Author: Claire Bynner and Oliver Escobar, What Works Scotland, and Wendy Faulkner, Talking Tweed

Date: 11 May 2017

Claire Bynner, Oliver Escobar and Wendy Faulkner describe a What Works Scotland project to create a training course that would develop and cascade skills in facilitative leadership.

A new era of community participation in local democracy requires public services staff to develop skills for collaborative engagement.

The policy context in Scotland strongly promotes, and increasingly mandates, greater and deeper community participation in local democracy. Yet only 35% of Scottish citizens feel they have any influence over decisions affecting their community.

The traditional reliance on public meetings and community leaders is failing to engage wide sections of the community. Many are sceptical about conventional forms of community participation, while others are seeking different ways to become involved. How do we facilitate dialogue and deliberation to empower community involvement?

The post sums up the course, the lessons learned and how its findings might be taken forward.

Read the post on the What Works Scotland blog