I am writing this during the lunchtime session of day one at the SALAR conference on Participatory Budgeting. I am in Stockholm, Sweden (a very expensive place to eat and drink – £8 for a beer!). This blog is a way of me adopting the role of social reporter – not a[…]
MutualGain are looking to host a series of breakfast workshops for practitioners and managers working in housing associations who would like to learn more about how they can improve their public engagement and participation. MutualGain has a strong track record of delivering strengths based engagement training and support, and we would love to share some of[…]
How long is a piece of string? That was my first thought when someone proposed an unconference discussion about how the impact of Participatory Budgeting could be measured. To a degree it depends on the point of view that you take. For public services it usually involves a numerical target e.g. the number of crimes[…]
On Monday 26th October 2015 over 70 people attended the UK PB Network conference in Birmingham. The conference was designed for academics, practitioners and those who want to learn a little more about PB in terms of the process, the results and the successes. Following a series of short, but informative keynote speeches, the participants[…]
This time last year I had a call from the Consultation Institute asking if I would support the North of England Commissioning Support Unit (NECS) to do some Participatory Budgeting (PB). It was a bit different to normal calls from people wanting to do PB – they didn’t have a small pot of money to[…]
Those that know me know that I am absolutely committed to learning; I love the idea of us all being critical friends to each other so that we can work closely with those who are providing public services on our behalf. I have been doing quite a bit of work in the NHS recently so[…]
I was challenged recently to consider how the MutualGain programme (capacity building the police to engage with the public differently) reflected a game of football. It was important for me to test this metaphor as it came from a participant of the programme: I wanted him to present with me at the Citizens in Policing[…]
Working, children, friends, domesticity and blogging – can we really do it all I ask myself? Well in keeping with my commitment to try and blog I’m going to give it a go, but it may feel rushed when you read it. You’ll get my drift though hopefully. Everyone tells me to just write –[…]
I know the two aren’t distinct but what I learned this year, more than any other, are the limitations of making the language of social policy a reality. There is a lot of talk about ‘putting the community at the heart of a new way of working’: ‘localism over centralism’; ‘systems change’, ‘behavioural change’,[…]
