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Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

• What is Newcastle Citizens Assembly?
• What are the aims of Newcastle Citizens Assembly?
• What do we mean by ‘citizens’?
• How can citizens get involved?
• What issues will be covered by Newcastle Citizens Assembly?
• Which agencies/organisations/networks will Newcastle Citizens Assembly work with?
• How will Newcastle Citizens Assembly work with groups?
• How will Newcastle Citizens Assembly work with individuals?
• Will Newcastle Citizens Assembly have formal membership?
• What events will Newcastle Citizens Assembly hold from 2009 to 2011 and who can attend them?
• How will information be exchanged between Newcastle Citizens Assembly and the Newcastle Partnership (LSP)?
• What is the governance structure for Newcastle Citizens Assembly? Who is Newcastle Citizens Assembly accountable to and what are their roles?
• How does the work of Newcastle Citizens Assembly relate to Ward Committees?
• What is the process for review and evaluation?
• Summary
• Newcastle Citizens Assembly Partnership Model

General Questions

Newcastle Citizens Assembly is a platform for conversations between the citizens of Newcastle and the Newcastle Partnership (LSP) on city-wide issues.  It is a new process for the engagement of communities in the work of the Newcastle Partnership.  It will add to and complement existing mechanisms – it does not replace them.   

To influence decision makers in order to bring about change by:    

• Encouraging people to become ‘active’ citizens  
• Providing a platform for city-wide issues to be raised by the citizens of Newcastle  
• Championing those city-wide issues

Newcastle Citizens Assembly recognises a ‘citizen’ as anyone who lives, works or studies in Newcastle.

Citizens of Newcastle can get involved with the Assembly through an affiliation to a group (formal or informal) that adheres to the Newcastle Citizens Assembly Code of Conduct

and/or

As an individual: 

• who wants to receive information on the Newcastle Citizens Assembly
• who wants to add their support or add supporting evidence to issues raised by groups through the Newcastle Citizens Assembly 
• who wants to receive information on what happens to the issues raised
• who wants to receive information on other opportunities to get involved 
• who requires signposting to other voluntary and community sector groups/organisations or statutory agencies

To enable a constructive conversation to take place between the citizens of Newcastle and the Newcastle Partnership (LSP), the overall structure for the city-wide issues covered by Newcastle Citizens Assembly in 2009/10 will be the six themes of Newcastle Partnership’s Sustainable Community Strategy and Local Area Agreement (2008-11).  The six themes are:

• Strengthening the economy
• Improving wellbeing, health and independence
• Managing environmental impact
• Creating and sustaining quality places to live
• Creating safe, inclusive, cohesive and empowered communities 
• Improving the outcomes for children and young people 

Groups will put forward improvements they want to see happen in Newcastle.  By concentrating on improvements the conversation can remain positive and solution focussed. 

The Assembly aims to identify and develop common ground across a wide range of different perspectives.   
 

Newcastle Citizens Assembly will work in partnership with a range of existing agencies, groups and networks including:

• Newcastle Partnership (LSP) 
• Newcastle City Council and other statutory organisations
• Newcastle Healthy City projects and their networks including Quality of Life Partnership, Community Food Initiative, Deaflink, HAREF, Carers Centre Newcastle
• Newcastle City Council’s Community Development Unit
• Ward Committees
• Formal and informal networks of community groups of place, interest and identity
• Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service (NCVS)
• Newcastle Local Involvement Network (LINk)
• Other networks such as Newcastle Tenants Federation etc. 

Newcastle Citizens Assembly will continue to expand its partnership work to ensure it reaches out to a wide range of groups across the City.

We recognise and value the contribution of all of the existing engagement and empowerment mechanisms in Newcastle and we will work in partnership with them to ensure there is a coordinated approach to engagement and empowerment across the City.  

Working through existing agencies, organisations and networks and outreach work carried out by the Newcastle Citizens Assembly staff team we aim to work with groups who do not normally participate in existing engagement mechanisms. 

We aim to work with up to 50 groups from 2009 to 2011 and support each group to bring forward one improvement they want to see happen in Newcastle.  In putting a figure on the number of groups we aim to work with we are not intending to exclude groups but recognise our capacity with the given resources and time constraints.    

By using a facilitated community development approach we will encourage the groups to explore a range of issues, under the six themes of Newcastle Partnership’s Sustainable Community Strategy and Local Area Agreement (2008-11), which are of importance to them, before agreeing on one improvement.

Through conversation and negotiation each group will reach a consensus on one improvement.  Once the improvement is agreed by the whole group they can then explore ways they wish to present their improvement to the wider audience of the Assembly at periodic events, the first of which will be held in autumn 2009.  The process is solution focused and groups will be encouraged to propose a range of solutions that could make their improvement a reality. 

Due to the range of issues that will be identified by the groups, signposting to the most appropriate organisation or agency e.g. Newcastle City Council’s Community Development Unit or Ward Committees will be a key part of the Newcastle Citizens Assembly process. 
             

Individuals can be part of the process at any time in the ways outlined above.  

Newcastle Citizens Assembly will utilise a range of communication methods to ensure information is widely available and accessible. 

The improvements identified by groups will be publicised using a variety of methods including website, local press, newsletters and email.

Individuals will have the opportunity to add their support for a particular improvement that they want to see happen in Newcastle and add supporting evidence to improvements in a variety of ways including phone, text, reply slips in the local press, newsletters, website and email.

