I've been told many times by Glen that I don't need to include the title within my blog entry so I hope this comes up with a title above it.

My topic today is the Third Sector, and how we involve them in the You Decide! process.

In Brazil, where Participatory Budgeting began, the role of NGOs was massive; especially in mobilising the population and acting as a monitoring check and balance on the process.

In Tower Hamlets we are not really asking anything of the Third Sector. Obviously, this needs to change. The Third Sector is best placed to do what the NGOs did in Brazil; mobilise people from the communities they represent.

In addition, in Tower Hamlets there is a lot of trust in the Third Sector and residents have asked that they will deliver some of the services contained within the You Decide! menu.

This leaves the Third Sector with two roles: recruitment and promoting the events; and delivering services.

And here is where it gets tricky. If organisation x could deliver a service are they likely to agitate on behalf of the service they could provide or on behalf of the process as whole?

We hope to have fixed this by leaving the decision making process around the providers until after the menu items have been purchased.

Undoubtedly, there is great potential to better involve the Third Sector. We hope to pursue this further at the TH3 conference in December.

Please do leave comments...

Read all about it

A short blog entry today.

Often we, along with nearly all public sector organisations, are accused of not sharing the results and outcomes of what we do with the residents who have taken part in the decision making.

This is often a fair criticism but doesn't get round the problem we always have of simply knowing how best to communicate those results.

The report from the health events is now ready and attached here:

As you will be able to see in amongst the colourful graphs local residents were able to come up with lots of very good ideas as to the services that health trainers in their area should be providing.

The next step is to invite residents to question the potential services providers and through that to ensure that the good work done through these events is translated into the final outcome.  

As for the report; well, releasing it on the internet is fine but the next step for us will be working out how to best communicate the message to those who originally took part.

We're meeting to discuss this on Tuesday. If anyone has any ideas in the meantime then please do make a comment

Delays with good reason

Sometimes we run the risk of promising more than we can deliver. And so it was with my last Blog post.

Decision day unfortunately did not lead to a final decision and therefore I am not in a position to release a full You Decide! menu for 2010 to the world. Instead, all I can do is explain why the delays.

The beauty of a democracy is that the people always get to have their say. In this case, residents had already made a number of suggestions as to how the menus could be improved through the LAP Steering Groups.

The councillors were then able to build on this and ask a number of searching questions about the services. We are now working to redesign some of the services and also pursuing a few new services; especially working to find an item that meets the needs of young unemployed people freshly leaving university.

So, there are delays but these delays will make what we deliver better.

In my mind these are delays with good reason. I hope to have a full list of services for the menu in early December.

Until next time...

Obviously, the most important days during the You Decide! process are when the public gather together and vote.

However, today might just come as a close second. After working with our local Steering Groups and council services to develop a menu of services that would be on offer at the You Decide! events today is the day that the Cabinet have the final call.

At a meeting called LAB (which stands for Leader's Advisory Board) the leading councillors and senior officers will, amongst their other business, consider the menus for this year's You Decide! process.

After today we should know the shape of the decisions local residents will have to make next year. I, for one, am quite excited.

This could be a rubber stamping process but our local Steering Groups have made a lot of suggestions this year and LAB will have a lot to consider.

I will let you know how it goes...

Equity: Is sameness important?

I have been thinking a lot in the past few weeks about whether participatory budgeting is 'fair'. I do not mean fair in the sense of whether everyone gets to take part or even in the sense that it runs alongside representative democracy. Both are important issues but not relevant to me right here right now.

When I question the fairness of the situation what I am really asking is this:

If people in one area vote for police officers is it 'fair' that they get safer streets? Or is it 'fair' if young people get better GCSE results because residents in their area voted for extended learning classes and not street lights.

This raises two questions that are crucial for all people in public policy.

Firstly, is it right that services are different in different areas? When I was growing up in the 1990s the expression 'postcode lottery', used often in relation to healthcare, was taken as evidence of the failure of the State to provide equally for all it's citizens.

But in reality any democracy that believes in local government is accepting de facto this level of difference. Urban councils have different needs to rural ones; policing levels vary; schools are structured in different ways. The aims are the same (good schooling, quality of life, excellent public services, general well being) but the means of acheiving them are different and the emphasis on the different elements is different too.

In my mind we, as a nation, are ok with difference, as long as it is not fundamental to our experience of public services. We accept a library in Tower Hamlets being better than the one in Hastings (to use my home town) but maybe not that certain drugs are available in one place but not another (a problem that was partially fixed by NICE).

So You Decide! is basically ok against this criteria.

The second problem is that of who decides. In my view we are ok with difference, as long as it is not a major difference and as long as it is legitimate.

In Oregon (USA) in the 1990s the State Government organised a series of detailed consultation events designed to understand what the community wanted from their health services. The events were a success and the Oregon State Government were prepared to implement them across the State. The only problem was that the attendees at these events in the words of one researcher were largely from a 'narrow band of professionals and citizens of high socio-economic status.'

