How Rotherham Aims to Improve Services through Community Involvement
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has developed a corporate consultation and community involvement (CCI) framework, which is at the heart of its approach to policy making, service delivery and community leadership, and is designed to ensure that active citizenship and democracy will underpin how Rotherham works.
Here we offer a summary using bullet points. The framework identifies why CCI is important and where new approaches are needed. The council says that the framework sets out its vision, aims and objectives and a range of actions to ensure that CCI is built into everything the council does. It will
· Help to align and coordinate activity
· Identify key principles of CCI
· Ensure that results of consultation are used effectively.
The CCI framework team has recommended that the council:
· Strengthen mechanisms so that people who are participating can see their contribution is influencing decisions, policy and service development
· Improve and make more transparent the planning and timing of CCI
· Strengthen the links between CCI and decision making, ensuring that exercises relate to a decision that the council is intending to make and that can be influenced by the results of that activity.
· Strengthen structures and procedures to share the results of CCI across programme areas and with customers and partners
· Improve structures to ensure that those taking part in CCI are representative and inclusive
· Enhance the performance and evaluation of CCI.
The CCI document has the potential to be extended to a joint partnership framework subject to approval. The council has identified five priority areas for improvement, which are to:
· Continue to improve the quality, effectiveness, and coordination of the CCI by the council
· Raise awareness of the principles of effective CCI, and to ensure that staff and members have the training and support they need
· Ensure that communities are involved in the planning and provision of services and policies to meet their needs
· Ensure that CCI shapes and influences service and policies
· Manage performance by improving satisfaction with CCI, and evaluating impact
While the planning assumptions and proposed impact of the CCI merit consideration, the challenge lies in who will oversee the evaluation and implementation of CCI projects across the council and what needs to be done to deliver the CCI framework. Implementation will demand substantially more resources than are available at present. Will the council achieve more success if it chooses to integrate CCI into all service department planning routines as opposed to using a task force to manage the processes of change? Which option is more feasible?
