Rethinking Parks

May 2018 : LGA

Alice Casey

Nesta

Summary

Funding and support for

organisations and partnerships

to develop innovative ways of

managing and financing the UK's

public parks.

What is Rethinking Parks?

Working together

● Funding from BLF and HLF

● Management, support,

learning from Nesta

● Ideas, delivery, reflection from

parks innovators

● Reaching beyond the awards

What is Rethinking Parks?

Building on past work

• 11 projects

• Circa £100k funding and

support

• 7 learning guides

• A platform to spread ideas

www.nesta.org.uk/publications/learning-rethink-parks

2014-2016

Space and resource to

learn and develop

Opportunity to capture

impact – savings;

engagement; income

2014-2016

Two complementary award streams

Replication award:

>Grants of up to £200k

> Delivered over 2 years

>Build on promising ideas to

operate parks in future

Prototyping award:>Grants of up to £100k

> Delivered over 9-15 months

>Test and develop ideas with a

digital or data element

Criteria

●Capability & capacity

●Engagement and

partnerships

●Sustainability

●Impact

●Innovation

Replication

Prototyping

2017 2018 2019 2020

Sharing lessons

User testing and

Prototyping

Selection and

Development

Timeline

Final evidence gathering and

sharing

Sharing emerging learning

Delivery and peer learning

Selection, setup and

Development

Replication and scaling of promising models

Replication

Award

Prototyping

Award

Prototyping and developing digital and data opportunities

We are seeking organisations and

partnerships who are well placed to

replicate and adapt promising and

innovative operating models for

parks.

The Replication Award: what we are looking for

The Foundation’s aim is to diversify

income; create a flexible space to

generate funds for improvements and

enhancements.

They are currently involved in a range

of projects to enhance the parks,

including wildlife conservation,

landscape restoration and artwork.

Example: Bournemouth Parks Foundation

Prototyping Award: what we are looking for

We are looking for ideas that

use digital tools or data to

address a parks challenge;

ultimately supporting parks to

attract resources and develop

more sustainable operating

models.

● Better understanding of who uses

parks and how;

● Connecting existing and potential

parks users in the local community;

● Efficient or different forms of parks

and land management;

● New approaches to

engagement/encouraging parks use;

● Putting the social value of parks into

context through combining local open

data sets eg. around public health

Prompts:

Areas of interest include, but

are not limited to:

How to open up learning?

Grow

ideas into

action

Articulate

the

business

model

Design

with and

for users

Take

measured

risks

Open up learningWe’re supporting projects as a group

Open up learningWorking with innovators and early adopters to inspire and support others

Q. We want to share learning from our 11 projects in a way that

provides you with practical and applicable information. Out of the

following formats which would you find most helpful?

71%

3.8%

Social media

51%

How-to guide

Report

27%Forum to

share ideas

Open up learningUnderstanding how best to share learning

Blue prints

of models

Tools to

support

adoption

Evidence

of impact

Project

advice &

learning

networks

How to open up learning?

Q&A

What’s next?

Final Assessment

Announcement of Awards

Set up of programme learning approach

Opening up learning