Improvement Service

This good practice guide outlines the approaches to active involvement that have worked well for projects funded through the Big Lottery Fund’s Young People’s Fund (YPF). It provides advice, practical examples and sources of further information and support for current and future projects wishing to achieve active and meaningful participation of children and young people. The guide looks at the benefits to young people of involving them in projects as well as the benefits to organisations and communities of involving their young people.

This good practice guide outlines the approaches to encouraging active citizenship that have worked well for projects funded through the Big Lottery Fund’s Young People’s Fund (YPF). It provides advice and practical examples for current and future projects based on the findings of the five year UK wide evaluation of the YPF. It argues that there are considerable benefits for young people, projects and communities if young people are engaged in community life as active citizens. This is one of a series of guides aimed at organisations working with young people.

A report from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health which presents the results of a pilot project on participatory budgeting in the Govanhill district of Glasgow.

This OECD report looks at innovative approaches to co-production based on research conducted in 26 countries worldwide, including the UK. It sets out the case for co-production, including its potential benefits, and provides an overview and analysis of the practices of different countries.

This paper from the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) explores the implications for risk management in councils which give more power to communities to design and deliver public services. It describes current practice relating to private and voluntary sector commissioning in relation to community working, gives examples of good practice and makes recommendations to allow councils to manage their risk more effectively.

This report from the New Local Government Network investigates ways in which local government can learn about residents' values, motivations and behaviours, and implement behaviour change strategies, in order to deliver public services that are more cost-effective and better match citizens' wants and needs. It explores the concept of 'value modes' as a way of explaining what makes people behave in particular ways, and how this knowledge can be harnessed to bring about change behaviours and reduce the cost of service provision. It also describes two pilot studies carried out with Coventry City Council and the London Borough of Croydon which used the 'value modes' methodology to redesign special educational needs (SEN) transport services.

This report celebrates good practice in consumer engagement from across Scotland’s public services. It uses best practice examples, discussions with practitioners and research literature to explore the principles and practice of high quality consumer engagement.

This guide from Local Government Improvement and Development aims to help local authorities ensure that the results of their community engagement processes are built into their service plans and the ways that they deliver services.

Summary of a series of policy briefings arising out of a research project to explore innovative ways that government can encourage citizen involvement. It examines a series of experiments and the benefits identified: door-to-door canvassing to encourage recycling; providing information on the number of signatures on an online petition to increase the response rate; the production of an audio-visual 'issue book' to stimulate discussion in area boards; online discussion forums; giving feedback on the recycling rates of individual streets; testing different ways of lobbying councillors; asking contact centre callers if they would like to get involved in civic activity; using public recognition of donors to encourage book donations; and the use of discussion versus information to encourage organ donation.

This study from Communities and Local Government reviews the domestic and international evidence around community empowerment. The research identifies key criteria that drive and define empowerment across six specific mechanisms - asset transfer, citizen governance, e-participation, participatory budgeting, petitions and redress - and aims to make sense of evidence in order to identify what empowers communities and how.

Evidence based lessons for policy makers and practitioners This report from Communities and Local Government draws on a systematic review of community empowerment to provide lessons on empowerment that are founded on detailed analysis of where it has worked. The aim is to enable policy makers and practitioners to make sense of variable and often competing evidence  and develop workable activities for empowerment underpinned by a sound evidence base.

Survey of the Aberdeenshire Citizen's panel carried out in October 2008. The focus of the survey was jobs and the economy. Issues covered include: the economy of Aberdeenshire, harnessing our talent, new ways of working, being in business and self-sufficient communities.

This report outlines the findings from an Ipsos MORI study that attempts to assess the impact of community empowerment on key outcomes. It re-analyses survey data from the New Deal for Communities (NDC) National Evaluation1 to explore the links between feelings of influence and actual involvement in NDC activities on wider perceptions of satisfaction with the local area, quality of life, feelings of community and trust.