Minutes:
The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager presented this item to Committee.
Main Points:
· Under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 Local Authorities were required to develop a Participation Strategy that supports residents to become more involved in decision-making and to encourage more diversity in decision-makers.
· As part of this public engagement process, the Council was also required to make and publish a Petition Scheme, setting out how public petitions can be submitted and how the Council will respond.
· Democratic Services Committee supported the development of the Strategy and the Petition Scheme, which were adopted by Council in May 2022.
· These working definitions are informed by ‘Practitioners’ Manual for Public Engagement’ (Participation Cymru, 2012).
· Engagement: An active and participative process by which people can influence and shape policy and services that includes a wide range of different methods and techniques.
· Consultation: A formal process by which policy makers and service providers ask for the views of interested groups and individuals
· Participation: People being actively involved with policy makers and service planners from an early stage of policy and service planning and review.
· Specific Participation duties under the legislation embedded into the Strategy which include:
o Promoting awareness of the functions the Council carries out to residents, businesses and visitors.
o Sharing information about how to go about becoming an elected Member, or Councillor, and what the role of Councillor involves.
o Providing greater access to information about decisions that have been made, or that will be made by the Council.
o Providing and promoting opportunities for residents to provide feedback to the Council, including comments, complaints and other types of representations.
o Promoting awareness of the benefits of using social media to communicate with residents to Councillors.
· The principles agreed in the Strategy build on strengths, reflecting the existing functions in place that support Participation, whilst also including actions that support further progression and development.
· The expectation is that councils will build on this experience and move towards greater participation.
· Feedback from consultation indicated that residents:
o Are interested in the decisions that the Council makes and would welcome having more of a voice as part of the decision-making process.
o Felt that there was room to improve in terms of citizen engagement and involvement in the democratic process.
o Felt that the actions outlined in the strategy would help residents to become more involved in decision making.
o Would like engagement to focus on more varied and alternative methods of communication, particularly with potentially harder to reach groups.
· Monitoring progress is about looking at the strategic aim and what we already have in place to build on, the actions we take to improve and the measures in place to track the progress. There are individual performance measures that are tracked in service plans and progress against the Strategy would be reported through the Council’s Annual Self-Assessment Report: Wellbeing Objective 4 around Improving Participation and Involvement.
· Key Actions under the Strategy are:
o Develop and publish a scheme that sets out how the Council deals with Petitions.
o Publish a guide to the Democratic Process.
o Review and update the Scrutiny Public Engagement Strategy particularly with respect to hybrid meetings.
o Promote awareness of the benefits of using social media to communicate with residents to Councillors.
o Survey to residents based on The National Survey for Wales which has been used as a benchmark.
Questions:
The Committee noted that the first question on the survey could be reworded to ask residents if they know how they can influence decision making within the Council and then ask how effective that has been for them.
The Committee noted that residents would often contact their MP regarding issues rather than a local councillor, and that there is further confusion as some areas have AMs, MPs and Community Councillors. The Committee reflected that part of the role of Councillor is guiding residents in the right direction for their query. The Committee noted that there is also confusion between Senedd Cymru queries and Local Authority queries.
The Committee felt that the Council website is good in terms of contacting your Councillor facilities, however, there has been a change in that not all Councillor mobile numbers are on the website. The Committee discussed that this was personal choice and that members could choose to be contacted via the 656656 number for the City Contact Centre if that was their preference.
The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager highlighted that there are challenges with the volume of contact and making sure resources are spread effectively.
The Committee noted that it is a Councillor’s responsibility to make themselves known to their constituents and noted that it is each Councillor’s responsibility to promote themselves. The Committee further reflected that there is a need for the Council to strongly promote ward meetings in support of this. The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager advised of a new flyer design had been created to advertise ward, and the Comms Teams are on board with promoting ward meetings via social media; Newport Matters was also used to advertise ward meetings where timescales permitted.
The Committee queried what is done with the information obtained from each question asked in the resident survey, and if there is a place on the website where residents can view the analysis of those questions as it currently shows consultations but difficult to find the outcomes.
The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager noted that the questions mirror The National Survey of Wales so that direct comparison can take place and can be shared in future update reports.
The Committee queried how the Strategy was being measured; the Democratic and Electoral Services Manager highlighted the 5 key areas of the strategy and that each of these have their own set of measures. The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager noted that last year quite a few of these measures were brand new so there has been a period of recording figures and then setting a benchmark and a target.
The Committee stated that more people will participate in consultations that may have a direct impact on them, but this can mean that there are neglected areas of services That do not receive much feedback as a result. The Committee felt that if residents are unhappy, they are less likely to engage.
The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager agreed that there is a gap that needs to try to be filled in terms of responses and representation.
The Committee queried what the current process is for petitions and why does this need to be changed. The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager confirmed that the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 legislation requires local authorities to be specific on how a petition can be submitted. If the petition has been signed by more than 100 people then it meets the criteria and would go to Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee however if less than 100 signatures, it would go to a Cabinet Member.