Innovating Democracy Advisory Group: 4 September 2025
Summary of the Innovating Democracy Advisory Group meeting held on 4 September 2025.
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In this page
Attendees
IDAG members
- Anwen Elias (Chair)
- Mo Alamgir
- Sarah Allan
- Jess Blair
- Mike Corcoran
- Tomos Dafydd Davies
- Sally Holland
- Yvonne Murphy
- Julie Sangani
- Diana Stirbu
- Daisy Thomson
- Leanne Wood
Non-IDAG members
- Item 3: Education division officials, Welsh Government
Item 1: Welcome and note of previous meeting
1. The note of the meeting of 3 July was accepted as a true record. Members agreed with the use of Copilot in this meeting to aid note taking.
Item 2: IDAG member’s expertise
2. Each member shared their background and relevant expertise across areas including co production, participatory/deliberative methods, institutional and parliamentary engagement, creative democratic education and grassroots participation.
Item 3: Curriculum for Wales
3. Education officials provided an overview of the Curriculum for Wales, the 4 purposes of the curriculum and emphasis on learner progression.
4. National bodies such as Adnodd (educational resources company) and the newly announced professional learning body, Dysgu, will support resource development and professional learning for schools. Collaboration with local authorities was highlighted as important for supporting schools in curriculum delivery.
Item 4: Reflections
5. The group reflected on the previous item and areas for further information and exploration.
Item 5: Work programme
6. The work programme summary had been agreed with the Deputy First Minister, with a written statement to be published after recess. The group will prioritise deliverables within the short timeframe, while also considering a longer-term agenda beyond May 2026.
7. An evidence session with democratic education stakeholders was planned for the October meeting of IDAG, to build an understanding of existing experiences in Wales. The group agreed to explore a participatory project with system-wide engagement to demonstrate a new way of working.
8. It was agreed to establish sub-groups of IDAG to consider democratic education, and the culture of participation.
9. The group discussed models for assessing participatory maturity and existing Welsh frameworks (like the involvement principle, involvement maturity matrix, National Principles for Public Engagement in Wales and the National Participation Standards). The group discussed the merit in developing public-facing indicators or dashboards on the health of democracy in Wales.
Item 6: Next steps
10. The group discussed the next steps for the work programme, focusing on the need for subgroups to address key strands:
- democratic education, and
- culture change around participation and deliberation.
11. The third strand of IDAG’s work, the statement of constitutional principles and values for Wales, was reviewed. Research on international examples of participatory constitution-making will be commissioned and an evidence session held.