Written by Lauren Pearse

Back in May, the first external evaluation of the Priors Park place sessions happened.

These workshops always aimed to explore the early stages of developing place plans, grounded in asset-based community development (ABCD) and genuine co-creation with residents and stakeholders.

But this process has been about far more than just producing a plan. It has been a journey to understand what a “place plan” actually is and how we create one in a way that is meaningful, collaborative, and rooted in the lived reality of a community.

Note: Much of the insight shared here comes from Emily’s more in depth evaluation on this project. Rather than summarising her full methodology here, I’d strongly encourage you to explore her work directly, particularly her contributions as a realist researcher here.

Building the foundations

The Priors Park workshops didn’t emerge in isolation. They were shaped by earlier place pilots, which highlighted the crucial fact that place-based working is complex, time-intensive, and fundamentally relational. At its core this work is about building trust, not just with residents, but across a network of stakeholders.

An important reflection from the evaluation was that we are not alone in this space. Across Gloucestershire, a wide network of organisations is already working in place-based ways, often driven by the same motivations. At the same time, communities themselves don’t operate like we do as organisations. They are fluid, organic, and shaped by relationships rather than structures.

This is where the idea of an evolutionary approach emerged; one that moves at the speed of trust and shifts us from "doing things to" communities, towards "doing things with" them.

An open door approach

Over the six months of workshops, attendance naturally shifted. Different residents, stakeholders, and colleagues joined at different points, and this was intentional.

This "open-door" approach had a powerful effect:

• Trust and momentum grew organically

• Community members invited others whose voices mattered

• Conversations expanded and adapted over time

As a result, the programme itself had to remain flexible, with content evolving alongside the changing people in the room, all while core priorities remained consistent.

Of course, this came with challenges, with continuity potentially being harder to maintain in places and progress feeling less linear. But at this stage, that flexibility was essential as it allowed us to truly understand what worked.

What works and for whom?

One of the most striking insights from the evaluation was a reframing of a simple question. Rather than asking “Does this work?”, we should be asking: “What works, for whom, in what circumstances, and why?”

This shift challenges traditional approaches. Instead of relying on predefined programmes or checklists, place-based working requires us to respond to the unique conditions of each community.

Historically, our methods have prioritised consistency and comparability, using standard interventions based on broad feedback. While this provides clarity, it can limit deeper engagement by flattening local nuance and reducing relationships to transactional interactions.

Places are not uniform. Each has its own assets, challenges, and dynamics, making it natural that our approach must flex accordingly.

Key insights from the evaluation

Several important themes emerged:

1. Place is defined by its conditions
   Impact doesn’t come from rigid programmes, it emerges from the specific context of each place.

2. A leadership challenge exists
   Sustaining this way of working requires organisational conditions that actively support it, not just individual enthusiasm.

3. A mindset shift is underway, but practice hasn’t caught up yet

There are encouraging signs:

• Moving beyond familiar networks into broader ecosystems

• Focusing on strengths rather than problems

• Building trust through quick, visible wins

But while thinking is changing, with people now recognising local assets more readily, structures are not as there’s little evidence of embedded structural change. Many feel they still need permission to work differently.

The tensions we need to address

The workshops also highlighted a fundamental tension; business as usual vs relational work.

“Business as usual” reflects things like KPIs, time pressures and operational delivery. Whilst relational work refers to the trust-building, flexibility and long-term impact we are seeing as part of place-based working.

Currently, these exist in competition.

This is described as “layering” rather than “integration” in Emily’s evaluation. Staff are trying to do both functions, often feeling overstretched. Without true integration, relational work risks being deprioritised, slipping back beneath the dominance of traditional metrics.

Phase 1 Complete, But What Comes Next?

The Priors Park workshops in many ways represent the activation relational working and introducing asset-based thinking.

The mechanism is now in motion but the wider system hasn’t yet adapted to sustain it.

Phase 2 will be about stabilising this approach structurally, behaviourally and organisationally. The workshops have shown where this alignment is possible and the next step is about embedding it in further exploration.

The Importance Of Relational Infrastructure

One clear message stood out throughout this process and that it's that relationships are the infrastructure. Consistent, in-person engagement drives this work, but it doesn’t sustain itself.

Without protection relationships weaken, momentum stalls, community influence fades and eventually old patterns re-emerge.

To scale effectively, we need to protect both the time and capacity spent on this work, begin designing roles around connection (particularly place leads) and invest in flexible, localised resources to support action.

Rethinking How We Measure Success

Another key takeaway is the need to redefine value and performance.

Traditional measures focus on outputs. Place-based working requires us to look at system effects and the wider, often less visible changes that emerge over time. Moving from pilots to system design is a huge task and requires the redefinition of entire performance frameworks. This also involves investing in enabling infrastructure and also reframing return on investment.

Two lenses for understanding place plans

The evaluation highlighted two complementary perspectives:

Organisational data - meaning demographics, assets, compliance, standards and strategic partnerships.

And community insight - referring to lived experience, local knowledge, aspirations, ideas, as well as grassroots action

Both are essential. Together, they create a fuller picture of place.

The evaluation bought out how these aspects can be strengthened through social value contributions, especially with more intentional measurement of social value of ROI. Collaborating with partners and suppliers as well as volunteering linked to regeneration or development can further influence this.

So, what comes next?

Looking ahead, the focus is on continuing to test and scale this approach.

Using ABCD and social value to guide future activity, place-based funding models can start to emerge. Knowledge sharing outwards from people closest to early projects like this one can start to take more of a lead when looking at delivering at scale, which can then be used to strengthen core networks and begin to bring external partners and suppliers into the orbit of place plan progression. This of course leads onto leveraging funding opportunities to support delivery and evaluation.

Final Reflection

The evaluation has made one thing clear; that the mechanism for change is active but the system has not yet fully shifted to support it.

The Priors Park workshops have given us a glimpse of what’s possible but the challenge now is to turn that potential into something sustainable by embedding place-based, relational working into the way we operate every day.

Ultimately the focus should be on creating better ways of working.

If you haven’t read any of our previous blogs leading up this evaluation and would like to see the full journey; all have now been re-uploaded on Waypoint for you to view here.

And if you'd like to see the outcome of these workshops, you can read our Party With The Park blog here.