Series details: CRDA/68

The Countryside Agency's Vital Villages programme was a grant programme set up with the aim of identifying and delivering innovative approaches that would meet the needs of rural communities. The programme was initiated as part of a broader Government agenda to spread economic and social opportunity to the people of rural England, as originally laid out in the White Paper Our Countryside: Our Future (2000). A key objective of the programme has been to acquire and share knowledge about rural needs, rural communities and the solutions which best meet these needs. The data generated from the programme contributed an extensive volume of information to the rural evidence base.

The dataset in this series largely comprises grant records from the Vital Villages grants programme. While the programme was open (April 2001 - March 2005), the data was used for project management by Agency regional staff and monitoring and evaluation of the programme by the Agency National Vital Villages team. Once all project applications had been received by 31 March 2004, the Countryside Agency undertook a second major phase of database development by designating priority to collecting information for case studies and identifying good practice. As most of the project data was accessible to the public via the Countryside Agency's website, the data was therefore additionally used to inform the public and share good practice by disseminating key lessons learned.

One key dimension of the Countryside Agency's mandate was to facilitate socially and economically active rural communities who are capable of addressing their own priorities and equipped to identify and shape their futures. The underlying functions of the dataset were thus part of co-ordinated efforts to ensure that this was achieved. In particular, the grants scheme within the Vital Villages programme aimed to fulfil the following specific objectives:

• To encourage small rural communities to identify and act to meet local needs;
• To help rural communities to meet their need for local service provision in a way that suited local circumstances;
• To enable small rural communities, and wider partnerships to implement local solutions to meet their local transport needs.

The schemes are respectively: Community Service Grant, Parish Plans Grant, Parish Transport Grant and the Rural Transport Partnership.1

The Countryside Agency was largely responsible for the creation and administration of the Vital Villages Project dataset from its inception in 2001 until the Vital Villages Team officially ceased to exist from 1 April 2005. In 2003 a brief period of consultancy was awarded to external contractors, FIFO, to undertake some specific interface design work for the front-end components of the online database (public and staff facing). External contractors, Rocktime Ltd, however were appointed to undertake the core development of the system including the web based control interface for the database and implementation of the front-end into the designs created and built by FIFO. The accompanying project website was also hosted by Rocktime Ltd at the following url: http://vitalvillages.rocktimeweb.net/.

Note that the Rural Transport Partnership (RTP) was a grant scheme administered by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to assist communities in improving transport in their local area. Responsibility for the delivery or spend of the Community Service Grant, Parish Plans and Parish Transport schemes rested solely with the regional and national Vital Villages Teams within the Countryside Agency. The delivery and spend of the Rural Transport Partnership scheme was however divided between regional and national staff of three Implementation Teams as follows: Vital Villages (70%), Market Towns (20%) and Wider Welcome (10%).2

On 31st March 2005, responsibility for the Vital Villages project grants was transferred to the Regional Development Agencies and Government Offices. It is intended however that central responsibility for the Vital Villages project database will pass to the New Countryside Agency (NCA), now operating as a non-departmental body sponsored by DEFRA. From 1 April 2005, the NCA is proactively using the database as a tool for research and information dissemination regarding the long-term community impact of projects. For further details concerning the future of the database and associated responsibilities, see Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/68/DD/1/4.3

The NCA is still undergoing significant changes in response to DEFRA's Rural Strategy published in July 2004 and as a result of the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill currently before Parliament (ie March 2006). For further information on the history of the Countryside Agency, see the Administrative History of the 'Countryside Agencies'.

A copy of the Vital Villages database is also presently being maintained by the Commission for Rural Communities. Upon their final submission, outstanding parish plans are gradually being added to this copy of the database. The Parish Plan Grant Scheme is now administered by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) through the network of Rural Community Councils. Responsibility for the remaining parish plans therefore now resides with the Councils with 600 or so plans yet to be completed and uploaded to this latter copy of the Vital Villages database.

The Vital Villages initiative was set up in April 2001 and closed to new applications on 31 March 2004. Thereafter, the programme's focus shifted from awarding grants to concentrating efforts on sharing best practice from the programme.

