By Robert Atler and Adrianne Harte

In this article, IPEN members Robert Atler (Visitor Services Manager) and Adrianne Harte (Visitor Services Officer) at the Scottish Parliament explain how Crafternoons – a roster of different craft activities linked to the work of the Scottish Parliament that runs every Saturday – developed out of a desire to connect with local communities and help make the Scottish Parliament an everyday part of life for those in Scotland.

Introduction

The Visitor Services team at the Scottish Parliament delivers a wide range of functions throughout the year—from guided tours and educational talks to managing public access to parliamentary business.

In recent years, we’ve been exploring new ways to connect with our local communities and develop services that make the Parliament a more welcoming and inclusive space for our closest neighbours. Among these initiatives, our craft activities have become a cornerstone of community engagement, offering creative and meaningful ways for visitors to interact with the Parliament.

Can we do something like this?

This one question started a chain reaction that we could never have anticipated. Well one of us did anticipate it, and that is where this all begins.

During the February recess in 2024 the Visitor Services team at the Scottish Parliament visited The Burrell Collection in Glasgow. A wonderful experience to say the least, but one part of the experience stood out. In the main hall a table had been set up with crafts, swarmed with enthusiastic children, and even more enthusiastic members of Visitor Services.

I caught up with my colleague Adrianne, busily working away on a valentine’s card and asked, “Can we do something like this?”. Her response was a wry smile and an emphatic “yes”.

After the fact this interaction slipped my mind, little did I realise the chain reaction that had started.

The next time that Adrianne and I spoke on the matter, she had produced an extensive series of resources with over fifty parliamentary themed craft concepts that brought the idea of craft and parliament together.

Adrianne had spoken to visitors and connected with visitor attractions across Edinburgh who were already delivering similar programmes to ensure these activities would meet the accepted best-practice standards. Every question I raised was met with a carefully thought-out response, every challenge countered, until at the end I was left with one notion. We could do this. We had a plan, but we needed a chance to trial it.

Craftivity

The Debating Chamber is the heart of the visitor experience and visitors come from all over the world to get the chance to experience this unique and outstanding architectural wonder.

Learning that your star attraction is going to be closed for seven days is never the highlight of anyone’s calendar, but on this occasion, it was an opportunity. We took this chance, and trialled a week of “Craftivity”, a mix of crafts and craft-adjacent activities. We surveyed every attendee and the feedback was unanimous; this was a wonderful experience.

Based on this feedback, we refined our offer and in December, we went live with a weekly craft offering aimed at families and young people, or “Crafternoon”. The feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive and we went from thinking ‘is this something we could do’, to ‘how can we take this further’.

We continued to invest and survey. By March 2025 we had added additional resources and new activities, and pushed ourselves further than we had previously with any other engagement activity. So when I was asked about investing in a laser cutter to create further resources – including a smaller model parliament – what would have been historically a “no”, became the more pleasantly curious, “Maybe”.

Every craft we have delivered has been based on the work that occurs in the parliament, the history and culture of Scotland, and explicit requests from visitors. Indeed, we have included new activities, such as our Duplo blocks, as a direct response to this feedback. Our offer, which was initially limited to Saturdays, has now expanded to include parliament recess periods and school holidays.

We ended up welcoming over five hundred people to Crafternoons during the Easter break of 2025 – a mix of families with young children and travellers looking for free experiences – and most importantly, we were seeing return visits from people in our community. I’m reminded of a letter that was sent to the last governor of Queensberry House when it was a care home (now part of the parliament complex) that talked about how it had served the community and one line has always stayed with me, “they all vote, that’s a lovely place they’ve found”.

Our commitment to creating a resource for people to come in, and enjoy parliament, to understand that this is a place where they are welcome and wanted is all part of us aiming to meet this important legacy and hoping that they all leave thinking “that’s a lovely place they’ve found”.

A bumpy road

This is not to say that there have been no challenges.

The launch of Crafternoons initially drew thirty-seven people, mostly families who had wandered into the building and happened to see there was something going on, total across four sessions in its first month. This modest success felt like a failure in the face of our ambition. There was doubt within our team that it would be a sustainable offer long-term.

The target demographics for Crafternoons had no idea it existed. The solution was an inter-departmental effort with our Parliament Communications team. Through a mix of sustained social media advertising, listings in local ‘what’s on’ websites and utilising trusted sources of information for the Edinburgh area for parents, it really resonated with local families and younger people looking for something relaxed to do on a weekend, and our numbers steadily started to grow.

Along with a growing network of word-of-mouth recommendations we now average forty visitors a session, mostly local families, and some curious tourists.

As much as this project began with an idea in one person’s head, its success is due to a willingness to collaborate not only within our team, but with others in the organisation and the community we are trying to serve.

By keeping community and collaboration at the heart of this project, we have found an eager and enthusiastic audience who have discovered that they are not only allowed to be in the parliament but explicitly wanted there.

This project helps normalise the Scottish Parliament as part of daily life in Scotland. We are very excited to see how this project will continue.

