Parliamentary Outreach Officer, Daniel Wood, led an insightful Discovery Session at Benton Park View, Newcastle to civil servants from HMRC, DWP, HM Passport Office, Department for Transport and BIS on Wednesday 16 September.
Daniel covered all aspects of the work and processes of Parliament including the day to day running of the House of Commons and The House of Lords. He explained how the Monarchy is involved and the structure and rationale for having Select Committees. He tailored the session by talking about the work local MPs have been involved in which affects all of us either in our working or personal lives.
The session is designed to increase knowledge and engagement with the work and processes of Parliament and this is exactly what it did. It was an informal, lively and interactive session with people posing many interesting questions.
Paul Kenny from HMRC said that he had worked in the Civil Service for many years and had found this session fascinating, the best he had ever attended.
If this has whet your appetite and you would like to attend a Discovering Parliament session there are a limited number of places available for half day sessions in Benton Park View, Newcastle on 20 October and Concept House, Sheffield on 3 November 2014. Please email Anna Bradley confirming the venue and morning or afternoon session.
2 comments
Comment by simonfj posted on
This is quite a funny one Richard.
Especially in light of the Speaker's commission. http://www.parliament.uk/business/commons/the-speaker/speakers-commission-on-digital-democracy/
So much of the change we (in the old world) are experiencing revolves around running events like this one, to a few people in a small room, or putting a link on a web site like the one labelled "Education" at the top right of the link above.
Meantime, so many children (in the new world) in the UK will be teleconferencing between physical classrooms, or being involved in "virtual visits" to places and labs around the world.
It really is so easy to compare between the habits of a receding age group and one growing into adulthood. The habits of an old media, like this report of an event, and new media, where an audience is invited to be involved in an shared experience, stand in such stark contrast against one another.
I guess that why GOV.UK is such an interesting domain to watch the evolution. It's still rooted in the past education paradigm = publish/deliver and be damned. Yet, as these blogs illustrate, trying so hard to engage with the world outside a classroom or department = share (in real time)
Comment by John Mark Haskey posted on
Simon, I recently attended a Knowledge Café in Westminster facilitated by David Gurteen, a leader in the KIM and hosted by the House of Commons Library. The interesting and lively discussion was led by Edward Wood, Secretary to the Speaker’s Commission on the subject of Digital Democracy and what they are doing in response to the Speaker’s commission. Digital democracy provides a number of possibilities for many groups of people normally disengaged to contribute to the democratic process – as well as responding to modern communication preferences and advances in ITC.
However I personally think that Digital and Face to Face compliment each other – that both types of interaction are essential for good communication and understanding, especially where you want to develop an ongoing dialogue(or does that just show I’m old school?)