They also noted that there is no specific role for the Welsh Government in imparting information and guidance to local authorities to support them in achieving improved participation or involvement. Amendment 112 therefore requires principal councils to involve connected authorities when encouraging public involvement in the making of decisions at all levels of local government. A lot of our amendments to this Bill as a whole are to embed the principles of co-production and asset-based community development within the Bill and therefore into the delivery of public involvement strategies, as well as the design and delivery of public services. I've heard many Members across the Chamber speak in favour of these principles; this is an opportunity for you to put them into practice in your own communities. Co-production is about building resilient communities' confidence and capacity. It's about seeing everyone as equal partners in local services, breaking down the barriers between people who provide services and those who use them, making everybody in your county hall your partner, not the decider of what you can or cannot have.

Co-producing public services with users and communities goes beyond the models of service-user consultation for better delivery of health, social services and other services for ageing populations, for people facing illness and disability, for the economically inactive and for those living in social isolation—very pertinent at the moment. It's about prevention and reablement via personal and community responsibility and localism. It's about sustainable social economic and community regeneration, and it also falls within the Welsh Government's stated policy approach. As the Building Communities Trust's new report 'Building Stronger Welsh Communities' states,

'Disconnect between Government, public bodies and communities is a barrier to community action, despite examples of cross-sector collaboration.'

People in Wales, they say, feel increasingly less able to influence decisions affecting their local area. Many community groups welcome Welsh Government's policy ambition to involve them more, but there's a feeling that worthy words are not being backed up by action. Referring to the findings of over 250 conversations with people from grass-roots community organisations across Wales, their report states,

'Groups still described deficit models towards communities dominating Government thinking and that public bodies are doing to, not with, people and communities.'

They also describe entrenched public sector ways of working, characterised by poor communication, lack of trust, risk aversion, silo working, professional bias and staff demotivation as significant barriers to greater community action.

During Stage 2, the Welsh Government removed similar provisions from the Bill in response to concerns from One Voice Wales at the then provision to require principal councils to encourage local people to participate in the making of decisions by authorities connected with the council would result in principal councils directing community councils while encouraging greater involvement in local decision making. This amendment therefore seeks to respond to these concerns by requiring principal councils to involve connected authorities when encouraging greater involvement in local decision-making processes. This would ensure genuine co-production between different bodies while encouraging greater involvement with local government. Improved collaboration between principal councils and connected authorities would also ensure that local strategies to encourage public involvement with local government is consistent, reflecting the concerns of the Electoral Reform Society Cymru.

Amendment 113 amends section 41(2)(f) to help encourage elected Members to use a wider range of media platforms to involve people in decision making. Currently, subsection (f) only requires elected Members to be aware of the benefits of using social media to communicate with local people. However, it must be recognised that many people do not have access to social media and it's therefore important that elected Members are aware of a wider range of media-related tools to involve local people and local community-based organisations. This amendment therefore incorporates but is not limited to social media in order to encourage elected Members to involve everybody in decision-making.

Amendments 114 and 116 require a principal council to determine a threshold for the number of signatures a petition needs to be debated by either a council committee or a meeting of full council. Whilst we welcome the provisions in the Bill to make a petition scheme, we believe the scheme must enable local people and local community-based organisations to be involved in the wider decision-making process. In a survey carried out by the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee, 56 per cent of respondents said that the main barrier to engaging with the council was that they did not think their views would make any difference. Thus, by enabling petitions to be actively considered and debated by councils, the views of the community can be directly considered by elected members, allowing them to be involved in decision making. During Stage 2, the Minister supported the intention behind our previous Stage 2 amendment, but stated that,

'careful thought needs to be applied when placing any numerical limits in primary legislation.' 

This amendment, therefore, seeks to respond to the Minister's comments, and give principal councils the flexibility to decide on their local threshold, which should be designed by involving local people and local community-based organisations.

Amendment 115 further strengthens section 43—duty to make a petition scheme—by ensuring that principal councils actively promote their petition scheme, and to make it as accessible as possible. The Electoral Reform Society Cymru noted in their Stage 1 evidence to committee that petitions are also a good way to engage the public, but it's fundamental that transparent mechanisms are put in place within the process. They also highlighted concern that the Bill does not require local authorities to promote the petition scheme once established, asking who's going to inform voters that the scheme is up and running, who's going to measure its success and hold the local authority to account. Our amendment, therefore, addresses this.

Amendment 117 requires Welsh Ministers to publish guidance to principal councils on how the petition scheme is to function. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that there is some degree of consistency in the functioning of council petition schemes across Wales, meaning that the petition system is as accessible to as many people as possible. Diolch.