The Campaign Company Blog

Young mayors, participatory budgets and citizens juries are they to be standard practice?

On Thursday 17^th July Hazel Blears delivered a keynote speech at the Empowerment in Action conference in central London, the pretext being the recently released local government White Paper on community empowerment. She presented a vision of communities made stronger by their members engaging fully in participative democracy underpinned by stronger elected leadership. This empowerment is to precipitate the entire public service, an extension of Foundation Trust and expert patients in the NHS that will see local authorities become beacons and promoters of democratic involvement and Police to follow the Foundation Trust model.

 

What can we expect to see as a result? The tried and tested mantra is run out, ‘More local, Less Whitehall’. The reality is that local authorities will be dipping their toes into newer models of engagement with their communities, a more hands on role in local affairs for local people. Participatory budgeting and deliberative consultation?  Local authorities should take note; Blears ambition is to see asset transfers to community groups up and young people to be spending 25 percent of youth participation budgets through young mayors and youth councils within five years. We have successfully developed young mayor structures for clients in Lewisham and Newham that are already acknowledged leaders in this field. In addition we have designed and facilitated a number of deliberative consultation events throughout the country. The White Paper supports our innovations in these areas, it will be interesting to see if its impact is to mainstream such techniques.

The third way is back - but where's the 'nudge' factor?

The Welfare Green Paper is out today and James Purnell argues in The Guardian ("Only we can help the poor") how the Tories recent focus on individual responsibility as a way of tackling poverty is wrong and that the Government's focus on using the collective power of citizens to galvanise individual responsibility is right. 

Reading the new measures that will be (eg investment in skills, infrastructure and other measures that will encourage people to get into work and out of poverty) is a reminder that the "the third way" aka post neo-classical endogenous growth theory aka supply-side socialism aka investing in people / infrastructure rather than giving out dosh to individuals is back as Labour's dividing line. When these concepts were first touted by Labour in opposition the mid-1990s, they showed that Labour had the mantle of the "party of ideas".

However, the world has moved on, as has the behaviour of its citizens. The Tories are reclaiming the mantle of "party of ideas" by recognising the role of behavioural economics / social psychology in resolving current policy problems. Their current policies are  heavily influenced by leading thinkers in this field (for example, Robert Cialdini author of Influence and Richard Thaler co-author of Nudge). Some on the left, dismiss these as being too individualist and ignorant of the responsibilities of society. Those of us who use these techniques to help organisations tackle inequalities, know that targeting individual behaviour can lead to societal "good". The Government recognises this in the health sector by its continuous endorsement of social marketing approaches as a way of reducing health inequalities effectively. The next step will be recognising this in its economic policies. Or else they will be nudged out.

"We've Got the Power?"

TCC has posted a lot about the White Paper on Community Empowerment when it was still developing. We are pleased to that it is is now published and commits to:

• A local authority duty to promote democracy
• An extended duty to involve covering most crucially Police Authorities
• A £7.5 million Community Empowerment Fund
• £2 million in opportunities for people with disabilities to volunteer
• Extending mentoring and befriending
• A pathfinder "Take Part" programme on Citizenship education for adults
• £70 million "Community Builders" scheme to support independent multi-purpose organisations
• A duty on Council's to respond to petitions
• An extension in participatory budgeting to all local authorities
• Modest incentives for voting
• More Neighbourhood Councils
• Extensions of Neighbourhood Management by Council's and partners
• More "community justice" and pilot projects in "community payback" by young offenders
• The establishment of the Tenant Services Authority to strengthen the rights of tenants of affordable housing
• Direct access and shadowing by  young advisors of ministers and elected mayors
• A £6 million national institute of youth leadership
• Youth internships with Councillors
• Making it easier to have a directly elected Mayor
• More discretionary localised budgets for Councillors to act as a community leader on
• A new Asset Transfer Unit to help local communities act on the the Quirk Report
• A national framework for Community Land Trusts and 14 pilots

Whilst the debate on community empowerment will continue, the most important aspects at this stage of the process are:

• The additional monies that will be available. This is important in pump priming local activity. 
• The Asset Transfer process being strengthened. This area needs support to encourage demands to come from below, in order to realise the ideals of the Quirk Report. Any body should itself be made accountable to the bodies representing community groups such as the Development Trust Association and the recognition given to Community Land Trusts could also strengthen local communities.

Some organisations have expressed the concern that white paper is giving giving individuals rather than communities "control". However we at TCC think the proposals are actually the sort of approach that we have been advocating and acting upon for years. We recognises that to empower communities you need to empower individuals first. Community groups shouldn't feel threatened by this - they should feel genuinely empowered by it.

In saying the above we recognise this is an unfinished agenda. A lot is being proposed, but there is a lot more to consider. For example the need to make make Police Authorities and PCT's more accountable to the communities they cover is clearly now next on the agenda.

As a result rather than than just passively promoting the document, surely we should not just be talking to ourselves but instead organising a serious public information campaign by all engagement practitioners from across all the various sectors. We should not just leave it to the DCLG but collectively promote it. This would maximise its impact and its benefits to the public in the run up to it being approved as well as pushing public bodies to organise more pilots in advance of it.

The DCLG has produced postcards promoting the white papers key elements. Perhaps we should ensure they have a much wider distribution than usual?

Richard Wilson, the Director of Involve commented on need to treat community empowerment similar social networking software. In the same way that the web 2.0 makes many services as ubiquitous as electricity, we now need the scope for communities of interest, whether geographical or interest group, to be able to plug into democratic structures in the same way that one can plug into an online system. The fact that vast numbers are now mobilised by Facebook for social events shows the potential for involvement.

Finally we should add that the White Paper seemed to gain a reasonable degree of consensus from the main political parties. This should mean legislation happens quicker and there is a degree of stability to bed down some of the proposals.

 

 

80 Years of an Equal Franchise for Women

If we truly believe in Making Democracy Work, we should be celebrating the victories that advanced Democracy in the UK.

On 2 July 1928 the Equal Franchise Act was passed, which meant Women were given the same rights as men in terms of age of voting. Previously the 1918 Franchise Act only allowed women over the age of 30 to vote.

This week the Guardian Newspaper website is running a series of articles celebrating this landmark in the struggle for democracy as well as encouraging more involvement by women in the democratic process.

Whilst there are still some inequalities to overcome such as equal pay across the genders, nevertheless the Equal Franchise Act made a difference and contributed to greater equality and greater participation in public life by women.