The master class was funded as part of the Take Part Pathfinder project.  The aim of the afternoon was to introduce PB to both residents and statutory stakeholders and the attendees were a good mix across these two constituencies and included representatives from a wide range of residents associations as well as officers from housing associations, Salford City Council, Greater Manchester Fire Service and Greater Manchester police.

Jez Hall and I gave an overview of PB and especially how it related to the health and police sectors.  Chris Dabbs, from the organisation Unlimited Potential, also spoke on how PB might help improve health outcomes in Salford.

The master class then broke up into three workshops to consider questions around health and wellbeing, crime and community safety and giving citizens a say.

Salford City Council has a history of using participatory budgeting around its highways budget and a local housing provider, Salix Homes, has also recently undertaken some PB  and therefore residents already had knowledge of some PB and had particular questions about how the process had worked in the past. However, the master class enabled people to think about the different ways that PB can be used particularly around tackling health inequalities and anti social behaviour and how the involvement of local communities in putting together PB initiatives can empower people to make changes in their lives and communities.  Feedback from the afternoon was very positive although there was a feeling that one afternoon was too short a time to fully explore the issues raised in the workshops.

I felt there was a great deal of benefit in residents and officers sitting down together to look at how PB might benefit Salford.  PB is often seen as a “top down” process and of course it does need buy in from those who currently hold the purse strings. But the process should as it develops become something the community owns and indeed demands as they become more involved in the process of budget setting.  Bringing residents and officers together to learn more about PB and to see each other’s perspective, concerns and what potential could be identified  is a good start in embedding PB in the community and the fact that the event was oversubscribed led me to believe this is a good way of people coming together to learn about PB.