This briefing has been produced in response to Scotland’s Community Choices programme and aims to support public sector organisations wishing to develop ‘mainstream’ Participatory Budgeting(PB) initiatives. It complements the recent Guide to Participatory Budgeting Grant-making released in September 2016 It is relevant to any organisation working in the UK with an interest in furthering democratic… Read More
News
Mainstreaming Participatory Budgeting: Ideas for delivering PB at Scale
Rural transport community led commissioning featured as model of good practice
The Uist and Barra Public Bus Service Redesign project has used innovative methods to improve service outcomes for rural communities through procuring services in a new way. By using participatory budgeting methodology the community has had the opportunity to be fully involved in the design and procurement of their bus services. Together with the use… Read More
Small is beautiful: Buckfastleigh builds Participatory Budgeting from the ground up
In October 2016 Buckfastleigh Town Council held the first open deliberation in their Participatory Budgeting inspired process for engaging residents in the work of the Town Council. Often PB starts with a funding pot and a request for bids, which then go to a public vote. Yet too often these participatory grant making processes, which… Read More
Grant Making Through Participatory Budgeting: A ‘How To’ Guide.
Grant making through Participatory Budgeting: A ‘How To’ Guide for Community Led Organisations and community engagement workers. Launched in September 2016, this guide was written by PB Partners, at the request of the Scottish Government, to support the £2m Community Choices programme. Specifically written with community led organisations in mind but also useful for front… Read More
Student led Participatory Budgeting develops in USA and the UK
Universities and schools are not immune to the Participatory Budgeting bug. In a recent article on the Nation website there was a report on an initiative in New York. Student Organization for Democratic Alternatives (SODA) is pressing to bring the process to the City University of New York, one of the nation’s largest public universities… Read More
Scotland is Setting the Pace on Participatory Budgeting in the UK
Over the last 18 months there has been an explosion of PB activity in Scotland. Here at UK PB Network we do what we can to post significant news from north of the border. There is now also a dedicated website for news of PB in Scotland, with its own mailing list. If you are… Read More
RSA sets up the Citizens Economic Council
Though not quite participatory budgeting, the RSA’s new Citizens Economic Council project is certainly inspired by it. In the prospectus for the Citizens Economic Council research was undertaken on PB in Porto Alegre, seen as the founding example of a worldwide phenomena. The RSA prospectus makes the case for why we need a better and… Read More
Seattle Youths Vote to Spend Nearly $300,000 of City Budget on Homelessness
In an earlier article on this site we described the $700,000 Seattle youth PB process. Since then its been reported that $300,000 of that money, nearly 50%, went on initiatives to help reduce the plight of homeless people in the city, including young homeless. The process started in January with several assemblies where the public… Read More
Guidance on E-PB from the PB Unit
One of the jobs the UK PB Network does is save and make available the valuable work done on PB over many years. So we re-publish many toolkits produced in the days of the the PB Unit, that ran from 2008 to 2012. One of these, not previously on this site is the first coherent… Read More
Buckinghamshire’s Area Forums using PB
In Buckinghamshire, some Local Area Forums have held ‘community budgeting’ schemes over the past few years. These schemes have taken place in Aylesbury, Amersham and Wendover. To see the details of the projects that have benefited from this community budget money, view the previous years’ reports. Its unclear if the project is continuing in 2016…. Read More