Your Community, Your Health is a health themed participatory budgeting project in Thornhill, Southampton. Thornhill’s Community Health Group, comprising residents and agency representatives from Southampton City Council, Southampton City PCT and Thornhill Plus You, oversaw an annual funding stream provided by the PCT to tackle health inequalities in Thornhill. They first explored the idea of… Read More
Themes
The central themes dealt with by Participatory Budgeting
Welsh Government children’s PB toolkit
In 2012 the Welsh Government published a toolkit on using PB with Young People. Working towards their commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Children and young people’s budgeting has been identified as a priority within ‘Getting it Right’, the Welsh Government’s UNCRC Action Plan for Wales. Inclusion of… Read More
Building relationships through Participatory Budgeting – Newcastle’s experience
In early April 2014 the Open Democracy Project published an interesting and informative article on Newcastle’s long running UDecide programme. Alison Lamb from Newcastle City Council was interviewed by Participation Now researcher Hilde C. Stephansen. A short extract is given below. "the benefits that we always cite in Newcastle are about increasing confidence and trust… Read More
Cheshire Police Commissioner trials Participatory Budgeting
John Dwyer, Police & Crime Commissioner for Cheshire is set to invest £30,000 in The Grange area of Runcorn in a one off pilot project where it will be the people of the Grange who will decide where the money will be spent. In a press release released on the 11th April 2014 John Dwyer… Read More
East Luton participates in Your Say, Your Way
‘Your Say Your Way’ is a programme run by Luton Borough Council’s Neighbourhood Governance team. They want to make it easier for people to influence decisions in their neighbourhood. In October 2013 they held two Community Planning Decision Days which covered the 4 wards in the East Luton area where local people and organisations were… Read More
International learning visits that drive innovation in Public Services
Photo: Liz Tapner of SELNET meeting Danish Visitors, March 2014 In collaboration with Strategihuset, a Danish consultancy promoting cooperation and dialogue between civil society representatives and public welfare organizations, PBPartners runs regular international learning tours for senior public sector and non-profit leaders. These bring opportunities for sharing knowledge about the difficult changes facing the public… Read More
British Academy report proposes Participatory Budgeting can reduce health inequalities
"If you could do one thing…" Nine local actions to reduce health inequalities is a new report from the respected British Academy for Humanities and Social Sciences. One of its nine proposals is to use Participatory Budgeting (PB) to promote mental well-being in communities. In its report "the British Academy presents a collection of opinion… Read More
Over 1000 residents participate in Leith Decides 2014
For the fourth year in a row numerous local projects have been funded in Edinburgh through the Leith Decides Participatory Budgeting programme. Over 1000 people participated through multiple channels, including postal voting, using local libraries as voting stations as well as at the decision day event. Just under £23,000 was in the pot, with local… Read More
Municipal Journal features Durham Participatory Budgeting
Municipal Journal featured Durham County Council’s exciting work on Participatory Budgeting in its February 20th 2014 issue, highlighting the 19,000 residents who have directly participated in deciding on how to spend over £1.5m on local projects. Since its first PB event in March 2011 the council has hosted 40 events across it’s 14 Area Action… Read More
8th “Best Practice in Citizens’ Participation” Awards
Photo: DVD of a previous submission to the OIDP awards The International Observatory on Participatory Democracy (OIDP) runs an annual award for good practice in local government. The award is now in its 8th year. The award is meant to recognize those innovative experiences and ideas coordinated by local governments in the field of participative… Read More