Milton Keynes Council is a full member of the Co-operative Council Innovation Network, Woughton Community Council is an associate member. The commitments of this group are
- Social partnership: We will strengthen the co-operative partnership between citizens, communities, enterprises and Councils, based on a shared sense of responsibility for wellbeing and mutual benefit
- Democratic engagement: We will support the active engagement of the full range of residents in decision making and priority setting
- Co-production: We will develop systems that enable citizens to be equal partners in designing and commissioning public services and in determining the use of public resources
- Enterprise and social economy: We will promote community-based approaches to economic development that focus on supporting the creation of jobs, social enterprises and other businesses and providing an environment for co-operative and mutual enterprises to thrive
- Maximising social value: We will support the development of a framework and criteria for social value, giving substance to the concept and supporting Councils with the tools to ensure better local social and economic outcomes
- Community leadership and a new role for councillors: We will explore ways for councils to act as a platform for helping the community to contribute to local outcomes, and to re-think the role of councillors as community connectors, brokers and leaders
- New models of meeting priority needs: In exploring new ways of meeting the priority needs of our communities we will encourage models, such as co-operatives and mutuals, which give greater influence and voice to staff and users
- Innovation: We will embrace innovation in how we work with local communities to drive positive change
- Learning: We will capture and ‘expand’ the experience and learning from individual projects and approaches in order to encourage broader application of co-operative principles within individual member Councils and across the Network
- Walking the talk: As a membership organisation we will make this statement of our principles operational