Building Democracy

The High Support Needs Committee hit the news!

It has been a very busy time for the High Support Needs committee. This week was Mencap's Learning Disability Week and they focused on the Changing Places campaign which the committee have been working on locally. Changing Places are toilet facillities for people with complex needs and include a hoist, a changing bench and enough space for a wheelchair user and 2 carers. There are currently none of these in Cambridgeshire and the committee organised a demo in the centre of Cambridge to protest about this and to raise public awareness of the campaign. They got lots of signatures on their petition and lots of members of the public also agreed to send postcards to their local MP's highlighting the need for these facilities. They were featured on Anglia news, which also focused on Simon's personal story and the effect the lack of facilities has had on his life. The campaign and demo were also featured in the Cambridge Evening News. The next day 2 members of the committee attended Mencap's Parliamentary reception at the Houses of Parliament which again was raising the profile of this important campaign.

As well as all the excitement around Changing Places the committee have also been doing some consulation around the provision of physiotherapy and occupational therapy locally. Their peers have told them that their is a real problem with this, with a lack of physio or OT in place. They also told them about the negative effect this is having, particularly for people with high support needs. The committee are feeding this back to the Learning Disability Partnership so that it can be addressed.

Monthly Report - May 2009

Some difficulty is being experienced in identifying 2 schools in Pembrokeshire to carry out the proposed pilots of the Youth VOICE element of the LocalEyes initiative.  After initial resistance, a good relationship has been developed with the Education Dept. of Pembrokeshire County Council, which is now assisting in attempting to find appropriate secondary schools to engage with.  The principal problem is that the Head Teachers of local schools are experiencing too many pressures on their limited time and resources and are unwilling at this stage to take on any new commitments and initiatives.  It is hoped that, with the assistance of the Council's Education Dept., which is raising the matter at a meeting of Secondary School Head Teachers, 2 schools will be found to run Pilots in Pembrokeshire in the near future. 

Pilots of the Community VOICE element of the LocalEyes web based platform, due to be run in Communities in Pembrokeshire, have been postponed while improvements and additions to the on-line structure and functionality of the website were undertaken.  These improvements have principally been around making the site easier to use and introducing video as a means of inputting information and expressing views.  The Pilot in The Havens community area is now due to commence in July and a second Community area is due to be identified soon.  A mail shot of all Community Councils in Pembrokeshire has resulted in some expressions of interest in the LocalEyes initiative, but the majority are waiting to see the initiative in action before they want to get involved - a case of the chicken and egg!  It is believed that a publicity drive when the Pilots are running successfully will trigger greater interest in and engagement with the site.

David Gardner

Pembrokeshire District Co-ordinator - LocalEyes

First look at the first month of PublicExperience.com

Last time, we were ready to launch publicly, waiting for the Minister to have his interviews to launch the Innovation Council and mention the site. At that point, we could then start to push it out.

We got a mention in The Times which then got picked up elsewhere. This resulted in about 50 comments over a few days, many of them substantive and useful.

The site then continued ticking along, until a Saturday afternoon when a netMums newsletter went out. 2 hours, and about 100 posts later, there was another large batch of substantive and useful posts.

The full analysis of the posts isn't done yet, but from the scanning, there's something very different about the two groups. It appears that, on the face of it, the netMums sourced submissions were much more specific than the latter, in that they affected the community of the submitter. By comparison, Times submissions were more likely to be more generic - netMums may have spoken about the gates on their local park, Times readers talked about the gates on parks. Both equally valid, but somewhat different perspectives; we are after both.

After the intial sift by the Cabinet Office, about 20 of the submitters have been invited to a meeting at the Cabinet Office to go into further detail and talk more prior to some ideas going to the Innovation Council. This is the first such meeting, with others, possibly with a different style and structure, following. 

The one take away lesson on this is that even with a profile at launch, groups like netMums will get you as much, and possibly more, as a significant article in The Times. This was somethign that was guessed at already, but it's nice to have some data to back it up.

We have another round of publicity coming in the next few weeks, building on the above, we'll see what's next. To get in touch with us, or see what's going on, follow our twitter or visit www.publicexperience.com. 

Young Assets, June

Young Assets have developed a 6 stage consultancy training programme for developing young people's skills in exploring local communty issues and developing a meaningful and well evidenced message to local public and communtiy services. 

Young Assets credits can now be accepted in a range of sports, leisure, theatre and music venues across the Borough and this has been formed into a menu for young people.

Young Assets is proud to announce that it has secured support from the Kings Cross Youth Area Forum that will be running decision making sessions for young people and attracting a much more diverse intake with the credits. Exams are now coming to an end and Young Assts will be back working with 6 formers shortly.

Second Policy Slam event takes place

The second event took place, with 75 people, on 12^th May, at the Dana Centre, which is part of the Science Museum. The topic was, “Which strategies would be most effective in creating the behavioural changes necessary to reduce climate change?” 

We provided five ‘ready-made’ options, with speakers to explain each one:

1. Changing brain prints (this was mainly about communications strategies)
2. Direct action
3. Legislation for personal quotas
4. International political solutions
5. Community-based movements

But the option that came top in the consensus vote was one of two suggested by participants on the night: 'invest more in science and technology'.