Wakefield Speaks events were launched last year and people helped to create a vision for the district.  Over 700 citizens contributed to the review of the community strategy.  The events were so successful that a programme of Wakefield Speaks has been developed to be delivered twice each year to ensure that citizens were able to influence the work of the partnership and service delivery locally.  The first programme of events were held this year in South Kirkby, Castleford and Ossett with a further programme planned during November. 

Wakefield Speaks 2007 was developed in line with the principles of the revised Partnership Engagement Framework and Toolkit, (hard copies of this will be available shortly, however, visit the Partnership website at www.wakefieldlsp.org.uk to see an online copy). 

During the events short presentations were made identifying the progress made since Wakefield Speaks 2006, introducing the revised strategy 'Developing Knowledge Communities' but also ensuring that key messages were communicated around the revised challenge areas. 

During the events workshops were held and delegates were given the opportunity to vote on key priorities in their area using handsets; they were then able to debate and discuss some of the underlying reasons for their choices.  Facilitators were also able to work with groups to discuss some of the challenges faced by the partnership and how we could work together to overcome them.  The questions were around lifestyle choices:

• The reasons why fewer people are staying on in education in the district than elsewhere
• What influenced the decisions that people make about lifestyle choices
• Caring for our environment - why are people fly tipping, littering etc.

Feedback from the workshops is available to download opposite.  It is proposed that the detailed outputs from the events are used by the Theme Partnerships to assist them in developing their Action Plans and that they are also used as part of the review of the Local Area Agreement where the Partnership will have an opportunity to ensure the priorities and actions included in the new LAA reflect key concerns raised locally.