Somerset Market Towns

Welcome to the Somerset Market Towns Employment Project web site.

Somerset has a small town and rural economy including a number of market towns where manufacturing employment is disproportionately important to the local economy. As part of the European Social Fund (ESF) Article 6 programme six market towns in Somerset are benefiting from support in the Somerset Market Towns Employment Project over the period to the end of 2005 to develop strategies for diversifying and developing the local labour market.

The aim of the project is to develop market town labour market strategies, designed to improve skill levels, employment opportunities and the future competitiveness of these local economies. Market Towns Strategic Partnerships (MTSPs) for each of the six market towns Bridgwater, Chard, Shepton Mallet, Watchet/Williton, Wellington and Yeovil, are working on their local strategies.

A county partnership, involving Somerset County Council as the lead partner, Mendip District Council, Sedgemoor District Council, South Somerset District Council, Taunton Deane Borough Council, West Somerset District Council, Business Link Somerset, Somerset Learning and Skills Council, Jobcentre Plus, Somerset Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Colleges, provides input and acts as the Steering Group for the project.

Key objectives for the project:

• The establishment of a Market Town Strategic Partnership of key agencies and private sector and community representatives in each of the six towns
• A baseline analysis of the employment situation in each of the market towns.
• Development and implementation of local labour market strategies, which feed into the Somerset economic development strategy.
• Events to share experience, ideas and findings through a supported network group.
• Identification and trial of new innovative solutions to aid market towns

Monitoring and Evaluation

Monthly project monitoring meetings between the Project Co-ordinator and the Head of Project reviewed progress against schedule and evaluated the direction of the project in each town.  Each of the three established MTSPs had a progress review built into the agenda of each meeting.

The following qualitative indicators have been achieved for the three towns where MTSPs have been established:

• Engage local communities, public agencies, social partners and the private sector to develop stronger partnership working at local level;
• Development of strategies that develop small, local, currently vulnerable economies;
• Establishment of a process for formulating a labour market strategy for market towns in rural locations;
• Development of county wide network to share best practice; and
• Fit of local strategies with Somerset Vision and Economic Development Strategy, the Regional Economic Strategy, the National Action Plan for Employment and the European Employment Strategy

The fit of local strategies with the Somerset Vison and Economic Development Strategy and the Regional Economic Strategy was assured through the process of local strategies being developed in the context of regional and sub regional strategies.  The context is clearly explained in each of the strategy documents.  The fit of the local strategies with the National Action Plan for Employment and the European Employment Strategy was assessed.  The objectives and actions of each local strategy for Chard, Wellington and Yeovil were assessed against the ten EES guidelines to ensure that each related well to at least one of the ten priorities.  As an overall assessment the strategies demonstrated that they all related closely to guidelines:

• Active and preventative measures for the unemployed and inactive
• Job creation and entrepreneurship
• Address change and promote adaptability and mobility in the labour market
• Promote development of human capital and lifelong learning.

Interim Evaluation

The Community Council for Somerset conducted an interim evaluation of the project in June 2005.  The process involved observation of a County Steering Group meeting, telephone interviews/questionnaires with the County Steering Group, members of town partnerships, other local stakeholders and with local stakeholders in the towns that were not yet participating.  The key points and recommendations from the evaluation were:

• That the overall project is meeting its objective and is working well;
• That more publicity is needed for the three existing partnerships to encourage wider awareness and stakeholder involvement and additional project publicity should be a priority when launching the project in the remaining three market towns;
• The sharing of knowledge and experiences is valued and should be extended across the six market towns;
• That the role and functions of the County Steering Group should be reviewed to help it further drive forward the project.

Final Evaluation

Red Door associates Ltd were commissioned to undertake the final evaluation of the project from December 2005 to mid February 2006.

This evaluation looked primarily at qualitative data, gained through telephone interviews with members of the Steering Group, town groups and others involved in some way including consultants involved in the work; and through focus group conversations with two of the town groups and with the Steering Group.  The final evaluation reports what people think of the project, its achievements and difficulties.  The evaluators also added comments on their impressions gained during the work.

Overall, this project is seen as being successful by the majority of those involved with it.  There is a feeling from those partnership groups who did get to grips with the project that "our towns can influence their own future".  This sense of empowerment can be seen as a first step in creating change.

In terms of impact, the project sought to influence various strategies.  People have said how the work has been useful in different places, and that it will be used.  In terms of creating any longer term impact on the economy of the towns, this is not yet measurable.

The other achievements of the project talked about in the evaluation are:

• People finding out more about local employment, business and economic issues;
• Partnership working at a local level involving a mixture of local people and agencies, with a strategic aim;
• Getting employers involved - as partners, or as consultees;
• Learning from other towns and sharing ideas; and
• Enabling local projects to be researched that have the potential to have a long-term impact on the local economy.

The main problems found were:

• The slow start-up, inability to fully recruit and significant budget underspend;
• Not having ways of getting more businesses involved across all the towns;
• A need for further improvements to partnership working and wider representation on the partnership groups;
• Lack of promotion and publicity - at local group level and overall;
• Social inclusion / basic skills - an original aim of the project, which is largely missing from delivery;
• Sustainability - a lack of exit strategies for the overall programme and local groups; and
• Local learning has been good; bigger reflection and learning has been absent

From the findings the final evaluation made key recommendations for future projects.

"our towns can influence their own future"