Examination of Witnesses (Questions 174-179)
MS JO
BOADEN, COUNCILLOR
DAVE LEDGER,
MR ROB
WORRALL AND
MR KEVIN
ROWAN
20 MARCH 2006
Q174 Chair: Would you like to introduce
yourselves?
Mr Worrall: I am Rob Worrall and
I am the Assistant Chief Executive of the North East Assembly.
Councillor Ledger: I am Councillor
Dave Ledger, Vice Chairman of the North East Assembly and a Councillor
on Wansbeck District Council and Northumberland County Council.
Ms Boaden: I am Jo Boaden, Chief
Executive of the North East Regional Assembly.
Mr Rowan: I am Kevin Rowan; I
am regional secretary of the TUC and one of the social partners
on the North East Assembly.
Q175 Chair: Regional Assemblies have
been getting a rather poor press, so to speak, in the beginning
part of the evidence session. What evidence do you have that there
is public understanding of the role of the North East Assembly?
Ms Boaden: I will start off with
the obvious point that the North East went through a very difficult
time with the referendum and the "no" vote, and obviously
there was a lot of public perception and misperception at that
time. Prior to that election there was a Regional Assembly with
powers that it had then continuing through that process; and it
continues with those powers now. That has made it particularly
difficult for the North East in terms of public perception because
there was a confusion of roles between what might have been an
elected regional assembly and what is the regional assembly. We
have tried very hard, and continue to try very hard, to improve
public perception. If I could give you a small example of that,
our Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) started its examination in
public two weeks ago and that, as I am sure as you all around
the table know, is a very dry document and one with a very long
time horizon. It is quite difficult to get people engaged and
involved in it. With the help of a local journalist for The
Journal in the North East, he devised and provided an article
that showed how regional spatial strategy would impact on the
life of a child at two, as they grew up, and as they went through
their life in terms of what schools they would go to, what Higher
education they might attain and what jobs they might attain; and
where they might live and work in the future. That made it much
more relevant and understandable for local people, and that was
quite widely acclaimed. If we could concentrate on the example
of the Regional Spatial Strategy, it is very pertinent for us
because we are going through the examination in public right now.
There was a whole host of different methods of consultation at
a variety of different levels. There was a website that had over
150,000 hits on it over a 12-week period. People downloaded documents—over
6,000 documents. Even on Christmas day people were downloading
documents from it. Ninety people downloaded the regional spatial
strategy on Christmas Day! We thought it might have been for presents,
but we are not sure! We had focus groups and went right out across
the region and consulted very widely on that document. Rob will
speak more about what happens in terms of our scrutiny role, how
we take that right across the region and involve local people
within that, and local businesses where that is appropriate. We
are devising a new communication strategy. We have separated from
ANEC (Association of North East Councils). We have not had in
house communications support for some time now but we have just
employed a communications manager to advise on communications
strategy, and that will concentrate on things like making sure
that information is timely and relevant. We cover over two and
a half million people in a very wide area. We need to make sure
that people understand what we do and how it impacts on their
lives at different times. It is not easy in relation to how the
public perceive us at this moment in time; but that perception
is growing and we have had a difficult time with misperception
but the air is beginning to clear and settle; and we have that
at the heart of what we do, to make sure that people do understand
the value that we give to the life of the region.
Q176 John Cummings: In your evidence
you stated that you have taken steps to maximise the involvement
of stakeholders in the Assembly—and you put great emphasis
on that issue. You also hope that the stakeholders will add to
and enhance the community's capacity for engagement with the Assembly.
You are, I imagine, reaching out to embrace as many groups as
possible.
Ms Boaden: Yes.
Q177 John Cummings: Can you tell
the Committee precisely what you have done, and can you give some
practical examples of what has been changed as a result of this
exercise?
Ms Boaden: Can I start with Rob,
who has done some scrutiny work through the stakeholders where
things have changed quite considerably? Kevin, as a stakeholder
here today, would want to speak on that.
Mr Worrall: It is important to
know that whilst we are not a directly elected regional assembly,
we do represent the region and we are representing communities
of interest. That is important—it is not just the general
community. In terms of our scrutiny role I can point to clear
examples of where we have had change and influence in terms of
what happened at the regional level. We recently carried out an
assessment of the scrutiny inquiries that have gone on over the
past few years, and we were able to know that there had been a
positive impact on the promotion of entrepreneurship through regional
economic strategy. Also, in terms of the Strategy for Success,
we made several recommendations and we were able to clearly show
that we had influenced the promotion of science and also the development
of an action plan to raise regional aspirations within the Strategy
for Success. In terms of the communities of interest, one clear
example was in terms of SME creation and survival. In that scrutiny
exercise we were able to bring in to the Assembly failed entrepreneurs
who were able to talk about how the business support system did
not actually support them. This is quite innovative in so far
as one would not usually get this public debate and access about
how business had been affected by the business support system
not supporting them. They talked about this, and this influenced
quite heavily the business brokerage model that had since been
developed by the Regional Development Agency (RDA).
Q178 Chair: Were those examples before
or after the referendum?
Mr Worrall: They were before the
referendum.
Q179 John Cummings: After this particular
exercise had been completed you have told us what you have done
to try and engage people, but what has been achieved as a result
of this exercise? What kind of measures can we look at and embrace
to understand what has been achieved?
Mr Worrall: What has been achieved
as a result of this exercise has been that we have managed to
influence the development of the business support models. It is
something that happens over the longer term; it is not always
something that instantly changes.
Mr Rowan: One of the key things
that the Assembly tries to recognise is that in order to engage
in a scrutiny role it does not necessarily possess the expertise
within its immediate staffing. One of the things that the economic
and social partners bring to the table is that actual experience
of policy implementation and delivery. For instance, when we look
at the sustainable development framework, it is organisations
that are specialising in sustainable development that are engaged
as social partners that contribute directly to it. When Rob was
talking about the SME scrutiny role, he was talking to SMEs that
are part of the economic social partnership group that talk about
their experience of business support and services. That practical
experience helped to inform the scrutiny role, which led to changes
in business support services. That was a practical outcome as
a result of that. We did some work in the run-up to the referendum
which was about trying to establish economic principles for stakeholder
engagement of an elected Regional Assembly, should that come to
pass. The work that the Assembly did was commended by the ODPM
for developing excellence in principles of social partner stakeholder
engagement. As you have pointed out, John, it highlighted some
gaps within the engagement of social partners within the current
North East Assembly, and led the Assembly to do some work in terms
of developing networks and groups that currently are not participating
as much as they should, particularly in the voluntary sector groups.
That work is ongoing and is partly supported by DTI initiatives
in the region.
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