Trialling the involvement of citizens in decision-making at local government level through innovative models of deliberative democracy.

The Innovation in Democracy Programme (IiDP) is trialling the involvement of citizens in decision-making at local government level through innovative models of deliberative democracy. We are supporting three local authorities to open up a key policy decision to citizen deliberation, complemented by online engagement. IiDP is jointly delivered by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government.

People are most likely to engage where they see the everyday impact of the decisions that are made, and feel they can make a difference by being involved. We are supporting the participating local authorities (LAs) to pilot deliberative democracy through Area Democracy Forums. These will allow LAs to convene a randomly selected but representative sample of residents, who are given wide-ranging information and time to deliberate, weigh up options, reach consensus, and make recommendations on a difficult issue that would usually be made by the local authority.