Community Forums

There are 27 Community Forums, covering the whole of Leicestershire. These forums will play an important role in ensuring that services provided in your area match the needs of your local community.

A Community Forum meeting gives you the opportunity to discuss local services with your County, District and Parish Councillors and representatives from other agencies such as the Health Service and the Police. We would like you to come along to these meetings and have your say about how local services can be improved.

Who is involved?	How will it help and benefit me?	What about the bigger picture?	What won't it do?
How will it work?	Who else may be involved?	What do I need to do to get involved?

Who is involved?

Leicestershire County Council, District Councils, Police and Health Service (Primary Care Trust, or PCT) want to work together to involve local people in the services delivered and help people influence the services they receive.

How will it help and benefit me?

By attending your local forum meeting:

Representatives from the Police, the PCT and your local councils can tell you about services provided or planned in your area
You will be able to obtain answers to queries about local services - such as policing levels, services available for young people, access to health care etc
You can join your local County, District and Parish Councillors in a discussion about how services could be improved.

In this way, you can help influence and shape the services available for in your community.

What about the bigger picture?

You can also use the forum to find out what is being done to tackle the bigger issues affecting your local community, including speeding, crime & anti-social behaviour, congestion, housing and planning policies and the availability of community facilities and leisure activities.

What won’t it do?

A forum is not able to go into detail about individual cases or personal issues - such as planning applications, case work or care and services received.

How will it work?

The forums will meet between 2 and 4 times a year, depending on the forum area:

Each forum meeting will have a ‘Question Time’ slot where you can raise queries and issues
Some issues will be discussed in detail - topics you and other local representatives have indicated you want to discuss, as well as those which service providers want to bring to your attention and on which they want your views
Through presentations and discussions on these issues, the forum will develop recommendations for further action
The responsible council or agency will then follow up the recommendations and respond within three weeks of the meeting, setting-out what they intend to do. Where it is not possible to follow-up recommendations, clear explanations will be given
You will be able to check the progress of actions on these recommendations on the website www.leicestershireforums.org (site available from Monday 21 January). Alternatively, you can check on progress with the Community Engagement Manager for your area.

Who else may be involved?

You tell us... The County Council, District Councils, Police and PCT are committed to supporting the forums, but if an issue in your community requires the involvement of a different organisation, we will try to contact them in advance so that they can come along and help answer your queries.

What do I need to do to get involved?

Just turn up on the evening – with neighbours, friends and family if you want. If you have any requirements, please get in touch before the meeting, so that we can make suitable arrangements.

You don’t have to let us know in advance if you want to raise something at the forum meeting, but our chances of providing a satisfactory answer will increase if you do. Knowing the issues you want to raise will also help us decide which topics we should discuss in more detail.

To contact us, please use the form on our website (www.leicestershireforums.org - available from 21 January) send an email to leicestershireforums@leics.gov.uk or contact your Community Engagement Manager directly:

North West Leicestershire and Blaby Districts
Kristy Ball
Tel: 0116 305 8099

Charnwood* and Melton Boroughs
Richard Downing
Tel: 0116 305 5951

Hinckley & Bosworth and Oadby & Wigston Boroughs
Sabrina Malik
Tel: 0116 305 5823

Harborough District*
Derk van der Wardt
Tel: 0116 305 7581

*NB: In Charnwood Borough the forums are called ‘Area Forums’.
In Harborough District they are called ‘Have Your Say’ meetings.

www.leicestershireforums.org (Site available from Monday 21 January)

Visit our dedicated website to find out more about your Community Forum. You will find:

Information about your area
Dates of future meetings
Advance notice of the key issues on the agenda for each meeting (published 4 weeks in advance), as well as agendas, minutes and papers
You can update yourself on the actions taken on the forum’s recommendations using the Issues log. This log will be updated constantly to ensure you have the latest information on what is being done to address the issues affecting your community.