sou · GTB329 · 2006-01-01 00:00:00 — Hur situationen är generellt på bostadsmarknaden och arbetsmarknaden återspeglas direkt på området, liksom svängningar i konjunkturen, förändringar i infrastruktur och kommunikationer. Genom att betrakta bostadsområdena som delar av ett utvecklings- arbete i ett mer övergripande kommuncentralt eller regionalt hel- hetsperspektiv främjas möjligheterna att bryta (boende)segregationen. Hållbara lösningar kräver ett perspektiv som inte bara sträcker sig bortom bostadsområdets gränser, utan även över sektorsgränser och över olika politikområden. En bedömning av situationen och möjliga lösningar behöver därmed företrädesvis göras utifrån ett hel- hetsperspektiv. Förändringsarbete omfattar långsamma och långsiktiga processer. Detta aktualiseras inte minst i en diskussion om hinder och möj- ligheter kring utformningen av insatserna, antingen som projekt eller i reguljär verksamhet. I diskussionen kring projekt eller regul- järt finns inga enkla svar, snarare har båda lösningarna sina för- och nackdelar. Områdesbaserade satsningar löper ofta en viss risk att inordnas i en permanent projektverksamhet vid sidan om ordinarie verksamhet. Fördelarna med projektformen, den relativa experi- mentella friheten bortom en byråkratisk struktur, vägs mot nack- delar som kortsiktighet och osäkerhet kring huruvida gjorda erfaren- heter tas tillvara och förankras in i ordinarie verksamheter. Att förändra förutsättningarna för arbetet under pågående avtals- period, som i fallet med det s.k. kompletterande erbjudandet som snävade av inriktningen för arbetet, visar sig slå mot de sköraste delarna av utvecklingsarbetet i bostadsområdena, nämligen upp- byggandet av kontakter, tillit och delaktighet bland den berörda befolkningen. Att avbryta pågående långsamma (och långsiktiga) processer leder inte bara till frustration och besvikelse hos de be- rörda för stunden, utan kan i förlängningen leda till en brist på tillit till en offentlig aktör som lovar mer än vad man kan hålla. Ett för- ändringsarbete är ett mångårigt åtagande och kräver därmed avtals- perioder som sträcker sig in . I utvärderingen av de lokala utvecklingsavtalen har högskolor och universitet med lokal anknytning till avtalskommunerna spelat en viktig roll. , , Mångkulturellt centrum i samt Lunds och är de mest frekventa aktörerna. Rapporterna har kännetecknats av stora kvalitetsmässiga skillnader och antalet rapporter från respektive institution bör därför relateras till den innehållsmässiga kvaliteten i rapporterna. I flera fall har de beskrivande inslagen varit gedigna på bekostnad av de värderande inslagen. I andra fall har högkvalitativa utvärderingar presenterats med balans mellan deskriptiva, analyse- rande och värderande inslag. Det efterfrågade främjande perspek- tivet, dvs. stöd till förbättring av den utvärderade verksamheten, har fått stå tillbaka i förhållande till det kontrollerande perspek- tivet. Den övervägande delen av utvärderingsrapporterna har dock be- dömts vara av god kvalitet. Därmed har de utvärderingar som genomförts inom ramen för de lokala utvecklingsavtalen med kraft bidragit till en kunskapsutveckling som är till gagn för både fält och forskning. I nästa steg gäller det att ta tillvara och sprida denna kunskap för att de gjorda erfarenheterna ska kunna ligga till grund för såväl beslutsfattande som utveckling av praktisk verksamhet och fortsatt forskning. Det framstår tydligt att det behövs kompetensutveckling på flera fronter. Dels bland kommunala aktörer när det exempelvis gäller lokal dokumentering, självvärdering och beställning av utvärderingar, dels bland utvärderare när det exempelvis gäller praktiknära och dialogorienterade brukarutvärderingar och baslinjestudier. En kombi- nation av tvärkunskap och fackkunskap är att föredra framöver. presenterades delbetänkandet Allt ljus på de lokala utvecklingsavtalen (2004:79) med förslag till ett nationellt av urban politik. Institutets uppgifter be- skrevs vara att samla och koordinera, utvärdera, stödja och främja, bygga kunskap, göra omvärldsanalyser respektive sprida kunskap och erfarenheter. Ett centralt institut kan självfallet aldrig ersätta uppbyggnaden av kontakter mellan kommuner och lokala utvärderare, oavsett om dessa är på universitet, högskolor eller andra instanser. Behovet av att bygga en baskompetens på plats kan inte nog betonas. Däremot kan ett institut främja en kompetensutveckling kring utvärderingar och samla och koordinera utvärderingsinsatser så att kunskaper systematiskt kan utbytas mellan olika regioner. Uppfattningen om behovet och nyttan av en sådan samlande in- stans har ytterligare stärkts under arbetet med detta slutbetänkande. The increasingly evident tendencies during the 1990s towards greater social and ethnic segregation in the big cities have been a strong driving force underlying the creation of an integrated metropolitan policy in . Since 1998, the government has pursued a national metropolitan policy, at the request of the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdag. The overall goals of the policy are to increase the of the Swedish metropolitan regions for long-term sustainable growth by contributing to new job opportunities, and to stop social, ethnic and discriminatory segregation. The latter goal is particularly focused on the housing areas with a large proportion of households in socio- economically vulnerable situations. One of the instruments created to stop segregation and reverse the trend in a positive direction in these city neighbourhoods is the local development agreements (the Metropolitan Policy Programme). By linking together metropolitan policy goals with locally produced goals, it is aimed to achieve relevant long-term measures based on a bottom-up perspective and collaboration. Evaluation is an important part of this work to monitor and critically review the experiences and knowledge that have resulted from this work. The first develop- ment agreements