Participatory budgeting

In the community empowerment white paper, ‘Communities in Control', July 2008, the government stated that it wanted participatory budgetingGlossary: when residents are directly involved in making decisions about how sections of local budgets are allocated and invested to be used in every local authority area by 2012.

A wide range of models are used by different organisations to devolve funding to local groups or partnerships. These include a variety of ways of devolving funding to elected membersGlossary: Elected members of local authorities are also known as councillors (either individually or in groups) at ward and area level. Historically, there have been different models of devolving funding to local partnerships, including neighbourhood managementGlossary: is a process of coordinating public service delivery at a local level , Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) and New Deal Communities projects as well as area‐based partnerships and forums.

CouncillorGlossary: A councillor is an elected member of a local authority led funds

Neighbourhood FundsGlossary: a budget devolved to neighbourhood to spend on projects to improve the locality. This may be, but is not necessarily allocated through participatory budgeting techniques. can be a good way to build the capability of councillorsGlossary: Councillors are elected members of a local authority and clarify their role within the community. When councillorsGlossary: Councillors are elected members of a local authority have a clear role, either as the key decision makers or sharing decision making with community representatives, it can help members gain local information and a deeper understanding of the issues they face; build negotiation skills; and help elected membersGlossary: Elected members of local authorities are also known as councillors in multi‐party wards develop ways of working that enable them to put aside party politics and focus on local need.

For this type of initiative to be effective the authority needs to support its councillorsGlossary: Councillors are elected members of a local authority by providing them with necessary information to work with their communities, such as ward profiles, good feedback about particular initiatives in the area, and ward-based satisfaction surveys.

Westminster City Council is devolving £100,000 to each of its 20 wards as part of its One City five-year strategy, which aims "to build strong communities and deliver excellent council services." The objective of the pilot programme is to strengthen the role of councillorsGlossary: Councillors are elected members of a local authority as locally accountable representatives and build their future involvement in influencing how mainstream budgets are spent. CouncillorsGlossary: Councillors are elected members of a local authority meet with residents at annual ‘state of the neighbourhood' forums to determine local priorities. CouncillorsGlossary: Councillors are elected members of a local authority are provided with maps of what is happening in their area and ward‐specific data. This information is provided by an online members' information portal that the Council has developed to support members. The portal also provides councillorsGlossary: Councillors are elected members of a local authority with information about residents' satisfaction in their ward. The Council is surveying over 3,000 residents to build a detailed profile of residents' priorities. Westminster will provide training to councillorsGlossary: Councillors are elected members of a local authority and support from a team of dedicated council officers. Each ward also has a champion in the senior management team to negotiate any particular difficulties with departments or other agencies.

Resident-led funds

An alternative to devolving the decisions on spending local budgets to councillorsGlossary: Councillors are elected members of a local authority is to allow residents to take the final decisions. This is an application of participatory budgetingGlossary: when residents are directly involved in making decisions about how sections of local budgets are allocated and invested.

Some councillorsGlossary: Councillors are elected members of a local authority can feel threatened by increasing community control and influence. The fear is that this is a zero sum game - that by giving power to residents they themselves loose equivalent power. Elected membersGlossary: Elected members of local authorities are also known as councillors also voice fears that residents may lack the necessary skills, or groups with alternative agendas may dominate the process. For devolved spending to be implemented successfully, both elected membersGlossary: Elected members of local authorities are also known as councillors and officers have to commit to the aims, be open to ideas and be willing to enter into debate about local priorities. A number of local authorities demonstrate their commitment by assigning one of their senior executive team to either attend neighbourhood or ward meetings, or act as a ‘champion' to iron out potential
problems.

For a number of years the London Borough of Haringey has allocated £50,000 annually to each of its seven neighbourhoods, to be spent on schemes put forward by residents and decided upon at meetings of the Neighbourhood's Area Assembly. Local people are invited to submit proposals and neighbourhood officers work with the residents on costing and refining each project. All the projects are then displayed at the Area Assembly meeting, and residents vote on their preferences by awarding schemes ‘stars'. The spending is formally signed off by the officer holding the budget but as far as residents are concerned, it is their decision. The scheme is very popular and attracts increasing levels of interest.

Source: Young Foundation (2008) Devolving funds to local communities, A Neighbourhood Action Network paper for IDeA and the Local Government Association