Opening Up Government: Birmingham Workshop | 20 April 2015 | Meeting note
The UK Civil Society Open Government Network is working with civil society organisations across the UK to deliver a series of workshops to discuss and develop commitments for the next National Action Plan, and build the community of transparency, participation and accountability reformers in the UK. For more details on this workshop series and where we’re holding them, click here.
Details
BVSC: Centre for Voluntary Action, 138 Digbeth, Birmingham B5 6DR
Monday, 20th April 2015 from 14:00 to 17:00
Purpose
- Discuss and develop ideas for open government reforms in Birmingham and throughout the UK
- Build the community of transparency, participation and accountability reformers in the UK
- Share the work of the Open Government Partnership and UK Open Government Civil Society Network
What does an “open government” look like? What are the benefits?
- User-centred design (e.g. council websites being more user friendly)
- Live streaming council meetings
- Leadership
- Government giving up a level of control over the message
- Skilled up citizenry
- Skilled up local and national government (e.g. open data skills)
- If info is secret, we should be concerned!
- “Logical design”
- Feed upwards
- Important to make open info accessible
- Need to ensure government can respond to what it hears – willingness and capacity
- Open about what it’s trying to achieve
- Open government could make all info available and accessible
- Listening to responses and learning
- Better communication between government and civil society
- More accessible/ better resented data
- Less jargon
- Share evidence that decisions are based on
- Government needs to be honest about how quickly change can (or can’t) happen
What would a good open government reform look like? Reviewing existing open government ideas
Attendees were asked to look at the current commitments in the Open Government Manifesto and rank them in priority order. Each table was given a subset of half of the existing ideas.
| Priority
Level |
Table 1 | Table 2 |
| 1 | Open government accountability, e.g. an independent ‘Office for Open Government’ | Meaningful engagement when consulting with stakeholders Co-producing meaningful consultation principles and guidelines Adopt an open and formal process for piloting new policies Co-production of public services |
| 2 | Meaningful engagement when consulting with stakeholders Better accountability of elected representatives during their term of office |
The UK government should commit to setting up an independent body, with membership drawn from civil society, to scrutinise and oversee Britain’s security and intelligence agencies Transparency in government contracting |
| 3 | Citizen participation in spending 1% of public budgets Co-producing meaningful consultation principles and guidelines Developing dialogue skills in public admin |
Developing dialogue skills in public admin End corrupt money in UK property Fight corruption in the UK and Abroad Make open government a truly ‘national’ policy |
| 4 | The UK government should commit to setting up an independent body, with membership drawn from civil society, to scrutinise and oversee Britain’s security and intelligence agencies Co-production of public services Transparency in government contracting Fight corruption in the UK and Abroad |
|
| 5 | Implement the recommendations of the Digital Democracy Commission End corrupt money in UK property Adopt an open and formal process for piloting new policies Make open government a truly ‘national’ policy |
What open government reforms would you introduce?
Attendees were asked to develop their own ideas for open government reforms they would like to see introduced. These commitments will be added to the Open Government Manifesto.
| Education for Involvement: engaging students/ the community in citizenshipHow do we overcome citizens not knowing/ understanding the information they need to play a part? How do we equip people with these?
Education, starting in school (and those of school age, not at school e.g. home-schooled)
Embedded throughout the education system from an early age, in core subjects rather than standalone. Educating people to take ownership and be an engaged citizen. Understanding of processes. Confidence building Ability to participate in democracy and decision-making Why is your idea important? Only once people are equipped with the skills to be involved with government be truly open |
| Purpose/ benefits of openness? Government should take a carrot – rather than stick – approach to increasing open government. Openness presents the increased opportunity for:
Benefits such as these should be the focus for developing open government. |