From social engagement to civic action – how can local government engage citizens in democracy and delivery? What can communities do for themselves with the support of local public bodies?
Over the last decade, the mechanisms for how citizens can participate more fully in decision making have been strengthened, but what does ‘participatory democracy’ represent for elected members? A panel – including a former president of COSLA, an MSP, and a senior lecturer at the University of Edinburgh – discuss the issue.
On Wednesday, 16 June, LGIU launched its new Local Democracy Research Centre (LDRC), which brings together experts from local government and academia across the globe to do practical research on some of the key challenges for local democracy around the world. This briefing introduces you to the work of the Research Centre and signposts how…
Posy MacRae, Head of Communications at the Scottish Land Commission, fills us in on the recently-launched ‘#MyLandScotland’ campaign, which explores the ways land impacts individuals and informs people on ways to benefit from and get involved in influencing what happens to the land around them.
In this paper we argue that building back better after the pandemic must include a new settlement for place that reconnects the government’s “levelling up” ambitions with the decentralisation of power in England.
Through engaging with new original work exploring the climate action credentials of the City and City Region Deals, this briefing will seek to highlight key trends, best practice and future opportunities for place-based climate change mitigation.
The Angus Food Growing Strategy is five-year plan designed to encourage and deliver local community food growing. In this blog, Rhonda McFarlane from Angus Council outlines how the programme will work and the benefits to the community it is set to achieve.
Pauline Waddell, Team Manager, Mobile Emergency Care Service (MECS) explains how Falkirk Council safeguarded a lifesaving service and became the first local authority in Scotland to enable end-to-end digital telecare.
On 29 March 2021, the Irish Government launched an ambitious and wide-ranging rural development policy. This briefing paper provides an overview of the policy’s main features and provisions, and it notes the influence, throughout, of a more optimistic paradigm.
Local government has a crucial role to play in the delivery of a sustainable future. The Improvement Service recently recruited a new position to lead on climate change by engaging the local government community and building new partnerships and collaborations. Judi Kilgallon gives her initial reflections on the drive for action and how the Improvement Service…
This briefing charts the Finnish education system, outlines fundamentals, and explores how this combats Covid-19 misinformation. The Finnish approach to education and media literacy might serve as a lesson for the rest of the world on how to navigate the infodemic.
