Between the 2nd and the 8th July 2015 North Tyneside CCG, in collaboration with MutualGain, held three sessions designed to enable the public to influence spending decisions on access to urgent care services. The process used was a new commissioning version of the tried and tested technique of Participatory Budgeting. As part of the exercise,… Read More
Resources
Learning about Participatory Budgeting through best practice
Participatory Budgeting: What are Parisians dreaming about?
The City of Paris has been running the largest scale Participatory Budgeting process in Europe. As part of an international study visit to Paris in December 2016 by representatives of Glasgow and Fife Community Planning Partnerships, enabled by What Works Scotland, a report by "Atelier Parisien d’Urbanisme"(APUR) into the types of projects proposed in 2015… Read More
Oor Bit – Places and Spaces in Fife: The results are in!
THE results of Fife Council’s “Oor Bit” consultation are in. Over 1,400 people from the Cowdenbeath area have been voting on their favourite local projects as part of a bid to involve the community in deciding local spending priorities. And now 14 projects close to people’s hearts will be funded to the tune of £250,000…. Read More
10 principles for fiscal transparency: A GIFT to open government?
There are many reason to use Participatory Budgeting. Such as to inspire citizens to take greater responsibility within their community, or to strengthen the democratic mandate of elected officials. A significant additional reason is to promote open and transparent government, at all levels. As a piece of municipal ‘graffiti’ in Brazil, the home of Participatory… Read More
Participatory funding radical grassroots groups through the Edge Fund
The Edge Fund uses a highly participatory process, evolved over 6 cycles, to make small grants to radical groups that might otherwise struggle to find funding. Like the African Rainbow Family, Manchester (who received £3,000). A group which is run by its 60 LGBTIQ asylum seekers and refugees members, with lived experiences of persecution based… Read More
Participatory Budgeting in West Pokot: Hearing the voices of women
A film about participatory budgeting in Kenya was first shown to an international audience at the ‘lived experiences’ session of the Engage, Think, Do! PB fringe conference held in Edinburgh in October 2016. The film showed how PB worked in West Pokot in 2016. It looked at the history of this innovative process in that… Read More
Davy Jones reports on growth of Participatory Budgeting in the UK
In a special edition of the Davy Jones politics show on RadioFreeBrighton, these are recordings of interviews he undertook while attending the International Participatory Budgeting Conference in Edinburgh in 2016. In four interviews he talks to Jez Hall from the UK Participatory Budgeting (PB) Network, Alastair Kennedy from Elgin, Kathleen Glazik, a civil servant in… Read More
Review of 1st Generation Participatory Budgeting in Scotland
A new paper reviewing the evidence about participatory budgeting processes in Scotland up to June 2016. Written by WhatWorks Scotland it examines the growth and development of the first generation of participatory budgeting in Scotland in order to generate insight to support the strategic and operational leadership and delivery of future participatory budgeting. Scotland has… Read More
2nd Generation Participatory Budgeting… reflections on mainstreaming public participation
Second Generation PB: Reflections on key messages from the PB Conference, Scotland: by Susan Ritchie I love this term – it’s like the phrase wave two of feminism! Marking out differences along the journey and how people change and adapt practice as they implement their thinking. I hope second generation PB will be more positive… Read More
When East meets West. A view of Participatory Budgeting (PB) from the Far East
A guest blog by Susan Ritchie, describing her recent visit to China to exchange learning on PB. The Invitation PB Partners supports Participatory Budgeting as a method of improving democracy, community engagement, and wider social justice across the UK. PB in all of its forms (of which there are many emerging) enables communities or organisations… Read More