Tom Arthur MSP, Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth

Neil Ritch - National Lottery Community Fund

David Reilly, The Poverty Alliance

Our panel discussion

Documents and presentations

• You can download slides from the day here.

• We have also adapted David’s input has a series of blog posts, available here.

• You can download the questions submitted to our panel here

• You can download the key takeaways from our workshops discussion here.

More than 100 people joined us for this participative, hybrid conference to explore how Scotland is embedding participatory budgeting (PB) as one of the key ways to energise and develop participation in our democracy.

Building on the PB Framework and the National Participatory Budgeting Strategic Group, this conference brought everyone interested in PB together to explore what we've learned from the pandemic and what it means for future of PB in Scotland.

We examined some key questions posed by the National Strategic Group:

• How do we create a participative culture shift, develop PB leadership and embed long-term thinking?

• How can green PB support community responses to the climate emergency?

• What role can PB play in addressing issues around housing and homelessness?

• How do we ensure equality remains at the core of PB practice?

• How can PB support Scotland's health and wellbeing?

• What role do schools play in delivering PB?

For each question we presented examples of PB in practice and hosted workshops exploring how we can embed broader community and public participation approaches in decision-making about priorities and how budgets are spent.

You can read tweets from he day using #PBScot22.

About our hybrid conference

This was our first hybrid conference, so we’re developing new ways to combine in person and online events - all while trying to keep it an engaging and participative experience however you decide to join.

In person, we wanted to deliver the safest event we can, while ensuring we benefit from the face-to-face interactions we’ve missed since the pandemic struck. We’re also very conscious of those who may be at additional clinical risks, so we’ll asking everyone to take precautions to support as much participation as possible. 

Online, we used a combination of live streaming and participative online workshops that we’ve become used to over the last couple of years.

You can read our full access and covid statement here.