Kirklees Council

This award is open to a single council or where appropriate a partnership of councils, or a council-owned company. Private sector partners can enter on a council’s behalf, with the permission of the council itself. Many councils are seeking to establish a new relationship with local people and local communities. Community involvement and engagement is increasingly important as a way of shaping council thinking, contributing to service design and improvement and to responding to continuing resource pressures. It may also involve direct community involvement in service delivery. This award is intended to showcase the whole range of community involvement.

We’ve worked with citizens to co-create Shaped by People, a new strategic outcome for active citizenship, which will influence everything we do. This is a whole-organisation commitment for Kirklees Metropolitan Council to become an enabler of active citizens in all our distinct local places. At its heart is a shared goal, written in citizens’ own words, describing the future that people want to see. Alongside this, our new approach to citizen engagement (conversations not consultations) has enabled over 8,600 citizens to have a stake in their local place. We’re engaging young citizens from all communities through our Democracy Friendly Schools programme.