Agenda item

7.1

The Committee Received a report of the director of Legal and Governance. The purpose of the report was to update the Committee on the engagement activity that had been undertaken as part of the Transition to the Committee System Programme.

7.2

The Head of Policy and Partnerships, Laurie Brennan informed the Committee that various engagement opportunities had taken place, including frequent in-person and virtual conversations with citizens so that public could comment and develop the Committee System. It was mentioned that the Council had received great amounts of crucial feedback from citizens and stakeholders throughout this process, all of which had been factored into the report at item 7 of the agenda.

7.3

Paragraph 6 of the report highlighted key messages received throughout the process, which citizens and stakeholders believed needed to be considered as the Council transitioned to a committee system.

7.4

Sarah Allan from Involve attended the meeting virtually to update the Committee.

7.5

Sarah Allan mentioned that Involve had carried out two round table conversations, one with academics and stakeholders and the other with individuals representing community organisations. Both had similar messages. Those consulted were surprised on the whole that the Council had decided to run a one-off piece of engagement in the proposed manner rather than continuously consulting on how to improve engagement throughout the new system and using information already received through various previous processes.

7.6

During the round table exercise, the public also talked about how they would like to see long term engagement implemented in the long term vision for the Council. The ‘health champion’ work was highlighted as an example of current good practice.

7.7

It was mentioned that wider issues were raised during the process which was outside Involve’s remit. This were comments dealing with issues such as lack of trust in the Council.

7.8

The Head of Policy and Partnerships stated that the Council had now been provided with a lot of good content which gives the Council, with the help of Involve, a perspective on how people wanted to engage.

7.9

A Member of the Committee suggested a simplified document be produced on ‘how the council works’ so that more citizens are informed and understand before they engage, this could also lead to more engagement if more citizens understood what the Council does. Another Member of the Committee explained that information is out there on the WEA website therefore information could be adapted toward the committee system from there.

7.10

RESOLVED: that the Committee (1) Acknowledges the findings of the public engagement to date and thanks citizens, stakeholders and independent experts for the involvement and contributions to date.

(2)  Acknowledges the findings of the stakeholder roundtable events managed by Involve;

(3)  Agree that public engagement for the Transition to Committee Programme should proceed as outlined in this report to ensure meaningful findings that support the launch of the new committee system, making best use of the available budget, and aiming to build trust with Sheffielders; and

(4)  Endorses that the Council need to undertake further public engagement work once the Committees are established, to help test and embed our approach to public engagement with the new Committee structure.