YOUdecide History

YOUdecide History

PB brand

Participatory Budgeting (PB) was developed in Brazil in the 1980’s following decades of corruption and dictatorship to encourage citizen participation and democracy. There are now a number of other countries who have adopted different models of PB and since 2006, over 150 communities in the UK have used a number of these models.

Gosport Community Safety Partnership was selected by the Home Office to take part in the Engaged Communities pilot in May 2009 and distributing £20,000 of Home Office funds to the community through a PB process was a compulsory part of the project. Following research and guidance from local PB projects in Southampton and Isle of Wight, the Community Grants model was selected to use in Gosport. An area based approach was also chosen to test out the model, with £10,000 being available for each area. These were based on Police Safer Neighbourhood areas and comprised of approximately 5,000 households.

An essential part of the PB process is involving the community at all stages. In November 2009, the concept of PB was presented at Neighbourhood Action Groups, along with survey data and crime statistics, and the groups made key decisions including:

  • The name and brand of the scheme
  • How it should be promoted – which included personally addressed letters
  • The criteria was kept as broad as possible with no limits on size of the bids
  • Scoring system for the Decision Day events

All households in the areas received a letter telling them about YOUdecide fund and the application process took place in January & February 2010. Applications from both groups and individuals were received.

HAT vote HAT vote box

Applications were checked by a working group made up of key community members to make sure the projects were feasible and did not form a pre-selection process in any way. The project representatives were invited to make a 3 minute, ‘Dragon’s Den’ style pitch at the Decision Day events held in March 2010 and all households received a letter inviting them to come along and vote. Both events were full of emotion and drama – tears, voting system failures and surprise results all featured! It was an incredibly empowering experience; for the community who voted on which ideas deserved the money; the bidders who felt validated and supported by their community; and elected members and council representatives who relinquished control and placed the decision making directly into the hands of the community. Evaluations from these are in the attached document.

2010 Evaluation [PDF, 127k] Summary Evaluation 2010 [PDF, 36k]

Elson PB

Due to the success and popularity of YOUdecide, Gosport Community Safety Partnership continued to use PB beyond the Home Office pilot and the scheme has gone from strength to strength. Subsequent rounds of YOUdecide were run in October & November 2010, June 2011, May and November 2012, October 2013 and most recently October 2014. These have been jointly funded by the Community Safety Partnership and Hampshire County Council through their Have Your Say grant. Following each of the Decision Days, feedback and evaluations have helped to improve the YOUdecide process for both bidders and voters.

Some videos from previous decision days are available on the following links: www.youtube.com/watch Bidders videos www.youtube.com/watch Pre/post event interviews

Also an article about the October 2013 event featured in Portsmouth News and you can read the ecstatic feedback from two of the winners here.

YOUdecide is once again returning thanks to a successful funding bid to Hampshire’s Police & Crime Commissioner – visit the Youth YOUdecide page for more details.