Developing a Highland Citizens' Panel
13th December 2009
The Highland Council is to form a Highland Citzens' Panel to gauge representative views of the Highland population on Council services and spending priorities.
The Council will switch the current spending on externally commissioning its public performance survey each year to funding the panel and surveying it instead. The panel will exist alongside other methods of asking the public their views including: ward forums; liaison with community councils and community groups; various customer surveys; and supporting specific arrangements such as tenant participation; Highland Youth Voice and Parent Forums in schools.
The move is seen as reinforcing the Council's commitment to engaging and improving the Council's communication with the public. The panel could also be used by public sector partners.
Panels will be made up from a sample of residents from the local population, who have agreed to participate in consultation activity on an ongoing basis. The panel aims to be representative of the population and for Highland is likely to consist of around 1400 people, gathering views from a representative range of people living across the Highlands.
Panel members will be asked to complete postal, on-line or telephone surveys or participate in focus groups on specific issues, such as budgets.
Councillor Carolyn Wilson, Chairman of the Resources Committee, said: "Citizens' panels are particularly useful for local councils as they can provide assurance to members that the views provided are representative of the population as a whole. By engaging panel members for more than one year, views over time can be tracked. Panels tend to generate high response rates to consultations and are a quick and easy resource to access."
Already 24 of the 32 Scottish local councils operate a panel.
Related Businesses
Related Articles
Today, Morrison Construction introduced some of their local apprentices who are working on the UK Governments' Levelling Up Funded refurbishment project at the Northern Meeting Park in Inverness. All these apprentices have been recruited from the Highland area.
The by-election to elect a councillor to represent Ward 19 - Inverness South on The Highland Council has been won by Duncan Cameron McDonald - Independent who was one of the eight candidates who contested the vacancy. Voters in the ward went to the poll yesterday (Thursday 11 April) and the by-election count was held this morning in The Highland Council Headquarters in Inverness.
The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate. The Technology Placement Programme offers funding to businesses in the Highland Council area to cover up to 70% of the cost of employing a student or graduate.
Following the success of its Business Digital Grant scheme launched last year, The Highland Council is delighted to announce further funding. This is to help Highland companies access digital support alongside other business growth support.
The Highland Council is delighted to confirm a highly successful second year for Public Service Obligation (PSO) flights between Wick and Aberdeen. The period from April 2023 to March 2024 has seen a substantial increase in passenger numbers, with several months seeing over 1,000 passengers using the service, and overall the service has seen year on year growth of 25%.
Members of Highland Council, who met on Thursday 14 March 2024, approved a corporate Digital Ambition, which has been designed to deliver significant organisational change across Council services, recognising the current priorities within the organisation. The Strategy, which is embedded within the wider Council Delivery Plan, has been developed to focus attention and resources on areas of change which will deliver the greatest benefit to the Council.
The Council remains committed to supporting mentoring in our schools, including the support that is currently delivered through the MCR Pathways programme. Highland Council is currently undertaking a review of Employability Support provided by a number of different council services and how these relate to the work carried out by external partners and in our schools.
Highland Council members have considered and agreed a revised draft Highland Outcome Improvement Plan. The partnership plan has been reviewed and updated by the Community Planning Partnership.
Members at today's (14 March 2024) meeting of The Highland Council agreed the local authority's new draft Community Wealth Building Strategy. They were also asked to note that a period of public engagement on the draft will now begin, with a final strategy returning to full Council for consideration in September.
Plans to invest up to £60m new Capital in Highland roads and infrastructure have been approved by Members at the Council meeting on 14 March 2024. The decision will see an additional £40m Capital investment in roads and transport infrastructure.