Inequity may be acceptable but only when the reason for that inequity is seen as legitimate.

In Tower Hamlets we're still working on how to manage this. If anyone has any suggestions just drop me a line.

Until next time....

Is it any good?

Firstly, an apology (or two).

1) I've been away for a while so haven't posted for maybe three weeks now. I've had lots of ideas but sadly none of them were committed to paper

2) I am still a little rubbish at posting properly so every post I have done has had to be reposted by Glen (sorry mate)... This makes it look as if I don't do a whole lot...

Anyway, the issue that has been bothering me for the past few weeks has been that of evaluation; or to put it more simply, is what we do any good?

Unfortunately, before we can answer the question of was it any good we need to consider what we are measuring... Too often we evaluate projects without having first worked out exactly what it is we really wanted to get out of them.

In Brazil Participatory Budgeting served a purpose by providing a corruption free way of making local decisions. In the UK we have relatively little corruption so what is the purpose of You Decide!?... What are we trying to acheieve?

Once we answer the question of what we can then look at was it any good?

In my mind there seem to be two clear approaches to the 'what are we trying to acheive?' question.

1) Better public services. The belief that involving the public leads to better decision making (as in Brazil)

2) A more engaged electorate - he theory being that if you can persuade people to get involved in You Decide they may be more committed to wider democracy

In my mind both of these questions lead to substantial challenges when preparing our evaluations. How do you measure whether or not the public made better decisions than the officers or councillors would have done? How do you work out what a more engaged electorate looks like?

And in both these scenarios you need to ask this: how do you prove causation and not just a vague correlation?

I don't really know the answer but am heartened that other people are asking the same questions. I'm starting to read an nef paper on Social Return on Investment... You can access it here and join me in a search for a few answers.

In the meantime please do leave some comments.

The differences between 'You Decide! Health' and 'You Decide!'

If I have learnt one thing this week it is that attempts at consistent branding are very difficult.

By designing a series of health events with the same branding as those we used for council services in March and April we hoped to deliver a consistent brand that identfied to residents the opportunity to make a decision.

However, 'You Decide!' in March and April was about spending money pure and simple.

'You Decide! health' is a more complicated form of decision making involving both strategic and service specific decisions. Some would argue the decisions being made through the health process are more substantial but that is not the point.

The point is that an event that affords people the chance to make a decision needs to be clear about what that decision is and how it will effect the person making it.

Maybe the lesson we need to learn is that decision making is varied and possibly not a consistent enough theme to unite disparate events even if they all seek to give residents a larger say in local decisions.

One thing we do know is that if you offer people money they can directly spend it makes a real difference to the amount of people who feel inspired to attend.

What lesson we take from that I leave to those who wish to comment on the blog.

Wherever I lay my hat... That's my You Decide! Health event

This week has been a manic one and it is only Wednesday but the health events are now booked.

It's not quite as exciting as the FA cup drawer but I have the pleasure in announcing the following:

• LAPs 1 and 2: Oxford House on the 26th September between 10am and midday
• LAPs 7 and 8: Limehouse Youth Centre on the 3rd October between 10am and midday
• LAPs 5 and 6: Central Foundation Girls School on the 6th October between 7pm and 9pm
• LAPs 3 and 4: Mulberry School on the 8th October between 7pm and 9pm

All of the events will be an opportunity to take part in You Decide! health and have a say in how the health trainers project will be operated next year. 

If you don't know which LAP you live in you can find out with our LAP finder.

AND... Don't forget to register just call 020 7364 4572 or e-mail youdecide@towerhamlets.gov.uk

Off to Bow

One of the key things when organising our ‘You Decide!’ events is to make sure enough people know about them.

With our health events kicking off at the end of September the publicity for the events starts now.

And what better place to start than at the St Barnabas Fete in Bow.

The fete is an annual fixture in the Bow social calendar and this year features the Dhol Foundation, Heavy Load, Babar Luck, Wayne Paul, the Dave Chandler Jazz Band and best of all, special guests Sham 69.

In addition there will be a bouncy castle, tea dance, a home grown food competition and tonnes of other stalls.

And of course not forgetting the Tower Hamlets Partnership and our ‘You Decide!’ tent with trampoline outside and ‘You Decide!’ frisbees to dispense.

As with all the publicity we’ll be pursuing over the next month or so the important message is going to be around the ‘You Decide! health’ events.

It is pretty unique to give people a chance to decide which health services are provided and who should provide them in the local area. The events later this month and in October are our first stab at doing just that.

I know loads of you will be down at the fete on Saturday. If so do pop in say hello to our staff and learn more about the ‘You Decide! health’ and everything else we are getting up to.

Until next time… Please comment...

PS. Don't forget to register for the events