The story so far...
The direction of travel for much of the Government's current
policy is towards devolving decision making power to local people.
This localisation agenda is set out in the Community Empowerment
white paper,
Communities in control - Real people, real power.
LIOs and the third sector have a vital role to play in giving a
voice to under-represented groups and in representing community
interest.
Policy Background
Find out more about the
policy and legislative landscape
What support for the third sector is available from NAVCA?
Links to information and tools
-
Citizen involvement in local governance, published by the
Joseph Rowntree Foundation in June 2009, is a round-up of the
issues faced by central government, local government and individual
citizens in developing partnerships to design, deliver and assess
local public services, and tackle local challenges.
- Principles of
Representation or "How principled is your partnership?" - A
summary of the Principles of Representation including a checklist
for third sector engagement in the design and delivery of public
services.
-
Tools for representation - A series of guidance sheets to
support colleagues involved in developing representational
structures in partnership working.
-
Principles of representation: A framework for effective third
sector representation in local strategic partnerships was
published by CLG in August 2008, after consultation. It suggests
principles by which the sector can organise itself for authentic,
effective and accountable representation on Local Strategic
Partnerships (LSPs) and other local paublic bodies.
- The Local Wellbeing Project, a joint initiative led by the
Young Foundation, IDeA and Richard Layard from the LSE have
published a new report. Entitled
'Neighbourliness+Empowerment=Wellbeing'
the report shows how neighbourhood and community empowerment can
improve wellbeing.
-
Knowing your communities toolkit developed by the Audit
Commission.
- People
and participation: How to put citizens at the heart of
decision-making - a tool developed by Involve.
- The
Community Power Pack has been created by CLG and Involve, to
help local groups organise and facilitate discussion around the
Empowerment White Paper.
- Further information is available from IDeA about
participatory
budgeting.
-
Closing the Gap: Women Take Part is a report from the
Government Equalities Office looking at participation of women in
governance and decision making, in both community and public life.
An
executive summary is also
available.