Your views needed on PB values principles and standards

The document looks at the sticky issue of defining participatory budgeting and has attempted to come up with something that fairly succinctly explains PB.  The simplest definition of PB is:

"Local people decide how allocate part of a public budget"

But we have tried to flesh this out somewhat by including direct involvement (rather than through panels or elected members), decicing priorities and ongoing monitoring of the process. 

The document then moves on to look at 9 values headings and the principles and standards which underpin those values.  The values are:

Local Ownership:

• Involving all concerned in decisions made around PB processes & projects

• Ensuring local representation is supported by the wider community

• Promoting the participation of individuals and communities, particularly those traditional marginalised or excluded

Direct Involvement

• Promoting direct involvement of communities in PB processes

• Promoting direct involvement in budget decisions

• Committed to the provision and promotion of training, development or capacity building which support direct community involvement

Support Representative Democracy

• Committed to promoting and supporting representative democracy

• Supporting the role of ward councillors as community champions

• Developing both representative and participatory models to work along side each other

Mainstream Involvement

• Promoting models of PB where mainstream funding is used and repeated annually

• Promoting capacity building needed for good decision-making on mainstream budgets by communities

Accessibility

• Committed to ensuring accessibility for all involved

• Recognising and challenging barriers to full and effective participation

• Promoting widespread and relevant promotion of PB events

Transparency

• Committed to open and clear processes in PB projects

• Involving communities in scrutiny of PB funded projects/programmes

• Committed to providing full and open information on all public budgets

Deliberation

• Committing to a deliberation process as an integral part of PB

• Supporting practices which promote deliberation

• Supporting deliberative democracy

Empowerment

• Promoting the empowerment of individuals and communities through PB

• Promoting ‘active citizenship’ in creating better public services

• Supporting a stronger civil society

• Committed to community development and capacity building within PB

Co-responsibility

• Committed to clarity and transparency of the aims of PB projects

• Committed to involvement of all stakeholders in setting aims of PB projects

• Committed to clarity of roles and responsibilities in PB projects

• Developing community sense of ownership and responsibility for their local areas

We are seeking your views on both how we're defining PB and the values, principles and standards we've attributed to PB.  We have a more formal consultation/feedback route with a feedback form for you complete or a more informal discussion forum on the Involve discussion forums.  We're asking for you to respond from 1st May to 30th June (inclusive) so that we can then use your views to develop a final version of the document to help inform how PB is developed in the UK.

To download and view the document in full including the feedback form click here

 For more information on the draft values principles and standards and to access the discussion forum click here