Agenda item

The Board held a discussion with how the meetings would be operated in moving forward, as there was a desire to ensure that the public were fully engaged with the process. It was important that the citizen voice was fully heard, and discussions ensued as to how this would be facilitated.

Members of the Board were asked to agree on an approach for commitments and areas of focus and a robust discussion was held with positive input across all Members of the Board.

One area of discussion was in terms of Public Questions at the meeting. Currently, the Board allowed members of the public to attend the meeting and ask a question relating to an item on the agenda. While the Board was keen to ensure this conversation was no stifled, it was noted that in many cases, if advance notice of a question had been received, it would allow for a full and informative answer to be provided at the meeting.

Consideration was given to changing the venue and taking it into the community. However, this had been trialled before and had not had the desired effect on increasing public participation. Therefore, it was suggested that instead the meeting be made more ‘welcoming’ with teas and coffees on arrival.

In order to ensure that the agenda of a meeting was listening to the public voice, it was proposed that an item at the start of every meeting be to consider ‘a lived voice’, whereby an individual representing a community or group attend to give their first-hand experience of health and well-being in their lives. This would look to engage with different people and groups across the borough and provide first hand evidence of problems faced. This could also include videos, recordings and question and answer sessions if appropriate. A proposal was put forward to invite the Learning Disability Partnership Board to attend the next meeting and give their experiences to the Board

Encouragement of youth participation was also muted as an area on which the Health and Well being Board wished to build, and consideration would be given to holding meetings later in the day, outside of school hours, or in the school holidays to allow this to happen. It was noted that the 31st August meeting was in fact in the school summer holidays and thought could be given to inviting some representatives from youth groups to attend.

The Health and Well Being board considered an item that proposed a new set of approaches for encouraging local people to take part in and feel part of the Board’s business, activity and meetings. The Board had a strong discussion on the considerations put before them with a number of points raised.

RESOLVED that thought be given to the following points for future meetings:-

1)    The first hour of meetings be dedicated to real life experiences with local groups invited to share their stories;

2)    Public questions be welcomed, with questions on notice encouraged, as well as at the meeting;

3)    Short videos and audio recordings be included at meetings;

4)    Make the venue more appealing, with tea and coffee offered to welcome the public;

5)    A representative from the Learning Disability Partnership Board be invited to the next meeting of the Health and Well Being Board to give their ‘lived experience’;

6)    Thought be given to holding some of the Board meetings either in the early evening or in school holidays to allow young people to attend and contribute.