The Vital Villages Project datasets comprise records of circa 5,000 small community projects carried out by community groups, parish councils, transport partnerships and small businesses in rural England between April 2001 and March 2005.

The programme itself encompassed four major schemes or project types as follows:

• Parish Plan Grant scheme (PPG)
• Community Services Grant scheme (CSG)
• Parish Transport Grant scheme (PTG)
• Rural Transport Partnership Projects scheme (RTPG).

Parish Plan Grant scheme (PPG)

This scheme facilitated the funding and development of Parish Plans produced by and for communities which outlined both immediate and long-term social, economic, or environmental priorities of importance to these communities. The Department encouraged communities to involve partners in the process of developing a plan and to in turn use the information gathered to influence the plans and policies of others. Being a key output of the Vital Villages Programme, Parish Plans were uploaded to the Vital Villages Project database and may be viewed in the data browser as part of the table 'Files' (reference, CRDA/68/DS/1/12). For further table catalogue details, see Logical structure and schema within CRDA/68/DS/1. To consult the Parish Plan guidance notes issued to town and parish councils as well as local planning authorities, see the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/68/DD/4.4

Community Service Grants

The CSG Scheme gave decision-making authority to respective communities to identify what type of service was most needed in the community, thereby leading to a wide array of projects being funded under the Scheme from club and leisure facilities to provision of childcare and IT-based learning facilities. This Scheme differed from the others in that commercial businesses and individuals were eligible for the grants. A typical output from this scheme included village shops including community enterprises and enhanced services for existing shops.5

Parish Transport Grants

This scheme, open to parish councils, helped to pioneer opportunities for the development of local solutions to transport problems. Common initiatives included taxi voucher schemes, special transport services, and extensions to existing bus services.6

Rural Transport Partnership Projects (RTPG)

The Rural Transport Partnership (RTP) scheme, established in April 2001, was a grant scheme administered by the Countryside Agency on behalf of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). Its central aim was to assist largely community-based initiatives seeking to improve transport in their local area and where possible helping to promote social inclusion and tackle the problems of rural isolation. This scheme has since been extended until March 2006. Anyone was eligible to apply for this grant, providing it could be proven that the local community would benefit from the project and that the aims of the transport scheme met the relevant criteria under the RTP scheme.

The Rural Transport Partnership offered specific benefits to those prepared to work together in a local rural transport partnership to resolve the needs they identified in their area. Funds were in two parts:

1. Rural Transport Partnership Funds. Specific funds were made available to support the operation of local Rural Transport (RT) Partnerships, including the employment of a partnership officer and delegated fund for small scale projects.
2. Project funds. Funds to support rural transport projects, whether initiated by an approved local RT partnership or another eligible body.7

For further information about the scope and content of the dataset, see Links to dataset catalogues.

Further accruals of the series are expected and may contain data of a different nature. It is anticipated that a copy of the Vital Villages Database, as maintained by the Commission for Rural Communities, will be transferred to NDAD in due course. Upon their final submission, outstanding parish plans are gradually being added to this copy of the database. DEFRA transferred responsibility for approximately 600 remaining parish plans to the Rural Community Councils. These plans await completion and uploading to the Vital Villages database. Note that from April 2006, decisions on Parish Plan funding and delivery were made locally, especially via the network of Rural Community Councils.

The new version of the database will largely resemble the former with a slightly different 'front end' along with a new category of case studies. The Commission is intending to use the Vital Villages database as a convenient way of making the case studies more widely available. The case studies included in the new database are extensive and not directly related to the Vital Villages Programme.8

This series of datasets and related dataset documentation are public records under the Public Records Acts, 1958 and 1967. The National Archives has assigned the dataset and documentation the class reference CA2.

The Vital Villages Database is open for public access, apart from some data that includes personal details recorded as part of the grant management process. Under Section 40(2) (personal information defined within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 1998) of the Freedom of Information Act, these fields will remain closed for 30 years. The catalogues of individual datasets give details of the tables which are affected (see Links to dataset catalogues). The dataset documentation is openly available for public access (see the Dataset Documentation Catalogue for further details).

