If you have anything to do with scrutiny in Swansea or anywhere else. If you take part in meetings, provide evidence or if you are just plain interested, then we would like to hear from you. We are doing some work on improving the way we provide information and we want to make sure we are really meeting people’s needs. Check out below what we have done so far and let us know if we are on the right track.
This work follows a conversation we had about online democracy at govcampcymru.
We provide information about our scrutiny work in a number of ways. The main ones are:
- The Scrutiny Programme Committee agenda pages on the Council Website
- The Swansea Scrutiny Pages on the Council website
- The Swansea Scrutiny blogsite
To simplify what we do and make sure we are providing people with just what they need we have been using a method called user stories. We’ve borrowed it from the Government Digital Service. This is an approach that forces you to think about exactly who uses the information, what they need and why. Each story is written in a precise way that always follows the same format:
As a … I need to… So I can…..
We have been talking to people about their user stories for scrutiny and have started to pull them together. The ‘epic’ (overarching) user stories we have identified so far are (in no particular order):
- Attending meetings: As a potential attendee I need to see details of future meetings so I can plan my involvement
- Topic awareness: As a person affected by scrutiny I need to see what scrutiny is working on so I can get involved if I need to
- Meeting preparation: As a person involved in a meeting I need to see agendas, minutes and reports so I can prepare effectively
- Scrutiny process: As a person involved with scrutiny I need to see a short summary of the process, including the roles of those involved, so I can understand what’s happening
- Issue raising: As someone with a concern I need to be able to pass on my issue to scrutiny so I can have it dealt with
- Who’s who: As a person involved with scrutiny I need to see who is doing what so I can contact them if I need to
- Recommendation awareness: As a person involved with scrutiny I need to see the recommendations from scrutiny so I can respond if I need to
- Impact awareness: As someone affected by scrutiny work I need to see the impact of scrutiny so I can know what has happened as a result of my input
- News story awareness: As a reporter / blogger I need to see newsworthy scrutiny stories so I can publish them
We also want to make sure that what we provide is accessible, shareable, digestible and bilingual.
So let us know if these stories meet you needs? Or let us know if your story is missing?
Once we think we have your stories right then the next step is to redesign how we provide our information. Simple.
Photo credit: City and County of Swansea
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