We have now run the first training sessions for Participate and would like to hear your views about running the Participate programme in your authority. Register and the top of this page (or log in if you have already registered to The Reading Agency site) and post your comments here. Your feedback will inform our future developments of Participate.
Comment from Rob Jones from the Isle of Wight - posted by Natasha Roe of The Reading Agency
“On the train home Elspeth and I discussed our first thoughts. We want to share our understanding of participation with the rest of our SMT (the other two). Talk to frontline staff who will be involved. Think big start small.
"I have already had a long chat with the person who was responsible for participation in the council and am currently looking at the relevant documents from various consultations and participatory events that have been held. The two sessions so far have put all of this previous work that the council has been done into context for me. We also discussed how this work fitted on Hart's ladder - towards the middle -
"Hear by Right is underway and some initial scoring has been done. An action plan is in place - but as yet doesn't include us.
"I'm off to a Children's Trust Positive Outcomes Group meeting this afternoon of which I am a member. I understand that the Connexions team and three Island regional folk know about what we want to do and are standing by.
"Enough for the moment. Our involvement has ensured that we get things started off on the right footing. We plan to get our thoughts, training and staff in the right place before we go further. We were already planning to do some improvement work in our main library in Newport and are discussing how e can get young people's view in this."
Rob Jones, Isle of Wight