Mike Chitty's The Neighbourhood That Had No Plan, published on 28 September in The Living Places, follows a fictional neighbourhood whose residents ask visiting health officials to spend time with them before deciding what to fund.
The story examines a familiar difficulty in neighbourhood working. Residents may be invited to contribute, but the outcomes, categories, and funding conditions have already been settled. What people value then has to be translated into something the programme can recognise.
Chitty's neighbourhood still needs professional services. The question is how those services can support the relationships and activity that people sustain themselves. This is a story for reflection, rather than evidence of a tested intervention.
For a commissioning or neighbourhood team: what can residents change about your programme's purpose, and what has already been decided before they enter the room?
Read Mike Chitty's story, 'The Neighbourhood That Had No Plan'.