Accreditation level one: Foundation
Foundation accreditation is focused on setting your vision, building strong partnerships, and writing your green infrastructure strategy and improvement plan. Accreditation criteria
©National Trust Images / James Dobson
Accreditation level one: Foundation
There are the three stages of level one: Foundation accreditation. Here you’ll find suggested steps to take, expected deliverables and the assessment criteria in each section.
At the end of level one, you will have the right foundations in place: strong partnerships working towards a shared vision and a strategy and improvement plan to deliver your long-term ambitions.
Achieving foundation accreditation will help to build your place’s overall capacity and resilience to deliver on its aspirations.
We recommend that you download the accreditation criteria and workbook to guide your application.
Stage one - setting your vision
Aim
Bring partners and stakeholders together to create a coherent and clear, ambitious vision for the future of the place. This is an opportunity to reflect on existing visions that might be held by separate organisations and come together to consider the big challenges and opportunities for the town or city to address in the medium to long term.
Suggested evidence
We are looking for evidence of the vision or ambition of your place. This could be a statement, videos or animations bringing your vision to life, write-ups, photos or videos from co-design workshops, outputs from public engagement and consultation, evidence of senior sponsorship within key organisations or from key stakeholders (blog posts, written commitment, films or videos).
Applications will be assessed on whether the place has
- Written a clear and ambitious vision for transformation in the town or city.
- Thought holistically about the change their vision could bring, considering the big challenges the place needs to address, the opportunities for transformation, and the rationale for it.
- Identified and secured the support of key sponsors within their organisations and other key bodies who will champion and lead for the change e.g. leaders, mayors, directors.
- Co-developed the vision with relevant people and groups from the community, businesses and organisations.
- Involved the wider public to understand their priorities and interests, being inclusive and reaching new audiences.
- Asked children and young people what they want for the future of green infrastructure.
- Shared the vision and secured long-term cross-party support.
- A plan for reviewing and evaluating the vision.
Suggested steps to take when setting your vision
Identify or recruit senior, active sponsors or champions
Identify key people and groups from across the public, private and voluntary sectors
Consider the scope and scale of ambition
Consider the place’s priorities
Engage the public on their priorities and interests
Review other relevant public engagement
Hold visioning exercises across the partnership and with the public
Write your vision statement
Socialise the vision
Plan for review and evaluation
Stage two - building strong partnerships
Aim
Build on existing partnerships and create new partnerships with a broad range of stakeholders through which you can bring the vision to life. Partnership working is essential to delivering long term change. It is an opportunity to co-create, codify ways of working and develop partnership structures. Reflect on how existing partnerships fit into the bigger picture, bring in others and formalise the sense of working together to achieve a shared vision.
Suggested evidence
We are looking for evidence of strong cross-sector partnership working. This could be a memorandum of understanding, partnership agreements, terms of reference, frameworks for partnership working or decision making or stewardship models.
Applications will be assessed on whether the place has
- Considered the scale at which they will work, regionally and locally.
- Identified current and potential partners to co-develop and bring the vision to life.
- Co-designed a framework for partnership working, considering the capability, capacity and leadership needed across the place.
- Co-designed a framework for partnership decision-making.
- Considered how key place-based stakeholders benefit from nature.
- Identified how partners are directly investing and can continue to invest in nature themselves.
- Considered formalising the bigger, more strategic partnerships with agreements, defining roles and responsibilities e.g. memorandum of understanding, adopted partnership agreement, terms of reference.
- Considered their approach to working with communities, including co-stewardship models.
- Demonstrated a plan for the ongoing review of the partnership as it evolves.
Suggested steps to take when building strong partnerships
Identify current and potential partners
Co-design a framework for partnership working
Co-design a framework for decision making within the partnership
Formalise partnerships
Consider your approach to delivering with and for communities including co-stewardship models
Plan for the evolution of the partnership
Stage three - writing a green infrastructure strategy and improvement plan
Aim
To create a strategic green infrastructure (GI) plan that improves green and blue infrastructure in the area based on the shared vision. This is the opportunity to think about how the place will do a wide range of things, such as improve quality of life for urban communities, create climate resilient towns and cities, support nature recovery, deliver net zero targets, address social inequality and environmental decline and ensure everyone can access high-quality green and blue spaces within their local area. You may choose to develop a high-level strategy and an improvement/action plan that includes more detail about the delivery of the strategic aims.
Suggested evidence
We are looking for evidence of your green infrastructure strategy. You can share your green infrastructure strategy and include any planned improvements or actions. You could also link to any other relevant local strategies and policies.
Applications will be assessed on whether the place has
- Used Natural England’s Green Infrastructure Framework to guide the development of a GI strategy and improvement plan. E.g. analysed data, set objectives, targets and considered developing local design guides.
- Reviewed existing relevant strategies and policies within which to frame this overarching GI strategy and improvement plan.
- Considered the distinct challenges and opportunities of the place and how the GI strategy will respond to these.
- Written an action plan to move the GI strategy into implementation.
- Taken a partnership approach and co-designed the GI strategy and improvement plan, thinking about potential strategic and delivery partners as well as broader public engagement.
- Considered other components that may guide the work e.g. funding, governance and workforce development.
- A plan for monitoring and evaluating the GI strategy.
Suggested steps to take when writing a green infrastructure strategy and improvement plan
Review the Green Infrastructure Framework
Review existing relevant strategies and policies
Consider improvement planning
Identify who needs to be involved
Consider workforce development
Consider new funding sources and operating models