Innovation in Democracy Programme (UK0095)

Objective
To deliver a programme to involve citizens in local decision making in Local
Authorities through trialling innovative models of deliberative democracy,
complemented by a digital engagement strategy to broaden reach and
transparency.

What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
Between elections, the majority of UK citizens will experience very little
influence in Government decision making at a local and national level.
We must continue to pursue new ways to involve citizens in Government
decision making; stimulate dialogue and promote understanding of the impact
of policymaking on everyday life. Both through promoting the benefits of such
engagement, to citizens and Government officials and decision makers, and by
sharing best practice and building skills and capability within Government.

How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?
People are most likely to engage where they see the everyday impact of the
decisions that are made, and feel they can make a difference by being
involved.
We will be supporting local authorities (LAs) to pilot ‘Area Democracy Forums’
to empower participants to deliberate and make recommendations on a
decision that the LA has to make, leading to real impact on local policy
development and delivery. The face-to-face participation will be
complemented by digital platforms to increase engagement and transparency.

Lead implementing organisation
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), in partnership
with the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG)

Timeline
Spring 2019 - Spring 2020

OGP values
Civic participation - Creating or improving opportunities or capabilities for the
public to inform or influence decisions

Other actors involved - government
DCMS, MHCLG, LAs participating in the pilots

Other actors involved - CSOs, private sector, working groups, multilaterals, etc
Democracy Support Contractor consortium delivering programme: Involve, The
Democratic Society, MySociety and the RSA. Evaluator: Renaisi. Innovation in
Democracy Programme Advisory Group made up of practitioners and
academics from across the world.

Verifiable and measurable milestones to fulfil the
commitment

Appoint Democracy Support Contractor (following an
open competition)

Appoint local authorities which will take part in
programme (following an open competition)

6. Innovation in democracy programme

Main Objective

“To deliver a programme to involve citizens in local decision making in Local Authorities through trialing innovative models of deliberative democracy, complemented by a digital engagement strategy to broaden reach and transparency.

Between elections, the majority of UK citizens will experience very little influence in Government decision making at a local and national level.

We must continue to pursue new ways to involve citizens in Government decision making; stimulate dialogue and promote understanding of the impact of policymaking on everyday life. Both through promoting the benefits of such engagement, to citizens and Government officials and decision makers, and by sharing best practice and building skills and capability within Government.

People are most likely to engage where they see the everyday impact of the decisions that are made, and feel they can make a difference by being involved.

We will be supporting local authorities (LAs) to pilot ‘Area Democracy Forums’ to empower participants to deliberate and make recommendations on a decision that the LA has to make, leading to real impact on local policy development and delivery. The face-to-face participation will be complemented by digital platforms to increase engagement and transparency.”

Milestones

1. Appoint Democracy Support Contractor (following an open competition)
2. Appoint local authorities which will take part in programme (following an open competition)
3. Pilots delivered.
4. Evaluation

Editorial Note: For the complete text of this commitment, please see the United Kingdom’s action plan at https://bit.ly/2YPqNoV.

Commitment Analysis

According to the UK’s action plan, citizens currently have limited opportunities to influence government decision making in the UK between elections, particularly at the local level. In addition, there are many citizens of local communities that local authorities do not hear from or are not listening to. [22] Therefore, this commitment aims to pilot “Area Democracy Forums” (in the format of citizens’ assemblies) in local authorities to increase the opportunities for citizens to become involved in decision making at the local level and over issues that affect their communities and their everyday lives. The Area Democracy Forums also aim to encourage new relationships and build trust between citizens and local authorities and strengthen local civil society by encouraging participation in local institutions. [23] Lastly, these assemblies aim to bring together a representative sample of the areas and encourage those who would not normally be part of the local decisions to have their voices heard. [24]

This commitment is relevant to the OGP value of civic participation, as the pilot Area Democracy Forums aim to encourage citizens to participate in decision making in local authorities through citizen assemblies. The specific activities include appointing a “Democracy Support Contractor”, appointing local authorities to take part in the pilot programme (the Innovation in Democracy Programme - IiDP) and developing an evaluation of lessons learned. Although the action plan notes that 8-10 local authorities will participate in the pilot Area Democracy Forums, this number was reduced to three authorities during the roll out of the programme. [25] The pilots will be organised in collaboration with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and several CSOs, including Involve, mySociety and Democratic Society, among others. According to a representative from Involve, DCMS and MHCLG will establish an advisory panel for the IiDP and provide funding for direct costs for delivery of the programme. [26] The CSO partners will provide design and logistical support the participating authorities in delivering the pilot assemblies. This support will include facilitating online engagement, organising a peer learning network for participating and other local authorities, and organising a conference at the conclusion of the programme. [27]

