From citizen assemblies to participatory grantmaking, these approaches are reshaping how decisions are made - and who gets to make them. During the Festival, we were joined by a stellar panel of local authority colleagues, each at different stages in their participation journey.
We heard from Lisa Atamian (Grants & Investment Manager, Hackney Council), Radeyah Abbas Saud, (Senior Community Development Officer, Westminster City Council), Yvonne Campbell, (Assistant Director, Communities & Participation, Stronger Communities, Waltham Forest Council), Olivia Porritt, (Participation and Engagement Officer, Islington Council, and Sadia Ur-Rehman, (Resident Engagement and Participation Manager, Newham Council) about their lessons so far, and what it really takes - in terms of mindset, resources and risk - to make participation meaningful.
Participation as a mindset shift
Across the panel, there was a shared recognition that participation is not just a method - it’s a shift in mindset and a recognition that residents should have a say in the decisions that affect them. Olivia Porritt from Islington Council described how they’re working to embed participation across teams: “We’re looking at how we make this culture shift to participation across the council.” Their recent participatory grantmaking programme with refugees and migrants was designed with accessibility and trust-building in mind and is now informing wider council strategies.
In Newham, Sadia Ur-Rehman shared how participation has evolved into a multi-layered programme: “There are so many different ways in for residents to get involved - working groups, decision-making panels, events. Residents are genuinely involved.” Prior to the Festival, Sadia shared her learning from delivering the ‘People Power Places’ programme, Newham Council’s flagship programme for participatory budgeting and engagement of local residents, which you can read more about here.
Making the case internally
Several speakers reflected on the challenge as well as the importance of making the case for participation within their own organisations. They spoke about the challenge of having to ‘sell’ the value of participation internally when budget pressures were so tight, as this work needs to be resourced properly.
"Data is your best friend – if you can gather insights on why participation is worth doing and change needs to happen, it’s easier to make the case internally"
Radeyah Abbas Saud from Westminster City Council highlighted that being able to capture the impact of their participatory programme has helped make the case internally: “After feedback from residents, we extended the programme to two years. We’ve seen high levels of health and wellbeing improvements.” Westminster funded over 80 projects in the last round, with residents trained to sit on decision-making panels.
Infrastructure, coordination (and budget) matter
Several speakers highlighted the importance of infrastructure. In Waltham Forest, Yvonne Campbell talked about their journey to develop and invest in a CVS. She and others emphasised the need for coordination, including across the council, understanding who is doing what and talking to the voluntary sector about how they respond collectively to support residents in vulnerable situations. As one of our speakers shared, “participation is about ensuring the council knows how to do it correctly and meaningfully and not just using the voluntary sector as a sounding board”.
Doing participation well
We heard a number of practical insights from the speakers about what it takes to support and enable participation as a local authority, some of which include:
- Being honest and transparent: Participation can be perceived as a ‘luxury’ for councils that are facing increasingly tight budgets, but local authority colleagues on the panel all testified to the benefits that involving residents has brought to the council and the local area. We heard that residents and community groups appreciate it when the council is open about the state of the council’s finances and the constraints they are under.
- Avoid the ‘usual suspects’: Councils are finding ways to broaden participation. Some examples we heard included connecting with community leaders and building relationships with the voluntary sector, as well as providing different ways for residents to engage. For example, in Westminster, targeted outreach to different communities has actively reduced barriers that might have stopped people from turning up in the first place. We also heard the importance of councils broadening participation by being clear that “if the same repeat people come, they need to sit this one out”.
- Work with the community to solve issues: We heard about the importance of doing this collaboratively and without imposing the answers on the council. As one speaker said, it’s about “taking a step back and assessing what it is we’re trying to solve - and then working with the [voluntary] sector to come up with solutions.”
- Build internal champions: Engaging councillors and senior leaders early on the participation journey was seen as key: “when you can build up goodwill internally and demonstrate that it can go well, you gain momentum.”
A key learning from the panel that stuck with us is that participation for local authorities is often about giving up power while staying accountable. That’s not easy, but when done well, it can transform how councils work with communities, and how communities shape the places they live.