between central government and the municipali- ties were signed in 1999 with agreements on a joint undertaking for social initiatives at the housing-area level. Seven municipalities1 with altogether 24 housing areas were covered by the agreements. The seven municipalities with agreements used local evaluators from universities and university colleges as part of the programme in order to be able to benefit from the experiences made and thus to be able to develop the activity. The local evaluation assignments were combined with a national evaluation commission at the Swedish 1 , , , , , , and . A large number of reports have been published during the years since the first local development agreement was signed. It is primarily these external evaluation reports that are the main basic material in this report. As a component in transforming experiences into knowledge, we have been commissioned to make an inventory of, compile and analyse the reports, etc. produced within the framework of the work with the local development agreements (Direktiv [Terms of Reference] 2003:136). The result is presented in this final report. The commission has had two parallel approaches. In one of them, the focus has been on how external evaluators have solved their tasks in the evaluation of the local development agreements, and on what conclusions these reports have reached as a contribution to the build-up of knowledge in the policy area. The first approach entails a systematic examination of the reports intended to evaluate measures and processes within the framework of the local develop- ment agreements. The intention has been to make an inventory of the evaluations and also to create a basis for being able to make a statement on the quality and reliability of the reports. The second approach entails a more close study and extracting interesting experiences and conclusions from the reports on work that is in process or which has taken place within the framework of the local development agreements. This draws attention to the issues clari- fied and the experiences and knowledge made available. However, it does not say anything about how this knowledge has been perceived or whether it has been used in the continued development work. The primary material of the commission is 83 external evaluation reports that have specifically studied activities within the frame- work of the local development agreements and (most often) have been commissioned within the framework of the agreements. Each report has been systematically analysed by two independent reviewers with the aid of a review template (see Method appendix). Among the municipal reports, the October reports have been studied. The annual reports of the Commission on Metropolitan Areas in and other programme documentation have been used as reference material. In addition to evaluations and central and local government documents, we have used other reference material, focused on evaluation research and literature related to similar measures as the local development agreements. This also includes literature that discusses the type of problems contained within the local develop- ment agreements as well as international experiences in the area. Within the framework of the local development agreements, hundreds of projects have been carried out in the housing areas considered to be the socio-economically and ethnically most segregated in the metropolitan areas in . The conditions for this work have differed from area to area, including varying size (between 3,500 and just over 24,000 inhabitants) and the local goals for the work. However, the differing local goals are inherent in the basic condi- tions since, according to the Government , the overall objectives were to be adapted to and rooted in local needs. However, this has led to some difficulties for evaluators to obtain an overview of a complex situation, and also difficulties in comparing and drawing conclusions. Eight important goal areas were presented in the Government as a direction for the work with the local development agreements. In our review of the evaluation reports, this division into goal areas has served as a framework for studying the outcome. Despite the evaluations only examining some of all the measures, activities and work processes that have taken place, a picture has been obtained of multi-faceted and committed work in the housing areas. However, it has not been so easy to obtain a picture of the substantial results of the activities, which has been further reinforced by large inward and outward movements in the housing areas. As regards, for instance, job creation measures, it is difficult to say anything about whether changed levels of employment can be linked to the measures carried out within the framework of the local development agreements or whether this is more due to general changes in the labour market. There are also indications that the housing area is too small a catchment area to organise and monitor employment measures in a meaningful way. The goal area focused on benefit dependency has been evaluated to a very slight extent and does not either answer the question of whether changes in benefit dependency are related to the local development agreements. Where a reduction has taken place, this has been general and differences in relation to general trends in benefits cannot be shown. In most cases, the proportion of long- term benefit recipients has been larger among those moving into the housing areas in question than among those moving out. The evaluations show that language measures in the local develop- ment agreements have had a clear focus on children in pre-school and compulsory school while language measures for adults have been located in other goal areas. Despite it being difficult to measure language measures for children, these are considered to be very important in the local development work. This is supported by research which has shown the