Abstracts: October 31st, 2007

This joint action plan from Communities and Local Government and the LGA, is designed to take forward a shared community empowerment agenda. It forms an important strand of the Government’s overall strategy for constitutional renewal set out in the Governance of Britain’s Green Paper. The cross-government strategy aims to give citizens the means of participating in decision-making at every level.

The Action Plan describes the key outcomes of greater participation, collective action and engagement in democracy, changes in attitudes towards community empowerment and improved performance of public services.

There is a need to widen and deepen empowerment opportunities locally, because the more opportunities people have to make a difference, the better they feel about the services they have helped to shape and the better they feel about the institutions providing them. Proposals will be developed to create a menu of opportunities locally to inform people about ways they could get involved, building on the good practice that already exists in many areas.

Feedback to the on line forum http://haveyoursay.communities.gov.uk   received before 19 January 2008 will help to shape the cross government programme.