Originally published 8 February 2008. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
Stockbrokers used to say Sell in May and go away. Ministers just publish White Papers, Consultations or Guidelines, leaving those who need to understand and implement them with some weighty holiday reading.
In the case of the Empowerment White Paper – Communities in Control – we are meant to believe that the “journey” towards greater public participation is far more important than any of the detailed initiatives of themselves. Yet this journey is itself controversial. At last week’s Neil Stewart Conference, an entertaining but pedantic academic argued that representative and participative democracy were incompatible, whereas those who enthuse about empowerment agree that it is a messy cocktail of techniques with (as yet) little overall coherence.
Yet some of what’s proposed is quite significant, and may involve public authorities in a number of serious changes to the way they do business. It goes way beyond the traditional tick-box consultations which too many have, half-heartedly undertaken by junior staff and seldom acted upon. From now on, the Audit Commission’s eagle-eyes are going to be much more focused on the extent to which Councils are engaging with their public. And not just Councils - Audit Commission Chairman, Michael O’Higgins has confirmed that he intends to monitor closely how all the partners to a Local Area Agreement engage with those they serve. So will some of the White Paper’s proposals make a difference? After all, there is no shortage of techniques that can be used to involve local people. The NHS, for example, is already obliged under Section 242 of the 2006 Act to consult and involve when substantial changes are envisaged. None of the White Paper’s ideas are indispensible for this – or for the police and other local service providers to fulfil their commitments.
We think the proposals fall into three categories:-
1. New duties and obligations
Mostly these are not the kind that, non-observance of which, will mean you get sent to the Tower. The duty to promote democracy, the extension of the duty to involve and the proposed duty to respond to petitions only consolidate much of what the better public bodies do already. Little impact on them, therefore – but lots of work for those that don’t.
- New or enhanced Government programmes
£70m for CommunityBuilders; a £7.5m Empowerment Fund; two new Units at CLG – one for asset transfers and one for social Enterprises; a little more money for community participation in planning and a commitment to involve people more in Regional Improvement and Efficiency Partnerships. All worthy but less potentially significant than rolling out Participatory Budgeting in every local authority by 2012. Now that could make a real difference. We think that the impact upon local people’s perception of their Councils and Councillors can be dramatically improved even when only miniscule parts of the budget are involved. Such is the power of offering citizens greater transparency and an opportunity to contribute ...whoever you are
- New ideas for discussion or piloting
Some may be from the Whacky Ideas Unit (e.g. A “global social forum” ??); others leave you head-scratching (eg ..the removal of barriers to commissioning services from faith-based groups). But there are some useful suggestions for involving young people, a Digital Equality Action Plan and a commitment to try out some innovative ways of publishing information electronically. Most intriguing is a thought that LINks could be expanded beyond health and social care. Great idea, but frankly, Councils are struggling to get these off the ground, and many people still don’t understand the concept anyway. What’s that about running before you can walk??? Now the point about these – and the other 20 or so items that we haven’t mentioned is that quite a few will be relevant to someone in a public body – and that someone will need to become clued up sooner rather than later. But two things need to happen. Those individuals need to grasp the wider picture so that they see where this or that initiative fits into the scheme of things. But – crucially – Chief Officers and Elected Members need to subscribe to the participatory vision – so that they can direct investment appropriately and enthuse their operational staff.
Ah, investment! It may not be the best time to contemplate spending more money. But this agenda is not free of charge. The hope is that, if done properly, empowering citizens will do more than any cost-cutting czar to identify citizens’ lowest priorities, assist service rationalisation and help remove waste. Maybe we can start with re-thinking the many ill-considered consultations; let’s do fewer – but do them better.
If the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts, having fewer parts may not be a disaster. Trigger points
- The Empowerment White Paper can be downloaded
- Watch out for Making LINks Work .......... in September
This is the 115th Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement