Participation has been a key theme in the Innovation Circle. Innovation is not restricted to business activity. There is a need to be innovative when thinking about governance. There is scope for learning and knowledge transfer between IC partners on issues of governance. However, beware against casual attempts to transplant practices. Governance is shaped by institutions and traditions from the past. What works in one place may not work in another.
I have recently been working on new ideas about public involvement in the planning system in Scotland. The work was done with Planning Aid for Scotland (PAS). PAS is a charity that is supported by central government and some local governments and private companies in Scotland. It mainly operates through a network of volunteer planners who provide their professional expertise free of charge to individuals and communities who cannot afford to hire a planning consultant to fight their case. Increasingly its work has been about building skills and understanding in communities about the planning system so that they can help themselves.
In Scotland a new planning system is being phased in. One of the declared aims of the system is to strengthen public involvement. However, there is a tension between this aim and the desire of government to give high priority to economic development. Planning often comes down to jobs versus environment, and the public and pressure groups look to the planning system to afford them a say.
The work I have been doing began with the proposition that we could write a set of performance standards for public involvement. In other words we could create the kind of quality assurance system that is common in much of the private sector. The underlying idea was that there would be at least a clear minimum standard that every local council or developer would need to meet. We also drafted higher standards as well, so as to make them a means of improving practice, not just ticking boxes to show that a lowest common denominator had been achieved.
In the end this approach proved too ambitious. Private developers in particular were uneasy – though some were extremely enthusiastic about the idea. In the end we have produced not a set of standards but a tool that can be used to promote good, self-reflective practice. We have called it SP=EED. This stands for Scottish Planning=Efficient Engagement and Delivery.
It works at three levels. Level 1 is about giving information. Level 2 is for when the aim of the exercise is “Consulting and Listening”. Level 3 is “Partnership”, which means joint working with key stakeholders probably over a period of time. For each level there are 10 criteria. These are transparency and integrity; time and resources; information; co-ordination; responsiveness; accessible and appropriate; inclusive and reaching out; representative; monitoring and evaluation; and learning and sharing.
Then for each criterion at each level there is a statement of what standard should be aimed for, how it can be achieved and some good practice examples. The aim is that the method will now be tested out by councils and developers. PAS will offer training. Good practice examples can be added. Hopefully we can create an innovative learning process that will indeed make public involvement in planning more efficient and effective.