10-year vision
The vision journey, stage by stage
5
Stages
10 years
Horizon
The Board
Owner
Interactive
Where is your Board right now?
Stage 1
Foundations and governance
Get the Neighbourhood Board constituted, agree how decisions are made and confirm the boundary you are planning for.
What Boards do at this stage
- Recruit a Board that reflects the neighbourhood, not just the usual voices
- Agree terms of reference, quoracy and conflict-of-interest handling
- Confirm the neighbourhood boundary and how it was defined
- Set out the working relationship with the local authority as accountable body
What you should have at the end
- Board terms of reference
- Published membership list
- Agreed boundary description
Boards that skip conflict-of-interest rules early usually have to redo decisions later. Write them down before the first funding vote.
Published guidance
The six areas a 10-year vision must cover
- 1
Vision and ambition
A clear statement of what the neighbourhood wants to be like in ten years, and what will be different for the people who live there.
Questions to answer
- One paragraph a resident would recognise as their own words
- The three or four things that must change for this to be real
- How this connects to wider local and regional strategy without being swallowed by it
Tools that help
- 2
Place and people
A description of the neighbourhood: geography, identity, history, how characteristics vary street by street, and the agreed boundary.
Questions to answer
- Why this boundary, and who sits just outside it
- How the neighbourhood differs internally, not just from the national average
- The local story residents tell about the place
Tools that help
- 3
Community engagement
Who was engaged, how, over what period, how seldom-heard groups were reached, and what residents actually said.
Questions to answer
- Who was deliberately sought out, and who you did not reach
- What residents disagreed about, and how the Board handled it
- The you-said-we-did record you can publish
Tools that help
- 4
What we learned
Engagement findings set alongside Government data, local evidence and local knowledge: the challenges, the strengths and assets, and realistic opportunities.
Questions to answer
- Where the data and what residents said point in different directions
- Assets to build on, not only deficits to fix
- Opportunities that are realistic within the funding available
Tools that help
- 5
Priorities and outcomes
The priorities the Board has chosen, the outcomes they are expected to deliver, and how progress will be measured over the decade.
Questions to answer
- Why these priorities and not the others that were raised
- The outcome each priority is meant to move, with a baseline
- What you will stop doing or defer to make room
Tools that help
- 6
Delivery, governance and legacy
How the Board and accountable body will work together, how decisions and spend will be governed, and how capacity and community leadership will be sustained beyond the programme.
Questions to answer
- The split of responsibilities between Board and accountable body, in writing
- How residents can see decisions, spend and progress
- What holds the work after year ten
Tools that help
Keep it honest
A vision worth defending in year eight
Written for residents
If a neighbour cannot read it and say 'yes, that's what we asked for', it is an assurance document, not a vision.
Anchored in evidence
Every theme should trace back to something in the evidence pack or the engagement record.
Measurable
Name the outcomes and the baseline now, so progress in year five is a fact rather than an argument.