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UrbanCat

Capacity building

Community capacity and social infrastructure

Money is only half the story. Whether a neighbourhood can turn ten years of funding into lasting change depends on its Board, its organisations and the places people gather. These tools help your Board look honestly at that capacity and do something about the gaps.

6

Capacity dimensions

4

Free tools

£0

Cost

Start the self-assessmentWhy capacity matters — the research

These are independent UrbanCat tools for your Board's own use. They are not an MHCLG assessment, and nothing you enter is submitted anywhere — everything is saved in your browser only.

The idea

What we mean by capacity and social infrastructure

Social infrastructure is the everyday network of places, organisations and relationships that lets a neighbourhood act together. Capacity is whether that network can carry the weight of a ten-year programme.

Places

Halls, libraries, parks, cafés, pitches and high streets — the spaces where people meet without an appointment.

Organisations

Constituted groups, anchor institutions and delivery partners with the governance to hold and spend funding well.

Relationships

Trust between residents, the Board and the council. The slowest thing to build and the first thing lost when engagement is tokenistic.

Tool 1

Board capacity self-assessment

Score six dimensions from your Board's honest view of today. The profile updates as you go, and anything scored 1 or 2 turns into a suggested action you can download.
Loading the self-assessment…

Tool 2

Asset and anchor organisation map

Tick what your neighbourhood already has. What is left is the honest gap list — and usually the strongest argument for revenue funding in your investment plan.

0/12 assets and anchors present in your neighbourhood

12 gaps to address

Gaps to address

  • Community centre, hall or hub with an active operator
  • Youth provision reaching under-18s in the neighbourhood
  • Library, learning or skills provision
  • Faith or cultural organisation with community reach
  • Sports club or physical activity provision
  • Food provision — pantry, kitchen, growing project
  • Advice, debt or welfare support service
  • Health or wellbeing provision working at neighbourhood level
  • Tenants' or residents' association
  • High street or trader group
  • Accessible green or public space with a caretaker
  • A local organisation able to hold and manage grant funding

Tool 3

Neighbourhood Board skills matrix

Tick the skills genuinely covered by current Board members. Gaps point to recruitment, co-option or training — not to a weaker Board.

0/12 skills covered on your Board

12 skills to recruit or develop

Gaps to address

  • Chairing and meeting facilitation
  • Finance and budget scrutiny
  • Community engagement and outreach
  • Capital projects, property or construction
  • Data and evidence analysis
  • Communications and media
  • Bid writing and fundraising
  • Monitoring, evaluation and learning
  • Business and enterprise
  • Youth and education
  • Health, care and wellbeing
  • Equalities, inclusion and accessibility

Tool 4

Turn the results into a capacity action plan

A capacity action plan is short: the gaps, who is fixing each one, by when, and what it costs. It belongs alongside the investment plan, not in a drawer.
  1. 1

    Name the gap

    Take the lowest-scoring dimensions and the checklist gaps. Three to five is plenty for a year.

  2. 2

    Assign and cost it

    Every gap needs an owner and a realistic cost — training, staff time, a small grant to an anchor organisation.

  3. 3

    Review with the Board

    Re-run the self-assessment every six months and show the movement publicly alongside delivery progress.

Feed this into your investment planGet support building capacity