A cup of tea, a biscuit… and why participation starts small

How the smallest rituals of care can grow into systems change — and what councils, anchors and changemakers everywhere can learn from it.

A few years back, life piled up. I didn’t see the overwhelm until it had already arrived. Talking therapies helped me find space again — and reminded me that care is built from tiny, intentional moments.
Those moments become culture. And culture is how we do change.

The work in one sentence

I help bring people together — residents, practitioners, partners — to imagine, design and deliver changes you can actually see in a neighbourhood, while quietly building the practice and policy that lets those changes stick.

Underneath that are three building blocks anyone can use.

Three building blocks you can lift and adapt

1️⃣ Care as a practice, not a poster

Create low-friction spaces where people can show up as themselves: a tea table, a lunchtime walk, a “maker hour.”

Close with signposts — to support, peers, and next small steps — so help is easy to find when life tilts.

This approach mirrors Scotland’s What Matters to You? movement, which normalises meaningful conversations in health and care services. The point isn’t a campaign; it’s a habit of listening.

2️⃣ Systems through stories

Treat your internal comms — newsletters, weeknotes, Slack channels — as a commons, not a broadcast.

Make offers. Ask for help. Share what you learned and what you’d do differently next time.

Then, learn in public: small write-ups of what changed for people, not just processes.

If you need a nudge on method, the Behavioural Insights Team’s Test & Learn playbook is a brilliant map for running experiments in government instead of announcing finished reforms.

3️⃣ Participation with real teeth

Give people a way to shape decisions — not just “have their say.”
Make the line of sight clear from ideas → choices → budgets.

We can learn from new examples emerging across the world:

• 🇵🇹 Portugal’s Nationwide Participatory Budget — a national programme where citizens propose and vote on investments, shaping parts of the state budget. It shows what’s possible when governments open up power beyond city halls.
• 🇦🇺 Participatory Melbourne — a movement connecting place-based experiments, creative networks and civic groups across the city to rebuild agency and trust. Not a project, but a culture of participation stitched through everything from neighbourhood design to food systems.
• 🇦🇺 Future Melbourne — the city used public forums and a citizens’ jury to co-draft parts of its ten-year strategy. It’s an example of how major plans can emerge from civic imagination, not just consultancy templates.
• 🇦🇺 Melbourne People’s Panel — forty-three residents deliberated on the city’s ten-year financial plan, given full data access and real influence over priorities. Proof that even budgets — the most technocratic part of government — can be co-authored with citizens.

These examples remind me that participation doesn’t have to be an “engagement exercise.” It can be a way of governing.

A simple, step-by-step playbook (steal this)

Whether you’re a council, NHS trust, charity, service business, B Corp or anchor institution, try this four-week cycle:

Week 1 — Set the table

1️⃣ Pick a tiny ritual (10–30 mins): tea table, demo Friday, “maker hour.”
2️⃣ Nominate a host and one question (e.g. “What helped you this week?”).
3️⃣ End with signposts: wellbeing, peer networks, learning offers.
4️⃣ Publish five bullets the same day: what you heard, what you’ll try.

Week 2 — Run two micro-experiments

Choose one internal process (onboarding, feedback loops) and one external touchpoint (ideas portal, pop-up co-design on a street).

Define success as a change people can feel — a shorter wait, clearer step, kinder interface.

Use Test & Learn methods to frame assumptions and measure what matters to users.

If you like structure, the @nesta_uk practical guides on design and innovation are excellent.

Week 3 — Open the decisions

Host a 60-minute “show the thing” session. No slides, just artefacts.
Let participants prioritise what to keep, kill or scale.
Publish the trail so people can see how input shaped the outcome.

Week 4 — Tie it to place and money

Map your anchor network — council, NHS, college, housing provider, university.
Share a simple chart of local spend and recruitment.
Set one goal to keep more value local next quarter and invite others to join.

Why this matters for policy

Putting more power closer to people consistently improves trust and outcomes — but the evidence often hides in practice, not PDFs.

• New Local’s Community Power Evidence Review shows tangible gains in health, cohesion and long-term value.
• LGIU’s State of Local Government Finance reminds us of the financial cliff edge councils are navigating.
• Demos’ Citizens’ White Paper sketches a roadmap for embedding citizen involvement in national policy.

Together, they make the case for designing with, not for.

A gentle call to action

If you’re running something that helps people feel part of the story — a tea table, a citizens’ panel, a tiny budget people can steer — write it up.

Link to what changed for people.

Tag the publication or community you rate (.

And if you ever need a conversation partner on how to start small, stitch it to policy, or make it survive the next re-org — drop me a line.
I’ll bring the biscuits.