community engagement – Page 14 – The NEN

Neighbourhood Networks: exciting new chapter for community planning?

Community groups, voluntary sector organisations and local councillors will come together across the city this month for the inaugural meetings of the new Neighbourhood Networks. Continue reading Neighbourhood Networks: exciting new chapter for community planning?

Democracy Matters: Communities want more local powers

New powers across areas of health, environment and leisure services could be given to local communities. Initial findings from the Local Governance Review published today, show that people overwhelmingly want more say about how public services are run in their area.

The review received more than 4,000 responses from across Scotland.

Publication today is the start of a process that could mean communities are given direct control of specific public services.

The Scottish Government is working with COSLA on the next stage of the review, which will look further into the type of powers communities would like to control. The results of the review will be published in 2021.

Communities and Local Government Secretary, Aileen Campbell, said: “A wide range of people with very different backgrounds, experiences and interests overwhelmingly responded that they want to have more say about how local public services are run in their area.

“We want to see a step-change in democracy in Scotland where decisions on public services are made in communities – where they have the biggest impact.

“Options are open as to what services are devolved, and there is still a lot of detailed work to do but we have the opportunity to shape the future of democracy so local communities can really flourish.”

COSLA President Councillor Alison Evison said: “The initial stages of this review have made clear that local, democratic choice and control matters to people’s lives.

“There is now a need across the country to achieve improved outcomes for our communities, particularly those communities suffering persistent inequality.

“With leadership from Local Government and the Scottish Government, we will continue the conversation to get it right and give communities more say in decisions that impact on them.”

Director for Electoral Reform Society Scotland, Willie Sullivan, said: “The biggest threat to democracy is that it does not grow and adapt quickly enough to meet the expectations of citizens.

“It’s clear that we have to remake democracy and governance for a time of rapid social and technological change and authoritarian threats. The only way to do this is from the local up and along with as many people as possible. The Scottish Government and COSLA seem to be embracing these ideas.

“Doing this well and getting it right will take time and attention. We welcome the progress made and will keep ensuring that democracy is at the centre of the hope for future transformation so that Scots can know the power and pride of running their own towns and villages”

Director of National Development for BEMIS Scotland, Mrs. Tanveer Parnez, said: “Utilising a human rights-based approach, in addition to facilitating participative democracy, within the Local Governance Review and associated Democracy Matters conversations, present an attentive and much needed approach to advancing democratic participation, active citizenship and empowerment for diverse communities at several levels.

“We have seen the impact of this approach through the positive and dynamic participation from diverse local communities in the first consultation phase, and we are fully committed to enhancing and progressing the equal partaking and participation of diverse communities in the next round of engagement and any new decision-making arrangements.”

Local Governance Review – Democracy Matters report

Read the full joint statement.

The Local Governance Review has been delivered in partnership with COSLA and was launched to give local communities more say about how public services in their area are run.

We are encouraging everyone to get involved and help strengthen democracy in a way that makes Scotland a better place for all. If you want to stay in touch, you can sign up to our newsletter, email us at democracymatters@gov.scot and follow us on Twitter @CommEmpower.

Communities in community planning: now it’s Neighbourhood Networks

In the link below, you will find an invitation to the first gathering of the Inverleith Neighbourhood Network on Thursday 30th May. The networks are being established to support the Edinburgh Partnership’s approach to Community Planning. Continue reading Communities in community planning: now it’s Neighbourhood Networks

Granton & District Community Council meets tonight

Please find attached agenda of our next meeting and draft minutes of March meeting.

Our next meeting will take place on:

Monday 29 April 2019, at 6.30pm – 8.30pm

Venue: Royston and Wardieburn Community Centre, 11 Pilton Drive North, Edinburgh EH5 1NF

Looking forward to see you on Monday.

Kind regards

Mizan Rahman

Secretary, Granton and District Community Council

E-mail: secretary@grantoncc.scot | Tel: 07930 183352 | www.grantoncc.scot

Like us: www.facebook.com/grantoncc | Follow us www.twitter.com/GrantonCC

Today: Leith Creative Sunday Session at Leith Community Centre

Today: the second in a series of free monthly Sunday Sessions where local residents, community activists and specialists can informally share information about what’s happening in Leith and in communities across Scotland.

This month Robin McAlpine, Director of the Common Weal ‘think and do tank’, shares some thoughts on a proposed new system of local democracy in Scotland. Continue reading Today: Leith Creative Sunday Session at Leith Community Centre

Stronger Community Councils can improve local democracy, says new report

Yesterday, during #CelebrateCCs month, Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) and What Works Scotland jointly published research into community councils. The report recommends that the Local Governance Review should consider #StrengtheningCCs to improve local democracy in Scotland. Continue reading Stronger Community Councils can improve local democracy, says new report

Edinburgh Partnership restructure explained

Where do communities fit into community planning?

Over the last year, the Edinburgh Partnership has been looking at how we organise ourselves to make us more open and improve how we work across the city (writes Cllr Adam McVey, city council leader and Chair of The Edinburgh Partnership).

Our major goal was to agree a new way of working which helps us to create a city where everyone can share in our success; a city where people have enough money to live on, can access jobs, learning or training opportunities, and have a good place to live.

At our meeting on 2 April 2019, the Partnership agreed the new structure which will support this way of working. This new structure will give us a better focus for partnership working in the city. We will have four city-wide partnership groups, four local community planning partnerships, and 13 neighbourhood networks. Each group will take responsibility for a theme or plan to achieve our goal of a city where poverty and inequality are reduced. They will all feed into the Edinburgh Partnership Board.

More detail about the new structure is on the Edinburgh Partnership page on the Council website [www.edinburgh.gov.uk/edinburghpartnership].

These are the next steps for setting up the new groups:

Neighbourhood Networks

Strengthening how we work with communities has been an important aspect of this process. Building on the former Neighbourhood Partnerships, we are setting up 13 Neighbourhood Networks. Members will include community councils and other community groups in the area, such as residents’ organisations and parents’ councils, together with councillors and voluntary groups.

The final make-up of the membership will be for each Network to determine. This recognises your feedback that the Networks should reflect the diversity of each area.

We will set up an initial meeting, based on groups already involved locally, to decide how they want to work and to nominate a representative to sit on the Locality Community Planning Partnership.

Each Neighbourhood Network will decide locally how they will operate. They must hold an annual meeting at which they must nominate a community member to sit on the Locality Community Planning Partnership. The Networks will identify the priorities and outcomes for their areas, with this informing what the Edinburgh Partnership Board, and the groups in the new structure, will do.

Local Community Planning Partnerships

We are setting up four Locality Community Planning Partnerships to deliver the locality improvement plans. We will ask public bodies, such as NHS Lothian, Police Scotland, and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, to nominate their representative. Members will also include a councillor for each ward and a community representative from each of the Neighbourhood Networks.

Next steps

The Council’s localities teams will be organising the initial meetings of the Neighbourhood Networks. They will be in touch with councillors, and community and voluntary groups in their areas to organise the meetings in May.
We will ask members of the Edinburgh Partnership Board to confirm their representative for the four Locality Community Planning Partnerships. Councillors will agree their representation at a Council meeting in May.

I hope you agree that this is an exciting time for the city and gives us a real opportunity to do things differently. I would like to thank you for taking part, whether it was in the initial review, consultation and, more recently, the localities events. We look forward to continuing to work with you to make this a success.

Adam McVey

Chair, Edinburgh Partnership and Leader of The City of Edinburgh Council