Purposeful public engagement

Workshop

Democracy, governance and the truth

#cfpstruth

Dave Mckenna - facilitatorDave manages the Scrutiny Team at the City

& County of Swansea where he has worked for over 20 years. Prior to finding a home with scrutiny he worked in a variety of frontline and policy roles with varying degrees of success.

Dave recently completed a part time PhD in Local Government and Public Participation and is an active member of the Notwestminster network. Dave tweets as @localopolis

Purposeful Public Engagement

Dave Mckenna – City and County of Swansea

My hope for the session:

By the end you will each have three ideas that you can take back to your organisations and try

FourFrameworks For You To Use

Scrutiny Outcomes

• Better decisions

• More accountability

• Better services

• Better engagement

• Better informed councillors

Nine goals of scrutiny

1. Learn and develop

2. Select topics

3. Prepare questions

4. Gather evidence

5. Share findings

6. Draw conclusions

7. Make recommendations

8. Follow up

9. Review and improve

Characteristics of Effective Scrutiny: Better Engagement

Environment

• Scrutiny is recognised by the executive and corporate management team as an important council mechanism for community engagement, and facilitates greater citizen involvement in governance.

Practice

• Scrutiny is characterised by effective communication to raise awareness of, and encourage participation in democratic accountability.

• Scrutiny operates non-politically and deals effectively with sensitive political issues, tension and conflict.

• Scrutiny builds trust and good relationships with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders.

Impact

• Scrutiny enables the 'voice' of local people and communities across the area to be heard as part of decision and policy-making processes

What Works for You?

Ten Public Engagement Ideas You Can Borrow From the National Assembly for Wales

1. The ‘Perspectives Approach’

2. Get creative with feedback

3. Advertise on social media

4. Work corporately

5. Be informal / work ‘off the record’

National Assembly for Wales

6. Support your scrutiny connectors

Flickr Commons

7. Involve the public in inquiry planning

8. Delegate parts of an inquiry

Flickr Commons

9. Facebook Live

10. Give the public a shortlist of topics

Purposeful Public Engagement

Dave Mckenna – City and County of Swansea