Agenda item

7.1

The Committee received a report from the Director of Policy and Democratic Engagement aiming to identify cross-party Members representation for a Working Group to lead the transformation of citizen participation and community involvement at Sheffield City Council.

7.2

The Head of Policy and Partnerships referred to a recommendation agreed at the previous meeting ‘That the Governance Committee sends the Involve report to the citizens involved in the workshops and to thank them for their contributions and to encourage them to feed their views back on the report so that it can be fed into this work as it goes forward and with the aim to continuously involve them from this point on’. He confirmed that this action had been carried out.

7.3

The Head of Policy and Partnerships explained that the report set out that this piece of work would not just be led by Members, as this was a real opportunity to involve citizens, stakeholders and VCFSE partners from Sheffield.

7.4

The Head of Policy and Partnerships asked that the Committee provided him with names of Members to lead on this piece of work. It was suggested that this should include up to five Members from the Governance Committee, with up to three from Labour and Liberal Democrats and two from the Green Party and Sheffield Community Councillors and a Maximum of two Members from each of the main political Groups, ideally including at least one Member that sits on a Policy Committee. He asked that names be provided to him by the end of the following week (22 December 2023).

7.5

Following the introduction to the report, Members of the Committee asked questions and made comments, and the key points to note were: -

7.6

A Member of the Committee mentioned there were Members representing 4 different political parties on Governance Committee and that the recommendation was to nominate a maximum of 5 Members. Therefore, asked if the recommendation was too refined and could cause a hindrance in creating a Working Group to lead on this piece of work. The Chair of the meeting (Councillor Sue Alston) mentioned how it was important to be flexible, she suggested that the recommendation not be changed but the Committee could look at the recommendation again if an issue arose. The Head of Policy and Partnerships stated that if the number of Members leading on this needed to exceed 5 then that would be fine.

7.7

A Member of the Committee asked what role and capacity a Member of the Working Group would be expected to provide.

The Head of Policy and Partnerships mentioned that this was still yet to be defined. He stated that the purpose of the report was to establish a Working Group so that this piece of work could begin early next year.

7.8

A Member of the Committee asked if there were any clear gaps in regard to who the Working Group should be engaging with on this piece of work.

The Head of Policy and Partnerships confirmed there was a wide range of community networks in Sheffield that can be approached. He mentioned that following a recent piece of work on the City Goals, the Council were involved in a lot of collaborate conversations with community networks which can also be targeted. He added how the Local Area Committees could play a role in engaging with different people. He raised the importance that people with different characteristics from across the city be involved in this piece of work.

7.9

RESOLVED: That Governance Committee:

(1)        nominate and agree a maximum of five Governance Committee representatives for the community involvement Working Group;

(2)        agree for Governance Committee leads to discuss with respective Groups and identity a maximum of two Member representatives per Group (including at least one that sits on a Policy Committee) by Friday 22nd December; and

(3)        agree to receive a further paper in early 2024 setting out proposed next steps for the community involvement project.