Participatory Budgeting

Shared Future CIC delivers expert advice and support on Participatory Budgeting (PB). This democratic innovation is an effective way to engage and empower citizens in shaping public services and investments.

Participatory Budgeting (PB) enables local people to make decisions over local public budgets. These can be within local neighbourhoods and communities, or across a whole Local Authority area.

PB has been recognised as an effective way to:

Address inequalities in service provision and resource allocation
Engage and empower citizens through deliberation on public investment
Stimulate coproduction, trust and responsibility between citizens and government

PB is a flexible, values led method for elevating your community engagement. There is no “one-size fits all” approach. At the local level it can operate as a form of participatory grant making, where local people decide which projects receive funding. Or it can be used to address specific topics, such as community safety, health and well-being or climate change. The real power of PB is when it’s scaled up to consider a whole local budget, with significant resources and powers devolved to citizens.

“The truth about a government’s intention is not found in its vision, it is found in its budget.”

How we can help

We understand that PB needs to fit with local contexts and needs. It’s flexibility within different settings is its strength. Every budget or investment decision can be more participatory, more deliberative, and involve more people. We have a track record advocating for PB going back nearly 25 years. We have assisted countless local authorities, public bodies and community led organisations with their PB processes.

We also undertake research and run projects on how PB can build a stronger local economy. We support citizens take action on climate change through our PB briefings and free toolkits. We recognise the importance of being local, connected and close to each other, and of building a participatory democracy that meets everyone’s needs.

We can provide a range of flexible and affordable PB support services, including:

Strategic support on policy and implementation
Facilitating planning meetings
Bespoke training to staff, elected members and local residents
Writing reports, undertaking research and conducting PB evaluations.

If you want to find our more about PB, or want to grow your citizen engagement, we can help:

From an introductory briefing to a short support package we can help to get your PB programme underway and ensure its success. Or we can provide detailed advice, training and support to embed community participation into your large scale budget making processes.

Find out more

Our seven values & principles for Participatory Budgeting

Local
Ownership

Citizens should be involved in setting budget priorities, identifying unmet needs, proposing projects for public spending and making decisions concerning their community or place.

Scale

PB processes should move towards decisions over increasingly larger service budgets and investments (as opposed to only small-scale participatory grant making).

Shared Responsibility

PB is an effective way to build co-production, common purpose and a shared commitment from all stakeholders when there are clear roles, agreed aims and ways for everyone to become involved.

Support for Democracy

Participation, such as through PB, supports and strengthens representative democracy.
Public bodies should advocate for a wide range of approaches for public participation
within an ecosystem of local democracy.

Deliberation

PB processes should take citizens beyond personal choice and involve real, informed and meaningful deliberation around budget decisions.

Accessibility

Participants must have good and clear access to PB processes. This includes accessible venues, good information and support to participate.

Transparency

PB processes are designed to give citizens full and clear knowledge of public budgets in their area, even those over which they do not have a direct say.

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