Agenda item

8.1

The Committee received a report of the Director of Legal and Governance which provided an update for the Governance Committee of recent review work undertaken by Involve.

8.2

The report also set out a proposed approach to developing a new vision for participation in Sheffield. Initial work would focus on assessing the Council’s internal participation ambitions, capacity and capabilities before collaborating with communities and stakeholders on a shared vision.

8.3

The Head of Policy and Partnerships, Laurie Brennan, explained that he had received comments from It’s Our City in regard to the language used in the report, specifically on the use of ‘Co-Design’ and the extent of citizen involvement. The Head of Policy and Partnerships agreed the language used there was too excessive therefore he apologised for this, recognising that while we did have citizens engaged in the work, we wouldn’t want to over-claim the extent of this and we know that we still have much to do as an organisation in this regard.

8.4

The Head of Policy and Partnerships mentioned the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee had seen public participation as a critical matter which they had included in its work plan. He added that work would be done with that Committee throughout the year to drive public participation forward.

8.5

The Committee discussed public engagement and the key points to note were: -

8.6

A Member of the Committee was concerned around the time it was taking for the Council to set a clear vision of public participation in Sheffield.

8.7

A Member mentioned there needed to be a clear vision of how the Local Area Committees (LACs) formed part of the new structure. It was added that devolved powers and decision-making responsibilities of the LACs should be looked at again.

The Head of Policy and Partnerships added that the LACs should not be the only way that Sheffield City Council undertook public participation.

8.8

A Member of the Committee referred to the Public Engagement Toolkit. They asked whether a Policy Committee could request a Stakeholder Reference Group in addition to a Task and Finish Group.

The Director of Legal and Governance confirmed that a Stakeholder Reference Group would not be classed as a Policy Committee’s one Task and Finish Group.

8.9

A Member suggested that items/decisions that had previously been discussed by other Policy Committees had a record alongside them for Policy Committees to see the path of that item/decision so far. It was suggested that this information was on Policy Committee workplans.

8.10

A Member of the Committee suggested a training session be delivered to all councillors around each of the options on the public engagement toolkit.

The Head of Policy and Partnerships explained this had been mentioned to the Democratic Services Officer involved in Member Development and that a training session would take place around September/October 2022.

8.11

It was mentioned by a Member of the Committee that hard to reach groups should be targeted when looking at public participation across the Council.

8.12

The Chair allowed for a Member of the Public to comment on this Public Engagement Item.

Nigel Slack mentioned the Public Engagement Toolkit was interesting. He believed one reason that had made public engagement more successful was due to The Assistant Director (Governance) having outside knowledge of Sheffield City Council. Therefore, Mr Slack suggested the Committee Co-opted an Independent Member onto the Committee, to provide a similar outside knowledge, once The Assistant Director (Governance) had left.

The Assistant Director (Governance) added that if the Committee decided to Co-opt an Independent Member, then they should consider Co-opting Officers from other authorities as they would have professional opinions to offer and expertise in Local Authorities and Committee System structures.

8.13

RESOLVED: That the Committee (1) noted the progress made in the work with Involve; (2) noted the proposed approach to developing a new vision and approach to participation; and (3) noted that Strategy and Resources Committee will lead work on a new vision for participation as part of its work programme.