Agenda item

The commission will consider the following evidence:

1. Focus groups – held with residents, elected members and community leaders
2. Questionnaires
3. Oral testimonies and vox pops
4. Conference: 

Panel discussion, workshops and cafe conversations from the conference

5. Plain English paper on options for changing the decision making powers of Council Assembly
6. Minutes of meetings

Deborah Collins, monitoring officer, will be available to assist members with any legal and constitutional questions arising out of items 5 and 6.

Ian Mark , Senior Lawyer , will also attend .

Evidence collected

Cllr Mohamed and Julie Timbrell summarised the amount of information collected since the Democracy Commission began its work on 12^th July: around 200 questionnaires completed, 5 focus groups, 3 Committee  meetings , oral testimonies, and the conference on 4^th September.

The task was now to come up with a set of recommendations before the Council Assembly meeting on 20^th October.

Focus Groups

Julie Timbrell said that some of the  transcripts of the focus groups had been circulated to members of the Committee. Once participants had approved the text  for the members focus groups they  would go on the website within a week, with the rest to follow.

Vox pops

Michael Cleere introduced his sound sample. He said that 88 vox pops with local residents had been recorded, out of a target of 100. They had been recorded in shopping centres and libraries around the borough. Some clear themes have emerged:

• A lack of awareness of how democracy operates
• Lack of awareness of Council Assembly and how it operates
• Lack of awareness of what a councillor is
• A willingness on the part of the local community to get involved.

One resident who particularly stood out was a young man called Jason. There was a lot of passion in what he had to say.

Ari Henry said that many people experience alienation from the council. Officers don’t answer emails or the phone, or if they do, nothing is done in response. People contact the council to try and find information but give up. He had still not had a response to a complaint he had made regarding a hustings meeting the People’s Republic of Southwark had held in April.

Cllr Mohamed responded that the Democracy Commission is looking at how to improve the system, so that people are listened to. He was advised to detail his complaints one by one so they can be addressed.

Ari Henry said he had contact all the councillors on the Commission with a query about SurveyMonkey. None had replied. Cllr Mohamed responded that Julie Timbrell was sorting it out.

Questionaires

Julie Timbrell said that approximately 200 questionnaires had been completed. The last time she checked, 111 had been completed on-line. Cllr Al-Samerai clarified that all the people invited to the conference had been sent a questionnaire, but it was not included with the second letter about the change of time. One members said he said he had counted 70 attendees atone point . Another member commented  that some people came and left and it was probably over a 100 throughout the day.  Cllr Soanes said she thought the attendance was healthy, with people from the length and breadth of the borough.

Max Holloway commented that  the questionnaire had not appeared on the council’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Julie Timbrell responded that Communications were putting it on. Max replied that he had seen some activity on Social network platforms, but not since early August.

Cllr Al-Samerai requested a breakdown of the costs incurred by the Commission so far.

Julie Timbrell presented interim findings of the questionnaire, including the free text responses. She then described the breakdown of the respondents by gender, disability, age, and ethnicity. Representation was roughly

equal among women and men, and high among people with a disability, but there was concern at the very high proportion of white people responding.

Cllr Al-Samerai said the issue of BME involvement had been raised at the conference. The Commission should work with voluntary organisations to reach BME communities.

Cllr Morrissey said the diversity of people at the conference was encouraging – apart from the lack of young people.

Michael Cleere said that 42 out of the 88 vox pop participants were BME.

Cllr Al-Samerai said that more work needed to be done on engaging young people. She explained that the Commission had already taken some steps to engage young people. She also described a youth-themed meeting of Bermondsey Community Council which involved outreach in advance to youth clubs; special workshops with young and older people; and voting buttons. Suggestions made by young people at the meeting had been passed to the Cabinet. She stressed that a meeting needs to have clear outcomes or people will be become disengaged. She also pointed out that the Southwark Youth Council has control over its own budgets.

Don Phillips asked about the outcomes of the conference workshops. Julie Timbrell responded that these would be posted on-line.

Cafe Conversations

Julie Timbrell talked through the key points raised in the conference Cafe Conversations. These had also been circulated in the papers for the meeting.

Don Phillips asked about the outcomes of the conference workshops. Julie Timbrell responded that these would be posted on-line.

‘Plain English’ paper

Ian Mark described the paper on Council Assembly which had been tabled. Basically it was a simplified version of an earlier paper which had been circulated.

Ian explained that the Cabinet can delegate plans and strategies to Council Assembly  but the Assembly cannot discharge executive functions. It can also  receive policy framework documents to consider. He said that there was some possibility of reviewing the regulatory functions that Council Assembly is responsible for – eg the responsibilities it delegates to the Planning Committee, but this would alter the responsibilities of those committees rather than Council Assembly.

Deborah Collins stressed the importance of making it very clear what is being decided at a Council Assembly meeting, especially as debates become more free-flowing, involving more people, with the use of social media etc. There is a question to be resolved of how the results should be recorded. The Commission may wish to direct officers to explore different routes to decision-making.

Cllr Mohamed said mentioned of adopting the parliamentary style of  Green and White Paper processes. Deborah Collins responded that the Green and White Paper processes would not fit in with Council Assembly processes as it stands at the moment. Council Assembly has traditionally been used to take decisions, Green papers are early consultation papers that tend to ask questions.

Cllr Al-Samerai clarified that also Council Assembly cannot discharge executive functions, Community Councils can. Any Cabinet function can be delegated to a Community Council. She stressed the importance of getting decision-making as close to the ‘grassroots’ as possible.

Stephen Douglass said he was going to arrange to have a paper drafted for the  next meeting of the Democracy Commission to comment on the implications of the recent Localism Bill.