Individuals will have the opportunity to receive information on the outcomes of the issues raised by groups through Newcastle Citizens Assembly in a variety of ways including website, email, local press, Citylife and newsletters.  

Newcastle Citizens Assembly is a participatory process rather than a representative process and therefore there is no formal membership of Newcastle Citizens Assembly.  Membership is fluid rather than fixed to encourage participation from a wide range of citizens in ways that are appropriate to them and create a broader sense of ownership over the process. 

The Assembly will aim to ensure that participation in its work is from a wide range of groups and individuals and that it brings together a range of perspectives without claiming to be representative. 
 

Newcastle Citizens Assembly will hold periodic events to bring together all of the groups who have contributed to the improvements and a number of participants from the agencies whose responses will be key. 

The event will be interactive and an opportunity for the groups to present their improvements and solutions in a variety of creative ways and discuss these with the wider audience. 

Newcastle Citizens Assembly will hold Feedback Events to bring the groups and agencies together to discuss what improvements have been made, what improvements are planned for the future and what improvements are not achievable at present, and provide reasons why.

The events provide an opportunity for groups who do not normally participate in existing engagement mechanisms and so they are not primarily for those groups who are already ‘engaged’ or for individuals. However individuals and other groups will be able to feed into the events through expressing their support for the improvements identified by groups.
 

Newcastle Citizens Assembly staff will collate information following the events and produce the following reports for the Newcastle Partnership (LSP):

• a summary report to the Strategic Board giving an overview of key issues identified by Newcastle Citizens Assembly and identifying any cross-cutting themes and/or any particularly difficult or strategic issues
• separate reports, relating to specific themed issues, to Delivery Partnerships 
• in certain circumstances, where an issue raised clearly relates to a single agency, a separate report will be produced for that individual agency

On receipt of Newcastle Citizens Assembly reports the following action will be taken by the Newcastle Partnership (LSP): 

• feedback from the Strategic Board on the summary report will be sent to Assembly staff to circulate to all participants
• a senior representative from the Strategic Board will attend the Newcastle Citizens Assembly Feedback Events
• feedback from Delivery Partnerships on the themed issue reports will be sent to Assembly staff to circulate to all participants
•  Delivery Partnership Coordinators and/or appropriate senior representatives will attend the Newcastle Citizens Assembly Feedback Events   

Newcastle Partnership (LSP) provides the strategic framework – The Community Empowerment Framework – within which the Assembly operates.    It has responsibility for ensuring that the Assembly is both effective and balanced in its contribution and fit for purpose (a responsibility it shares with NCC as the funding body).  It also has responsibility for ensuring that LSP members respond adequately to the improvements and issues raised through the work of the Assembly.

Newcastle City Council (NCC) is the accountable body and the fund-holder for the Area Based Grant, which funds the project.  Acting on advice from the LSP, it commissions Newcastle Healthy City to provide the Assembly.  NCC, as the accountable body, is therefore responsible for ensuring the cost effectiveness of the initiative.  

Newcastle Healthy City (NHC) is the organisation contracted to deliver the Assembly.  As the provider agency, it is responsible for delivering the project and employing the two members of staff working directly on the Assembly.

NCC and the LSP are jointly, with Newcastle Healthy City, responsible for the success of the Assembly.   

Newcastle Citizens Assembly Task Group is a broad-based group of experienced and skilled individuals from the voluntary and community sector and statutory agencies tasked with helping the project develop and connecting it with groups and agencies.  As the Assembly evolves and develops, it is envisaged that the Task Group will also change according to need.    

The governance of the Assembly will be aligned with the governance arrangements for the Community Empowerment Framework (CEF).  The main elements will be the Inclusion, Cohesion, Equalities and Empowerment Advisory Group, the CEF Project Board and the CEF Officer Group.
 

Newcastle Citizens Assembly is about city-wide issues.  Where specific local issues are identified Assembly staff will ensure they are taken up by the most appropriate local mechanism.

Ward Coordinators and Elected Members will be fully briefed about Newcastle Citizens Assembly.  Where Ward Committees are raising city-wide improvements and issues that are not already being dealt with elsewhere we would anticipate that those issues will feed into the Assembly.

Newcastle Citizens Assembly staff are responsible for monitoring the project under the terms of the Service Level Agreement and will regularly report to, and review progress with, Newcastle City Council and the Newcastle Partnership (LSP).   

An independent evaluation of Newcastle Citizens Assembly will be carried out after the first year.  This is important because of the need to take all stakeholders views into account and because it is a new and innovative project. 

Among other things, the evaluation will ask:

• What worked well about the process?
• What areas need improving? 
• How can the process ensure it continues to reach out to more citizens?
• How effective were the governance arrangements?
• How did decision makers respond? 
• What evidence is there of change?  

Newcastle Citizens Assembly aims to engage citizens who do not normally participate in existing engagement mechanisms thereby increasing the number of citizens who feel they can influence decisions.    

Newcastle Citizens Assembly is part of the broad-based, partnership approach to community engagement and empowerment outlined in Newcastle Partnership’s Community Empowerment Framework.  

Newcastle Citizens Assembly will work in partnership with other engagement and empowerment mechanisms in Newcastle to ensure a coordinated approach and avoid duplication of work.