Involving Communities Group – September 2014/AR
How to encourage more civic engagement in
local decision making
Summary and context
This paper seeks to identify opportunities, tools and good practices, which can be used to increase civic
engagement in local decision making processes. Its contents have been informed by:

The successes from the initial pilot live-stream of Billesley Ward Committee in March 2014, as well as
coverage of the Selly Oak and Northfield District conventions during 2012 and 2013

The success of the work developed by West Midlands Police in Birmingham South both live-streaming
Neighbourhood Tasking meetings and hosting live Q&A sessions

Input and support from BCC and WMP social media and communications departments

The support offered through community bloggers such as B31 Voices and Birmingham Updates

Initial discussion paper presented to the Involving Communities Group in June 2014 to increase the
local use of social media in local decision making processes, particularly the use of live-streaming.

“5 Stars Of Open Local Democracy” blog post (http://podnosh.com/blog/2014/06/19/5-stars-ofopen-local-democracy) by Nick Booth following Involving Communities Group meeting in June 2014.
The 5 stars of open local democracy
1 star: Be seen and be welcoming. Putting agenda’s and minutes somewhere where it is very easy
to find them and where it is easy for others to share them. Make sure everyone knows they’re
invited. (This could be a blog, just on google docs with a link or creating an Eventbrite to invite
people to meetings. It can include putting invites through doors and agenda’s and minutes on public
noticeboards.)
2 star: Talk about what you’re doing. This means that you have a #hashtag for your meeting and
publicise it and also share what you know (make sure that background information to papers is
publicly available). You are open to others live reporting or recording what you are doing.
3 star: Do it live. You do the above but you also do it during your meeting or event. This is where
you can introduce a livestream of video or audio or live social reporting through Twitter, Facebook
and or a blog. This also means you only hold meetings in places where there is good, publicly usable
wi-fi or 3g.
4 star: Involve people outside the room in the meeting. This is a step change from being seen to
be doing. This values the questions and comments made on the web as being as important to your
meeting as the ones made in the room. They are incorporated though hashtags or services like
Cover It Live, Blyve or a Facebook Q&A as the event unfolds. This could also mean organising events
specifically for talking to people on the web.
Involving Communities Group – September 2014/AR
5 star: It’s a permanent conversation. This fifth step recognises that the civic conversation you’re
having doesn’t just happen at times and places you decide. It can happen all the time. It means
being responsive in between meetings when, for example a comment appears on a website or a
hashtag.
Putting it into practice
Star rating
Potential applications
Local examples?
What’s needed?
Group role?
1 – Be seen and
be welcoming
 Promoting local
meetings and
consultations
 Promoting outcomes
and feedback from local
meetings and
consultations
 Police Neighbourhood
Tasking – updates from
meetings put in N’hood
Team web-pages
 Billesley Police Twitter –
newsletters
 Access to webpage or social
media platform to
post/promote
 Better connected
networks – identify
key players within
Wards
 Identify platforms for
neighbourhoods/
Wards for information
to be
published/posted and
shared
 Better coordinated
distribution of what’s
on – channel via
Districts?
 Encourage partners,
e.g. Landlord
Services/ Housing
Liaison Boards to
better share minutes
2 – Talk about
what you’re
doing
 Apply a hashtag to local
meetings, events or
consultations.
Particularly appropriate
to defined areas, e.g.
#billesley or issues
#SU4Brum
 #kingsnorton – South &
Central Clinical
Commissioning Group;
ARK Kings
 #billesley – Billesley Fire
 Access to a
Twitter account
 Establishment and
routine use of
existing hashtags
 Agree some hashtags
to use together to
pool and share
content
 Share hashtags with
partners via
conventional routes
(e.g. e-mail, meetings)
3 – Do it live
 Local meetings and
events – both public and
officer based
 Operations or
operational exercises,
e.g. “All-Out Days”
4 – Involve
people from
outside the
room in the
meeting
 Local meetings and
events – particularly
public meetings
 Q&A events
 Billesley Ward
Committee
 Various Police N’hood
Tasking meetings
 Various Police webchats
 District Conventions
 Various Police N’hood
Tasking meetings
 Various Police webchats
 District Conventions
 Access to a
Twitter account
 Wi-Fi or 3G access
for livestreaming
 Google hangout
or Cover it Live
account
 Equipment if
film/audio
 Skills and training
 Map and share Wi-Fi
locations which could
host
 Commission/ organise
training for interested
staff/volunteers
 Fund pool equipment
to use
5 – It’s a
permanent
conversation
 Day to day working
 Consultations and
surveys
 #askBillesleyPolice
 #SU4Brum
 Birmingham Updates
Facebook
 Access to social
media platforms
 Skills and training
 Identify, share and
encourage good
practices