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Community Engagement
Community Engagement
Community engagement provides people with the opportunities to have a greater say in what happens in their District. All local authorities have a statutory duty to consult on specific areas of service delivery. Harrogate Borough Council is committed to extending its consultation beyond any statutory requirements. We want to ensure that residents of Harrogate District, our service users and all other interested parties have the opportunity to be involved in the planning, prioritising and monitoring of our services.
Harrogate Borough Council recognises and welcomes the
fundamental importance of consulting effectively and involving the
public in its decision-making.
Harrogate Borough Council Community Engagement
Strategy
Harrogate Borough Council adopted its first Community
Engagement Strategy in November 1998. The strategy below was
last updated in 2005 and is due for update in
2008. It sets out the principles of Community
Engagement, why we do it and the objectives we have.
Community Engagement Registration
In order to ensure the co-ordination of Community Engagement
across the Council, all Council officers intending to carry out
community engagement complete a Community Engagement Registration
Form. It ensures that all community engagement
undertaken across the Council is recorded, co-ordinated and carried
out to the same standards.
An up-to-date version of the summary Community
Engagement Register can be found below It provides a list of
all consultation and other community engagement currently planned
and details of the contact officer.
3 Year Plan
The 3 year Consultation plan details projects/initiatives that
will involve consultation over the coming years. Once the
initiative is started a Community Registration form is
completed
District Panel
The District Panel is made up of 1500 residents and was set up
in 1999 to consult residents across the District on issues that
affect them. The Panel is consulted up to four
times a year by questionnaire on a wide variety of topics and
issues that affect quality of life of the
District. If you are interested in becoming a
member please contact the Community Engagement Officer on
Harrogate 556068 or via email districtpanel@harrogate.gov.uk.
Background information on the District Panel can be found
below.
District Panel Reports 2006-2007
Overview and Scrutiny
Climate Change and Renewable Energy
Volunteering
Budget 2007/8
Measuring Feelings of Safety
Street Cleansing and Waste & Recycling
Corporate Prioirties
Parking
AONB
Harrogate International Centre
Planning
Customer Services
Large Waste
Budget 2008/2009
Corporate Priorities
Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Deregulation
Homelessness
Harrogate Public Involvement Group
The main role of the Public Involvement Group is to provide
support to individual agencies carrying out consultations/surveys
involving the public, customers, users and stakeholders and oversee
the impact of surveys/consultations. The group
meets quarterly
Community Engagement Reports
Black and Minority Ethnic Report
Harrogate and Area Council for Voluntary Service has recently
carried out a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) mapping study (March
2006). The study sought to substantiate the
nature of activity, support and engagement with BME people in the
Harrogate District.
This study has four key purposes:
- To identify agencies used by BME people
- To identify who is working on BME issues
- To collate information on the work that is in progress to support people from BME groups
- To raise awareness of the nature of support that is sought by BME people
Citizenship and Belonging in the Harrogate
District
In Summer 2005 Harrogate Borough Council participated in a
research study carried out by the University of Liverpool examining
'The state of Local Democracy'. The research was
conducted in two districts in Northern England Harrogate and
Burnley. Within this study a common set of
questions was put to both the Harrogate and Burnley District
Panels. A copy of the Harrogate results can be
found below. The findings of the full
consultation are now published in a paperback book entitled 'Whose
Town is it Anyway, The state of Local Democracy in Two Northern
Towns' by Stuart Wilks-Heeg and Steve Clayton.
Harrogate Borough Council has a limited number of copies available
if you are interested in reading the full report
'Living Here' Young People Event
In 2006 Harrogate Borough Council commissioned Connexions York
and North Yorkshire with the aim of finding out the views of young
people aged 11-18 living in the Harrogate
District. At an informal event on 22 June 40
young people from the district fed back their views to Councillors
and service managers. See below for more
information.
'Living Here' The Connexions Report
Thank you to all who took part in the Living Here event in
June. We had some really excellent feedback from the
event. The final report resulting from the project
has been received from Connexions and we have been busy
looking at the recommendations made within. Please see below
for a copy of the Connexions Report.
The next step......A Youth Participation Plan for
Harrogate Borough Council
Following the 'Living Here' event and the subsequent
Connexions report a Harrogate Borough Council project team was
set up to develop a Youth Participation Plan for the
Council.
The Council has recently (December 2007) agreed a Youth
Participation Plan. The Plan incorporates an Action Plan to
enhance the involvement of children and young people in Harrogate
Borough Council's services, policies and decision-making. Actions
include working in partnership with North Yorkshire County Council
to set up a Youth Forum for the Harrogate District by early 2008.
The Council has also jointly appointed with Harrogate Disttrict
Extended Schools a Youth Participation Worker who
will work in partnership with other Public Service organisations
within the District to boost youth participation. If you
have any comments or questions please email the Community
Engagement Officer districtpanel@harrogate.gov.uk
See below for a copy of the HBC Youth Participation
Plan.
Want to know more about Community Engagement?
Contact: Community Engagement Officer, on
01423 556068 or email districtpanel@harrogate.gov.uk