Can local government be reshaped to ensure that citizens have a bigger role in making decisions and taking responsibility for the places in which they live and work?
The RSA believes that localism – which involves the devolution of powers from higher to lower tiers of sub-national government – should shift power to people and communities in the places where they live. New forms of devolved governance should not repeat the patterns laid down by central government, but should instead be determined by the character, identity, needs and assets of particular communities of place. Localism should be ‘People Shaped’.
This project is the result of a three year learning partnership with Wiltshire Council. In our final report ‘People Shaped Localism, we argue that the sub-regional devolution deals now being put into place in the wake of the Northern Powerhouse, mean that it is urgently important to look afresh at the associational and democratic elements of localism. The acid test for localists should not be how well local services and tiers of government talk to each other, but how well local people themselves can connect and collaborate.
The resources, reports and tools gathered in People Shaped Localism are therefore designed to be accessible and helpful to a wide range of people – interested citizens, community groups, social entrepreneurs, business leaders and community activists as well as local authority leaders, officers and councillors.
Our Creative Gatherings guide is a practical resource which supports shared decision-making within communities and between different groups of people. It outlines what Creative Gatherings are, how they can help you work together better, and what’s needed to apply them in practice.
Read the 'People Shaped Localism' report
For places to thrive, councils and other public bodies need to be better at generating value from the assets that are already within their communities – the knowledge, skills, networks and passions of the people who live and work there.
How can people shaped localism be informed by all of the people in a place, not just some?
What role should volunteers play in public services?
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Keith Harrison-Broninski
11th February 2016
Hi PSL project
You might like to know that the RSA Catalyst project Town Digital Hub (http://www.towndigitalhub.info) has just added new functionality that lets members of the public rate and review community services/resources. It works like sites such as TripAdvisor - ratings are from 1 to 5 stars, and you see an average rating next to each community service/resource. If you click on this average, you see all reviews and can add your own.
As well as helping members of the public choose which services/resources to use, this provides councils and service providers with detailed, comprehensive feedback on their offerings that would otherwise be both expensive and difficult to obtain. TDH lets those responsible for services/resources not only show the public what is available but also stay in touch with how well things are working.
Strong synergy with PSL? Happy to discuss! Kind regards,
Keith