Ms Ruth Buggie:

There is always room for improvement. We keep a very flexible structure, to adapt to a wide range of different community interests. There is no prescription that we must do it this way or that way. It is a case of what people think they can do, when they think they are ready for it and how we can support them when they are ready for it. It is quite a loose structure and it remains very flexible to keep pace with communities. Their interests are evolving from the application process into the network. Communities are asked to identify their key motivation to join the network. There are six options that they can choose from. When the scheme started, we were seeing one to two different motivations when they joined and now they are picking four different areas that they are interested in. The range of community interests is getting much bigger and their ambition is growing alongside that. There are ways that we can certainly make it easier for communities to participate, but the PPN structure has been really good in linking the different community actions and making sure that the communities are participating within their locality and representing the widest area of interest.