Blackburn with Darwen People’s Jury on the Climate Change Crisis

Meeting over 30 hours between September and December 2022, the Jury heard from commentators on the causes and consequences of climate change and elected to hear more on education and communication, housing and transport.


Summary

The People’s Jury on the Climate Change Crisis brought together a group of thirty people, randomly selected to reflect the demographic make-up of Blackburn with Darwen.

Meeting over 30 hours between September and December 2022, the Jury heard from commentators on the causes and consequences of climate change and elected to hear more on education and communication, housing and transport.

Participants questioned the commentators, shared opinions, deliberated, challenged each other and ultimately reached a set of recommendations on how the borough can address climate change.

The process was led by a team of independent facilitators (from Shared future CIC) and overseen by an Oversight Panel comprising representatives from other public, private and third sector organisations.

The challenge

Climate change is an incredibly complex problem and citizens must be at the centre of any way forward. The challenge is how to involve the public meaningfully in identifying the ideas, strategies and actions needed.

The solution

The Blackburn with Darwen People’s Jury was an attempt to do this through inviting members of the local population to answer the question ‘What do we need to do in our homes, in business and our local area to respond to the climate change crisis?'

The impact

The recommendations have been presented to council forum and to the management boards of organisations on the Oversight Panel. The leader of the council hopes that the atmosphere at the [recommendations] launch event is a clear indication of the positive partnership work that is to come. Seeing connections being made between third-sector, business, residents and council alike, is exactly the kind of collaborative, borough-wide approach that is needed to tackle such an issue [as climate change].

How is the new approach being sustained?

The council has retained the facilitators, Shared Future CIC, for 12 months to work with the Jury to:

  • Enable members to identify for themselves what opportunities they would like to prioritise, rather than reacting to what opportunities as they arise;
  • Give people strategies for building confidence to speak in situations (e.g. meetings, events) that they may otherwise find intimidating and challenging, so avoiding any accusations of tokenistic involvement.

The council will report progress on implementation of the recommendations to the Jury at three months, then 6-monthly intervals.

Lessons learned

A People’s Jury is a valuable mechanism for involving local people in a conversation about a difficult subject and for them to influence solutions. Buy-in from managers and members and time (and resource) from the host organisation to support the process vital to its success. A clear ‘exit’ strategy is important to avoid losing momentum after the Jury has launched its recommendations.

Contact

Gwen Kinloch, Environment & Sustainability Manager [email protected]

Further resources