In Andy Burnham’s first speech as Prime Minister today, themes of power‑sharing and collaboration have been front and centre. He has talked about people being fed up with politics, power being too centralised, and taking “power out of here [Downing Street] and to every postcode in the land”. This is music to our ears and the very many others who have argued for greater participation and more collaboration for many years.
Over recent years, public participation in decision-making has moved from the margins towards the mainstream. Last year, Involve alone ran over thirty participatory and deliberative processes in the UK - informing everything from planning to poverty. The evidence is clear that ‘doing democracy’ - having a say, being heard, being part of discussion and decision-making - brings a whole range of benefits from building trust and strengthening policy, to restoring faith in our politics and democracy.
But to meet the challenges Burnham describes, this work now needs to be ramped up. There is a huge amount to build on but also much to do. This is my three point plan setting out how our new PM and his Government can lead this power-sharing agenda.
First, leadership is needed to drive the current interest and activity within government. Local government has been leading the way but central and regional government are catching up. I’ve been impressed by the concerted efforts within Whitehall to embed participation encompassing resourcing, capability and culture. But leadership from the top has been missing. Opportunities like the civil service review being led by Antonia Romeo or flagship programmes like Pride in Place are not being harnessed. Later this year, the UK becomes co-Chair of the Open Government Partnership which has a commitment to participation at its core. The threads are there to weave a powerful story about this Government’s commitment to participation. They need to be grasped and then focus and energy given to help drive this deep cultural shift harder.
Second, we need to support communities to do this work and at scale. The story of participation is, like so much social progress, that it came from civil society. It came from people - citizens - asking to be heard and to have a say. What has happened over the last twenty years is that the work has become increasingly standardised and professionalised to allow participatory processes to be bought and sold. This is important: large scale participatory and deliberative processes like Citizens Assemblies work because of the investment made - from the facilitators and experts brought in, to the participants recruited by sortition and paid for their time. These kinds of processes are important and we need more of them. But, to really unlock the power of participation, we need to recognise that this work is happening informally within our communities too and provide the resource to scale this work.
At its simplest, this work is about bringing people together across different identities, positions and perspectives to discuss a problem or opportunity and come to an agreement as to how best to progress. It is about having the support, time and space to deepen understanding, consider trade offs together and determine the best course of action. This is what policy-makers do. And, in truth, every parent, school teacher, sports coach and many others who listen, negotiate and facilitate every single day. What would a national programme of participation look like that built on these skills, and on the existing spaces, knowledge and energy in our communities?
Third, a new civic infrastructure is needed to plug the interest and energy around community and place more firmly into national decision-making. There is energy and momentum both at a national governmental level and at the local community level where really exciting things are going on from re-imaging approaches to managing health and social care to communities taking control of assets and building local energy systems. But the two are not meeting. Power-sharing is not just central Government devolving some of its powers or inviting the public to have a say in decision-making. This is about a radical redistribution of power where everyone has the opportunity to play an active role in how decisions are made alongside a comprehensive re-wiring of rights and responsibilities.
There is a positive reason to do this: the problems facing us are too big and too complex; politicians cannot solve them on their own and the idea that the state can and should provide is broken; we need all shoulders to the wheel. There is also a defensive reason to do this: our society is fracturing and community cohesion breaking down. Too many people say politics isn’t working and democracy is not worth saving.
This is not a sideshow. Bringing all of us into decision-making is absolutely central to how we tackle our biggest problems and seize the opportunities before us. Our new PM has form in this agenda. This is a golden moment for him to grasp and lead from the get go.