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In a new Briefing, Changes to Governance Structures and Arrangements in Yorkshire and Humber, the Rural Network details the changes made to regional agencies and looks at what is now emerging.

Many of the regional arrangements that once stood in Yorkshire and Humber are now gone so too is the tier of regional governance. Instead, the Coalition is encouraging people and organisations to collaborate at different levels.

However, as detailed in the Briefing , government  is finding that to have no eyes and ears outside Whitehall except at the very local level, gives little strategic overview or reference point for spotting trends. As we all know some ‘business’ has to be delivered outside of Whitehall and at the level between the national and the local. Certain activities , like transport, also need to be planned and operationalised at a level above the local to reflect the reality of the real economy.

Produced by the Yorkshire and Humber Rural Network the Briefing “Changes to Governance Structures and Arrangements in Yorkshire and Humber” summarises in a concise format the changes that have occurred to governance structures in the region since the Coalition Government took power. It also gives some reasoning to why these changes have been made. The Briefing also touches on Big Society initiatives that are being implemented with a Yorkshire and Humber focus.

 To end the Briefing concludes on four key points: 

• The emerging and new decision making and administrative “structures” will impact on people and communities.
• The loss of information and clarity about these new arrangements means that the VCS will need to work hard to ensure its voice is recognised and heard, particularly in relation to the needs of people who are vulnerable, disconnected and disadvantaged.
• At the same time, the loss of the VCS’s local strategic capacity to gather evidence from experience, to analyse it and to feedback coherent messages to policy makers means that working together to maximise the resource that we have is more important than ever. 
• There is a real danger that London centric and national voluntary sector organisations/charities could dominate both voice and service provision because the local is too small to have impact and scale.