If successfully carried out, the pilot citizens’ assemblies and the lessons learned could help improve citizens’ ability to participate in decision making on local topics that affect their everyday lives. Topics of discussion will cover issues of public concern related to health, wellbeing, the environment and the local economy. [28] Also, if scaled up or expanded to other local authorities, the citizens’ assemblies could make local authorities more responsive to public needs and priorities throughout the country. Ultimately, the potential impact of the assemblies will depend on how successfully they are carried out, particularly in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The CSO Involve has developed a digital strategy to extend the reach, transparency and accountability of the process and collect and share the local authorities’ learning within and beyond their authority. [29] Involve will also adjust how it supports the assemblies, shifting to predominantly online delivery for the first six months of 2021 and focusing on inclusion and accessibility (as it has done in previous face-to-face events), given the challenges this can pose to some participants. [30]

Moving forward, the IRM recommends that the civil society partners continue developing and utilising digital engagement platforms for the citizens’ assemblies and consider expanding the programme to cover more local authorities. In addition, the IRM recommends that participating local authorities embed feedback mechanisms within their citizen assemblies (utilising formats that work best for each local authority) to ensure participants receive detailed responses from local officials on how their input was considered.

Commitment 6. Innovation in democracy programme

Substantial

Aim of the commitment

This commitment aimed to pilot “Area Democracy Forums” (in the form of citizens’ assemblies) in local authorities that would increase the opportunities for citizens to become involved in decision-making over issues that affect their communities. The Area Democracy Forums would bring together representative samples of the local authorities and encourage those who would not normally be part of the local decision-making process to have their voices heard. The pilot programme was named the Innovation in Democracy Programme (IiDP).

Did it open government?

Marginal

Although the action plan anticipated that 8-10 local authorities would participate in the pilot forums, this number was reduced to three authorities during the roll-out of the programme. The three local authorities that took part in the IiDP were Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council, Test Valley Borough Council, and the Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP). Each participating local authority was supported by the Democracy Support Contractor Consortium made up of Involve, the Democratic Society, the RSA and mySociety, and provided with funding to cover the costs of the citizens’ assemblies.

The citizens’ assemblies took place between September and December 2019. [14] Dudley and Test Valley focused their assemblies on the future of town centres. (For Dudley Council, it was Dudley and Brierley Hill town centres, and in Test Valley, the area south of Romsey town centre.) The GCP assembly focused on traffic congestion, public transport and air quality. Each assembly produced a set of actionable recommendations to the local authorities, the implementation of which will be seen over the longer term.

The IiDP was independently evaluated by the social enterprise Renaisi in February 2020. [15] The evaluation found that the assemblies provided participants with greater awareness of their Council’s work and had significant impact on their stated desire to get more involved in other aspects of local decision-making. [16] The evaluation also noted that elected members in the areas recognized that the recommendations required a thorough response and there was an awareness that the assembly participants were now likely to be more invested in and engaged with local issues. [17]

Although the citizens’ assemblies took place in 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the delivery of their outcomes. Involve notes that for the GCP, whose assembly focused on public transport and congestion, COVID-19 changed many of the original assumptions about how people worked, travelled round the city, and around the national and local economy. [18] However, the pandemic also offered new opportunities to test the recommendations from the assembly to inform projects, particularly those on cycling and walking.

Overall, this commitment made a positive contribution to civic participation at the local level in the UK. Although the IiDP was focused on only three pilot assemblies, these pilots laid a good foundation for future work in deliberative democracy that could be replicated in other local areas. Renaisi’s evaluation notes that implementation of some recommendations will require new partnerships and relationships, both internally and externally, to be formed. However, at the time of writing this IRM report, there have been no further updates on the IiDP since mid-2020 (over two years after Renaisi’s evaluation), which suggests momentum may have been lost. Also, it is unclear if there are plans to replicate the citizens’ assemblies elsewhere. Therefore, the IRM considers the overall changes to civic participation in the UK from this commitment to be marginal.