Checking the Cupboards of Local Democracy

Wee timorous beasties 

This week I have been thinking a lot about how we listen, who we listen to, the weight we give to different voices and why I think we owe to each other to do more to convince people to speak up. 

Firstly, a little story. One night last week my wife told me she could hear rustling noises behind the kitchen cupboards and promptly ran off to the front of the house shutting all the doors behind her. So I ‘geared up’ in long trousers (tucked into socks), found some hefty leather work gloves, positioned chairs on their sides to funnel anything towards the back door that may be flushed out and found a sturdy box and broom to capture any critters.  

Then I carefully removed the kick boards and found no evidence of wildlife whatsoever.  

Obviously, I took the opportunity to clean the cupboards, pull the cooker out and throw out any seriously out of date food (for me that means over 2 years) – not a problem at all on a balmy summer’s evening. As I stood trying to cool myself by downing a second pint of water at the kitchen sink, I heard a rustling and called my wife. I asked her if that was the rustling sound she had heard and which had convinced her of the presence of some wee beasties. She confirmed that it was indeed the noise. I pointed to the blackbirds bathing in the dog’s water bowl and digging in the leaves under the kitchen window… and managed not to swear at all!!! 

In all honesty I ‘knew’ that there was no little critter running around but also knew that the only way to demonstrate how seriously I was taking the concern that had been raised was to thoroughly investigate the problem. Now whilst the investigation proved what I knew to be true it also meant I checked and cleaned the cupboards, reviewed and removed out of date food, and I too was assured that all was well in our kitchen. And my wife felt heard.  

Secondly, we have been doing some work at LVET looking at how our communications land with our members to try and understand what is most useful. Part of that analysis highlighted that not many people click on links to public consultations or surveys.  

I have to say that this disappoints me – in my view of a perfect world we, the people, actively contribute and participate in public life by sharing our thoughts and shaping our local neighbourhoods through deliberate actions. However, many people don’t. For many the only part of democracy that seems accessible to them is to turn up and vote, and for many that doesn’t really have much appeal either.  

For those that have got more involved and stood up, signed petitions, shared thoughts in public consultations their experience is almost certainly one of feeling ignored or misheard – as those with power, money or influence get their way. So I do understand why LVET members may not click on these links but I don’t want to give up on it – I believe it is a vital part of our role as a body advocating for all community and voluntary organisations, of all sizes, that work in health and social care in Lincolnshire. For me sharing my thoughts on the things that affect my life and the lives of those around me is a fundamental act of citizenship. 

So, I guess it is for me and my colleagues at LVET to work out how we encourage people to get more involved maybe by telling us things so that we can provide a ‘member response’ or by actively encouraging the people they support to get involved. And it is part of my job to persuade you all why it is so important. 

So here it is – or at least here is part of that persuasion. A new, powerful and current reason to demonstrate why speaking up is important – the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act. Ok, so we don’t know any details yet, but we do know that it provides opportunities for communities to have more direct say in local decision making – in what happens in relation to how locally devolved budgets are spent, on health, on housing and on service design. Take a look at these 4 short animations from We’re Right Here as they explain this a little bit more.  

Local Government Reorganisation is, for many of us, a non-event but it will bring with it new ways of ‘governing neighbourhoods’ – there might be new neighbourhood forums, participatory budgeting events, local area committees or new, more direct, routes for communities to have a say via their parish councils. Whatever it looks like for us in Lincolnshire it is without doubt an opportunity for communities to shape what happens in their neighbourhoods and for those of us involved in health and social care I think it will also be important to try and link these new neighbourhood governance arrangements with the emerging models of neighbourhood health. To me it is a chance to check and clean the cupboards of our models of governance, of our neighbourhoods, to look at what processes are past their sell by date and to make sure that everybody feels heard.