningPartners in the Council’s Outcome Delivery Plan 2011 to 2014. Following the project transportand health outcomes, indicators and activities are integrated
- An increased trust in the Council to deliver with community driven infrastructureprojects galvanising the relationship between the Council and the localcommunity. Customer testimony is very positive in this respect.
Mainstreaming and replication. The Scottish Government devised Smarter Choices as a pilot project and will use the results to identify how best to roll out similar projects. The Scottish Government provided £130,000 additional funds to reproduce the project’s achievements elsewhere: smaller versions are currently in progress in Neilston and Clarkston. As noted above the Councils’ new Outcome Delivery plan has integrated outcomes. The lessons of the project have been disseminated at a national conference and as a case study report by regional partnership The Clyde valley Green Network.
Recognition and benchmarking. The findings of the Scottish Government’s Monitoring and Evaluation Report of all 7 Smarter Choices projects reiterate and confirm the positive experiences of GO Barrhead! The report’s findings emphasise the value of joint working paving the way for future funding, efficiency gains, the value of branding programmes to make joint delivery understandable and getting the right balance between infrastructure, service delivery and promotion.
RESULTS + IMPACT / · a convincing mix of customer and internal performance measures· clear line of sight to the delivery of better outcomes for communities
· a full range of relevant results– either already achieved or with potential to deliverover time
Go Barrhead! produced impressive results with strong evidence of life changingexperiences within the local community and transformation in internal workingpractices. All the project targets were achieved. The impact of abroad based coalition of stakeholders in the planning of the project can be seen in the results. Detailed qualitative research with 11 case studies found evidence of wider quality oflife benefits that go beyond the projects original objectives. In addition to fulfilling stated objectives inhealth and wellbeing and travel mode shift theresearch recorded strengthened community networks, and feelings of improved self confidence.
Table 1 – Added Benefits of the Go Barrhead Project!
Benefit AchievedCase Study / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11
Health and wellbeing (increased exercise andhealthy eating / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √
Local facilities (including use and awareness oflocal facilities and infrastructure) / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √
Strengthened community networks (includingjoining community groups) / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √
Independence of Individuals (including going outalone, travel to school, feeling of empowerment) / √ / √ / √ / √ / √
Travel Mode Shift / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √ / √
Customer Testimony. Mhairi Walton suffers from liver disease and found that her lifestyle had becomequite sedentary as a function of her illness and how she felt about her illness. As aresult of the conversation with the Go Barrhead! Advisor, and information provided,she is now walking a lot more. Mhairi feels that her health has noticeably improvedas a result of walking a lot more and generally feels much healthier as a result ofbeing more active. Mhairi said “this project has resulted in a massive change forme…..I can’t believe how quickly I am coming back to health. The information hasbeen a great help – it’s given me an incentive to get active”.
Resident Participation.Go Barrhead! offered all households in Barrhead personalisedadvice in active travel and healthy living through advisorsvisiting local residents accompanied by high quality informationresources. The results were impressive:
- 36% (2,859) of households participating in the behaviourchange programme and 34% of respondents in thecustomer satisfaction survey stating they had made achange in behaviour. Health benefits were the most commonly stated benefit. This exceeded the target of 30%
- 21,492 resources were requested throughout the project, 86% stating thatresources were good/very good and 96% of respondents rated customerservice as good/very good
Ultimately results count and controlled monitoring at 11 strategic sites across Barrhead registered substantial increases in pedestrians from 9433 counts in March 2009 to 12458 in March 2011, an increase of 32%. In the same period and locations cyclist numbers increased from 39 to 139, a jump of 334%.
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