At the request of the Our Voice programme during 2017 Shared Future were commissioned to produce a literature review of Citizen Jury style processes.
This document takes a snapshot of relevant literature to discuss the features of citizens juries, and other types of public engagement processes, their potential use (both in Scotland, England and internationally) and the Scottish policy context for running such a deliberative process. The review also considers some of the critique of citizens juries and mini-publics and in particular the ability of citizens juries to be inclusive and to impact upon decision-making processes.
More about this work
This review formed part of a body of work considering if a Citizens Jury would support the process of Realising Realistic Medicine. In response to challenges of Scotland’s public health record, changing demography and the economic environment in 2011 the Scottish Government set out its strategic vision for achieving sustainable quality in healthcare services across Scotland. Whilst fundamentally inward facing, it pointed to the need to ensure health delivery moved from being reactive to anticipatory, and of the “need to develop a shared understanding with the people of Scotland” of what they should expect from, and their responsibilities as partners in the Scottish health service.
The Scottish Health Council’s Our Voice programme sits within this Scottish context. ‘Our Voice is based on a vision where people who use health and social care services, carers and members of the public are enabled to engage purposefully with health and social care providers to continuously improve and transform services’.
During 2017 Shared Future were asked to provide the Our Voice programme advice about how to conduct a citizen jury on the topic, including facilitating a number of stakeholder workshops.
Download reports of some of our Citizen Jury related work on our page on citizen engagement.