importance of maintaining bi- lingualism. However, criticism has been made on an excessive focus on the Swedish language and deficient knowledge in Swedish. Many of the measures directed at schools have been focused on language development. However, there are great difficulties in dis- tinguishing measures within the local development agreements from the ordinary school activity, which has led to problems in reporting results. However, only a small number of evaluations have studied these measures more closely. The same applies to the goal area adult education which has been evaluated to a particularly small extent. To the extent that it has been examined, it has been placed in close relation to employment and benefits or to a general increase in the level of education among adults and any effects can only be seen in the long term. Public health measures also seem to have been difficult to tackle for the evaluators, among other reasons because the measures placed in this goal area have been of a many-sided and diverse character. Projects which were per se appreciated with a good uptake are difficult to evaluate and evaluations that study self-perceived health and that relate to public health work to the goals of metropolitan policy are not available. Local crime prevention councils have been established among other things within the goal area area development and security. Co- ordination of measures at the local level has been considered in the evaluations to be an important component in local crime-prevention However, one obstacle is that the local problem scenario has not always been investigated to a sufficient extent to serve as a . The inhabitants often participate in security measures, since these concern conditions directly related to everyday life. Measures for physical refurbishment and the residential environment have been highlighted as important aspects to create secure areas and it is considered that this type of measures should continue to be engaged in on an area basis. Evaluations of democracy and participation underline that it is difficult to define what is taking place in this goal area since the municipalities have filled it with highly diverse activities. It is noted that many appreciated activities have taken place within the frame- work of the goal area, although it is difficult to show that these have been specifically focused on democracy and participation but instead have been about influence over peripheral activities created for the local development agreements. Despite the reviewed evaluations differing with regard to study object, focus, approaches and methods, there are certain recurrent central observations or themes that run like a red thread through the material. The evaluations note that there is a clear gap between goal and measure. The highly-pitched overall goal for the measure – to stop social, ethnic and discriminatory segregation – is unreasonable and unrealistic in relation to what can be achieved in the housing areas concerned by local development agreements. It is considered that the overall goals are a societal problem that cannot be solved at the local level. The gap can also be related to the goals being on the one hand very unclearly or ambiguously expressed, which can make it difficult to determine what is expected, or, on the other hand, specific and quantified. The latter is made more difficult not least if the collabo- rating parties are affected by different regulatory frameworks. Several evaluators regard it as a serious risk that the gap between rhetoric and practice will lead to frustration and disappointment rather than to the desired local development. Goals that hard to comprehend often result from unclear or un- realistic objectives as regards defining and assessing what is to be Is the focus to be on the individual or the housing area when making an assessment of whether an activity has achieved its goals or not? What can be a positive development for the individual can be considered negative in an area perspective. The measurement problems concerning long-term and slow change processes are made further difficult by a number of surrounding world factors that have an impact and which are impossible to separate from the possible effects of measures or to be disregarded when assessing the out- come. A recurrent problem in the evaluations is the quantity of unclear conceptual definitions, very broadly-defined concepts lead to a very broadly-defined practice. However, the interpretation made of the concepts has a great impact on what is expected in practice. In many cases, however, the intended definition is never clarified. A common example which is viewed as a kind of rubber band concept is collaboration. The problematic components regarding collaboration are, among other things, that it can be understood as if almost all constellations involving at least two partners can be classified as collaboration. Democracy, public health and culture can also be viewed as additional instances of semantic magnets. In the intentions of metropolitan policy, a long-term approach is underlined as one of the basic prerequisites for success with the local development agreements. In the evaluations, there is recurrent discussion on the long-term approach in relation to the paradox of carrying out long-term work in project form, the effects of the supplementary offer and the difficulties of saying anything about the long-term consequences of the local development agreements after a short period of time. Several local officials view the so-called supplementary offer as an interruption of long-term work that has been started, not least from the point of view of citizen participa- tion. It primarily affects measures that were not firmly rooted in the local public sector. The bottom-up perspective which is lauded in guidelines and action plans is described by a number of evaluators as being ideo- logically charged although its definition