Delighted to see the publication of this article I’ve co-writen with Adrian Bua (NEF and De Montfort University), available in open access at Policy Design and Practice
Category Archives: Policy workers
New report: Survey of Community Planning Officials – Participatory governance in Scotland
Community planning officials constitute one of the most significant groups of local public servants in Scotland today. They work across a broad range of key policy areas and are at the forefront of advancing the agenda laid out by the Christie Commission on the Future Delivery of Public Services and legislation such as the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act.
This Survey report and Executive Summary present the findings of the first survey of community planning officials (managers and officers) conducted in Scotland.
For more information and to download the report please check the What Works Scotland site.
Deliberative Policy-Making: A Twinterview #storify
‘Participation Week’ –Impressive programme hosted by @scotgov’s Directorate for Local Government and Communities
Image courtesy of democratic innovators So Say Scotland, 2013 ‘Thinking Together Citizens’ Assembly’ in Glasgow
‘Creating the world we want to live in’, Podcast with keynote speakers at the launch of Participation Week
Participation Week begins on the 8th of June with a fast moving Launch Event chaired by Sarah Davidson, Director General Communities at Scottish Government: “Participation and Citizen Ownership – The Challenge for Government” will explore the challenges and the benefits of putting people at the centre of the SG’s work.
You will hear from experts and participate in table discussions about how the SG can transform public services in Scotland by involving people in the decisions that affect their lives. Evidence sessions will be led by Andy Williamson, of Democratise, Oliver Escobar of What Works Scotland and Chris Yui of SCVO.
The programme includes 19 events:
- Participation in Action: Experiences from Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA) and Bridging the Gap
- Engaging Scotland: Stories from the 2014 Independence Referendum
- Collaborative sense making
- Extending the Reach of Your Event Online
- Young People – Scotland Listens and Acts
- The Future Public Servant – what might we look like?
- Enabling Collaborative Leadership
- Participation and Commonwealth Games – Lessons Learned
- Digital Stakeholder Engagement
- Digital Surgery
- Unleash Your Positive Deviant: Learning to See the World as Others See It
- What Does the Scottish Approach Mean for You?
- Participation: What Works?
- Think Social Media’s a Waste of Time?
- Making Space for Democracy
- Participation – Telling the Story A Conversation Cafe Event
- Modernising Participation: Two Practice Examples
- Dialogue Taster Session
- Community Participation in Planning
Please note that some of the events take place twice, so check the website to see alternative dates.
It’s been emotional….. do public servants have enough time and space to reflect?
Another excellent research blog post from the 21st Century Public Servant team.
The future shape of public service that we have described throughout our research is one where structures are fragmenting, citizens demand authentic interactions, careers require much greater self-management, commerciality and publicness must be reconciled and expectations of leadership are dispersed across the organisation. To cope with this, the workforce will need time and space for public servants to reflect. However, many of our 21st public servant research interviewees said that more value is placed on activity rather than reflection and this leads to risk aversion and lack of innovation: ‘We put huge amount of store in activity and need to get better at valuing reflection, anticipating. The risk is if we focus on here and now we may not be able to transform and innovate. How do you slow it all down?’
Another said: You need spaces where you take yourself apart and sort it out with the fact…
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