Graham Smith, professor of politics at the University of Westminster and chair of the Knowledge Network on Climate Assemblies (KNOCA), looks at how citizens’ assemblies should work with local authorities.
A growing number of public authorities are commissioning citizens’ assemblies, recognising the value that the collective intelligence of citizens can bring to policy making and implementation. The combination of democratic lottery and deliberation bring a distinctive dynamic to citizen engagement, ensuing that a diverse group of residents have time to weigh evidence, deliberate and come to recommendations. It is very different from the polarised noise that too often characterises public meetings and social media.
But too often recommendations of assemblies fail to land. Too often they are not effectively integrated into political decision-making. The problem? Not enough time, resources and energy is spent preparing the ground within the public authority.
Citizens’ assemblies are a relatively resource-intensive form of citizen engagement. If an authority is going to expend those resources, they need to be complemented with a well-considered impact strategy. Just running an assembly is not enough. Preparing the public authority is critical.
So, what does successful preparation look like?
1. Organisers need to ensure commitment to follow-up from across the public authority. Too often assemblies are commissioned by committed politicians and public officials but their colleagues who will be responsible for delivering on assembly recommendations have not been integrated into the process. I was told a story of a public official who only heard about an assembly when its recommendations for change in their area of work landed on their desk. They were not well disposed to respond positively! Before an assembly, ensure that relevant colleagues are briefed. Draw key colleagues into the design and delivery team. During an assembly, invite and encourage colleagues to attend as observers. There is nothing quite like seeing citizens in action to dispel scepticism.
2. Bring relevant local stakeholders into the process. Not all recommendations can be delivered by public authorities alone. Consider including representatives from business, civil society and other relevant bodies in a stakeholder advisory body so that they develop a sense of responsibility for the process. Some authorities have established civic charters so that stakeholders can publicly express their commitment to the assembly and its recommendations.
3. Time assemblies with relevant points in the policy cycle. Don’t ask citizens to work on areas where policy is not open to input. On more than one occasion an assembly has been established on an area of policy where a strategy or plan has just been published. A waste of time and resources for the authority – and most importantly for the citizens.
4. Dedicate time and resources before the assembly has started to design the follow-up process. Be clear who will be responsible for coordinating the response of the authority. A dedicated team, preferably with support from the leader’s office, needs to be established. Otherwise, the assembly report will simply sit on the shelf. Structures and processes of regular internal reporting need to be put in place. This is often a basic Excel spreadsheet that is regularly updated by relevant policy teams. But someone needs to be responsible for making sure this happens.
5. Commit to public reporting. Be realistic about how much time it takes for impact to happen. Authorities now often commit to a short-term response at around three months after the assembly to explain how they are considering the recommendations and then a regular annual response to provide a public update on the fate of each recommendation. Where the decision is to not accept or to modify a recommendation, this needs to be clearly communicated. With an explanation.
6. Organisers need to be ready for resistance from amongst their colleagues, whether elected or appointed officials. However much work is done to involve different parts of the authority, some will not take kindly to the recommendations of citizens, particularly if they challenge their favoured policy solutions. Be ready to defend the assembly process from those who wish to do it damage.
7. Consider ways of continuing to support and resource assembly members after the assembly has ended to provide ongoing input to the authority as they consider its recommendations, to raise awareness of the process and to monitor and scrutinise action. The best advocates of the process and its recommendations are the citizens themselves.
Citizens’ assemblies are a promising opportunity to establish new ways of working with local communities. But their impact will be negligible unless the time, energy and resources dedicated to organising assemblies is matched with similar time, energy and resources to preparing the public authority to follow-up on assembly recommendations.
Graham Smith is the author of We Need to Talk About Climate: How Citizens’ Assemblies Can Help Us Solve the Climate Crisis which can be downloaded for free from the University of Westminster Press.