The copyright of the Vital Villages datasets and related dataset documentation belongs to the Countryside Agency.

The Vital Villages dataset is subject to registration under the Data Protection Acts. Note that most data in the snapshot was previously made available to the public via the Countryside Agency website.

The language of the materials is English.

Documents relating to the Vital Villages Project datasets have been transferred to NDAD. See the Dataset Documentation Catalogue for further details. The collection includes useful documents such as Countryside Agency evaluation reports/guidance notes; extracts from Departmental registered project files; the database user manual, and a data model diagram displaying the entities and relationships within the dataset.

The Vital Villages Project dataset (http://vitalvillages.rocktimeweb.net/index.asp) was also made available to the public for searching online. Users could search by grant scheme or relevant map region. The tables held within this dataset contain the same tables as those which formed the underlying database structure for the project database, as viewable on the website application (http://vitalvillages.rocktimeweb.net/). Separate public and staff areas of data were maintained by the Vital Villages Team. The staff area of the site, which the general public were not authorised to access, contained all of the data from the public area in addition to detailed information about the processing of the grant and individual names and addresses.

The key lessons/findings stemming from the Countryside Agency's Vital Villages Programme are captured within the broad range of Countryside Agency publications available on the Countryside Agency's website (http://www.countryside.gov.uk/Publications/Index.asp), including evaluation reports and summaries of best practice. The reports draw on the Agency's practical experience of delivering the programme, in partnership with rural people and communities on the ground. This publications link also directs you to publications concerning related Countryside Agency programmes such as the Local Heritage Initiative.

The National Vital Villages newsletter, Update also facilitates the dissemination of ideas, examples and useful information about the Vital Villages programme. See the Countryside Agency's website (http://www.countryside.gov.uk/VitalVillages/active_communities/newsletter.asp) and copies of newsletters preserved by NDAD within the Dataset Documentation Catalogue , Countryside Agency (Vital Villages) website: 2006 snapshot, reference CRDA/68/DD/6/2.

Please consult the Dataset Documentation Catalogue for relevant Countryside Agency guidance notes and evaluation reports directly relating to the underlying functions of this dataset series.

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Microsoft Windows Server 2003.

The database, VitalVillages2004, was originally developed in MS SQL Server, version 2000 by Rocktime Ltd. The version transferred to NDAD is also in MS SQL Server 2000 as a database backup file structure. The web application was developed by Rocktime Ltd using Custom web application (MS IIS5).

The Vital Villages Project staff data input module comprised a number of online forms covering a range of functions from 'viewing projects', 'adding' and 'editing' projects, to 'attaching documents'. Screenshot examples of the input forms, with associated step by step guidance, may be viewed via the Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/68/DD/2/1, ie Vital Villages Database desktop guidance manual. The interface also provided access to lookup selection lists such as those containing a list for good practice criteria ID codes (as part of the good practice criteria selected for each project) and a lookup table listing the available project themes.

The dataset is dynamic, in the sense that new information is entered into the existing database thus periodically producing a new snapshot.

For information about how data was originally captured and validated, see Links to dataset catalogues.

Details of the content and validation checks performed by NDAD on the dataset are recorded in the dataset catalogue.

Dataset catalogues provide more detailed information about individual datasets, and are currently available for the following dataset(s):

1. Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/68/DD/1/3, p.3

2. Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/68/DD/1/1, p.41

3. Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/68/DD/1/4.

4. Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/68/DD/5/1, p.6

5. Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/68/DD/5/1, p.6

6. Dataset Documentation Catalogue, reference CRDA/68/DD/5/1, p.7

7. Countryside Agency website (specifically: http://www.countryside.gov.uk/EssentialServices/Transport/rtSolutions/aims_of.asp), page on "Aims of the Rural Transport Partnership scheme" consulted on 3 February 2006.

8. Note of communication from the Countryside Agency to NDAD on 28 April 2005.