Ideal Policy Team Behaviours: Open Policymaking

Visit: http://openpolicy.demsoc.org/policymaking-behaviours/

Click for larger version (ideal for cut+paste into presentations!)

This site (disclaimer: developed by Helpful Technology) by Demsoc/Cabinet Office aims to be a hub for discussion about online policymaking and the use of digital tools for policy engagement. The team ran a public voting exercise to rank order a set of ‘ideal behaviours’ which might be exhibited by policymakers working in an open way:

We want policymakers- and anyone involved in delivering policy or influencing its creation- to vote on what policy teams should be doing to ensure that policymaking gets better.

Why are we doing this?

People affected by government policies are better able and increasingly want to provide feedback on their experience of a policy and its implementation. Also, digital tools as well as new techniques and processes, have made it easier for policymakers to draw on dispersed knowledge, test proposed policy interventions and prototype new digital services.

These developments have been captured in the Civil Service Reform plan (PDF document)and are some of the drivers for ‘open policymaking’. If policymaking is to change for the better, then policymakers must be involved in discussing and proposing how to do this. The focus is on policymaking but for ‘open policymaking’ to work the input of those engaged in implementing policy is needed too.

What we’ll do with your votes

The Cabinet Office’s Open Policy team is in the process of developing a model for open policymaking that will help people looking to apply open policy making principles when developing policy. Your votes will feed into the creation of this model.

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