remains unclear. to this lack of clarity, the various players do not know what the concept really aims at, which not infrequently leads to unsuitable methods in relation to goals. The risk is that work takes place in the dark, that mobilising people takes place without knowing why and for what. If the concept is not clarified, it is difficult to evaluate the measures that have been taken. A central point of criticism is that many activities which, accor- ding to their name, have, for instance, worked to increase influence for residents, to some extent do not appear to have been about any real democracy and participation. Several evaluators describe how they have instead been about influence over marginal activities that in some cases have been created to comply with the intentions in the local development agreements. One of the most serious aspects that several evaluators highlight is the assessment that a lot of the rhetoric concerning a bottom-up perspective has the practical consequence that responsibility is pushed downwards in the social system. There are high expectations that the residents will fix everything without having a real oppor- tunity to take responsibility. Without doubt, the local development agreements have contribu- ted to a number of activities and measures that have been perceived as positive for the individual. There are a couple of positive threads in the evaluations that are recurrently highlighted, namely the success for collaboration and language measures. One of these is about collaboration between organisations, not least collaboration on em- ployment activities and crime prevention work. The other concerns development of methods for language development of children and young people. The Metropolitan Policy Programme has made a great difference The Metropolitan Policy Programme has been a monumental failure Two statements, parallel and thus apparently paradoxical. If the basis for these statements is examined, both can be said to describe reasonable aspects of an activity within the local development agreements. The crucial difference is the perspective. From whose perspective is the assessment made? In relation to what can the local development agreements be said to have made a great difference or to be a failure? The local development agreements have no of being able to achieve the overall goal of ending social, ethnic and discrimi- natory segregation. Both researchers and evaluators agree in conside- ring this goal to be over ambitious and unrealistic. However, this does not reduce the value of the measures taken at a local level, which are included in the local development agreements. The agree- ments have in many cases contributed to development and made a difference. The type of long-term marginalisation processes that have con- tributed to the coming into existence of vulnerable housing areas is not changed in a couple of years. Working to improve and support welfare development in housing areas that have been severely affected by the consequences of segregation or to increase the competence of the individual is not unimportant. However, if nothing is done at the same time on the excluding structures, local interventions alone will not be able to have an impact on the overall causes or mecha- nisms. If the vulnerable area is studied without locating it as part of the wider society, only a partial understanding is achieved for the context. There is a great risk that the focus will shift from the deep- lying patterns of the segregation problem to an interpretation which is more politically manageable. Even if the target of ending social, ethnic and discriminatory segre- gation can only be dealt with to a limited extent at municipal level, this does not mean that all aspects of the problem of segregation should be located beyond the local level. welfare work has developed with ambitions for a bottom-up perspective and collaboration. The measures have focused on developing, equipping and compensating housing areas and their inhabitants for the im- balance that exists between the area and the surroundings. There is no doubt that a number of valuable experiences have been obtained at the local level by the numerous interesting and experi- mental activities that have taken place within the framework of the local agreements. However, there are problems. Democracy and participation are, for instance, an area to which great hopes have been attached within the framework of the local development agree- ments. Promoting democracy and increasing participation have become a task for the administrations and as such both a goal and a means. At the same time, practice is distinguished by lack of experience or interest in up new sustainable democratic structures with real influence. A number of evaluators consider that it would have been worse without the measures within the local development agreements, in particular for newly arrived migrants. This also concurs with the conclusions from international comparisons. The instability of the areas creates needs for compensatory measures to support a positive development and contribute to ensuring a basic welfare standard. The need of long-term measures can be regarded as a confirmation that current resources are not sufficient. If cuts are made (for instance in schools) at the same time, the measures can be perceived as insignificant or wrongly targeted. It can be difficult for a citizen to interpret societys signals if, at the one moment, cuts are made in vital institutions, and, at the next moment, resources are invested in (relatively) short-term projects. It is clear that support and a stabilisation of existing structures is needed. Part of a whole One problem in the context of both measures and evaluation has been the lack of clarity of whether measures are primarily aimed at the individual or the housing area. The individual perspective can sometimes be in direct contradiction to the area perspective.