About the author and Visitor Services at the Scottish Parliament

Robert Atler is the Manager of Visitor Services at the Scottish Parliament and co-founder of the Parliament’s craft activities initiative, alongside Adrianne Harte, the creative lead and fellow member of the Visitor Services team.

With extensive experience in the wider tourism sector, both Robert and Adrianne bring a wealth of knowledge and creativity to their roles. Together, they have developed innovative and engaging ways to connect visitors with the work and spirit of the Scottish Parliament.

Find out more about Crafternoons at the Scottish Parliament.

Images

Photos © Scottish Parliament Corporate Body (SPCB).
Crafternoons poster and image courtesy of the Scottish Parliament.

Article published: 27 June 2025

A paper by IPEN members Stephen Fujiwara, Jessie Halligan and Kara McKee from the Parliament of New South Wales, Australia, has been published in the Australasian Parliamentary Review.

The article investigates the challenges faced by New South Wales Legislative Council committees undertaking inquiries with significant public interest.

It examines the logistical hurdles associated with receiving, reviewing and considering thousands of submissions, managing heightened public and media expectations, and the strain placed on small secretariat teams with limited resources.

To illustrate these challenges, Fujiwara, Halligan and McKee review three case studies: the inquiries into the provisions of the Reproductive Health Care Reform Bill 2019, the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill 2021, and the inquiry into birth trauma.

The article also outlines resource constraints, strategies for enhancing efficiency and some potential solutions, along with recommendations for process improvements to handle high interest inquiries more effectively.

‘Going Viral: Managing Inquiries with Thousands of Submissions and Substantial Public Interest’  by Stephen Fujiwara, Jessie Halligan and Kara McKee was published in the Australasian Parliamentary Review, Volume 40, Issue 1 in May 2025.

The article can be found here via open access.

Stephen, Jessie and Kara also discussed their experiences of managing parliamentary inquiries with thousands of submissions and substantial public interest at an IPEN seminar on 22 May 2025.

Image

Photo by Pixabay

Article published: 27 June 2025

Cristina Leston-Bandeira – Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds and Chair of IPEN – has been awarded the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize 2025 ‘for outstanding professional contributions to political studies’ by the Political Studies Association (PSA).

Founded in 1950, the PSA is a professional association that aims ‘to promote the development of political studies and to encourage education and the advancement of learning in the art and science of government’.

Cristina was recognised for being ‘instrumental in promoting the relationship between parliaments and citizens’ and for ‘her pioneering work on symbolic representation and public engagement’ which has ‘profoundly shaped the subfield of parliamentary and legislative research in the UK and beyond’.

Her work on parliamentary studies and her role as Chair of the International Parliament Engagement Network have particularly helped to advance ‘public knowledge of politics and political literacy’.

Cristina was presented with this year’s Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize at an awards ceremony at the PSA’s 75th Anniversary Annual International Conference in Birmingham, UK, on Monday 14 April.

Image

Cristina Leston-Bandeira receiving the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize at the PSA’s 75th Anniversary Annual International Conference in Birmingham, UK, on Monday 14 April.

Article published: 26 June 2025

This month we’re putting a spotlight on how interactivity has been enhanced on the Portal e-Cidadania (e-Citizenship Portal) at the Senado Federal (Brazil) with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The e-Citizenship Program is co-ordinated by IPEN Executive Team member, Alisson Bruno Dias de Queiroz at the Senado Federal. Created in 2012, the portal provides a platform for citizens to propose new ideas for legislation and participate in public hearings. This information is then processed for Senators to consider.

During a recent parliamentary recess, the Portal improved the visualization of citizen participation in interactive events — usually public hearings — held by the Senate over the last eleven years. Now, even questions from citizens answered indirectly during past events are identified and marked in the video of the event.

Servers, outsourced workers and commissioners were involved in the endeavor to use AI to analyze more than 1,800 events held between 2013 and 2024. The scanning of more than 23,000 participations generated a result of more than 2,700 questions identified as answered indirectly.

Alisson Bruno said:

“Questions that are read during the event and answered directly are already marked in the video, at the time they are read or answered. When there are no questions read, so that the event does not go blank, we started this process of marking indirect answers using AI last year.

“With the campaign, we also cover older events, but since it is still a manual process, and sometimes there are 100 to 200 questions at the event, not all of them go through this search.”

The team generates a series of commands, called prompts, so that the AI ​​can compare the questions asked with the transcript of the event. In addition, all results are reviewed by humans before being published on the website.

The objective of the campaign was to provide citizens with clearer feedback on their contributions, encouraging active participation in the legislative process and, thus, promoting the advancement of society through this interaction with the Legislature.

More information

Find out more in this news story on the Senado Federal (Brazil) website.

Watch a recording of one of our Public Engagement Hub webinars from 2023 where Alisson Bruno joins with Rodolfo Vaz (Coordinator of Digital Solutions for Citizens, Brazil) to discuss processing high volumes of inputs from citizen engagement in parliamentary business in Brazil.

Images

1. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

2. Palácio do Congresso Nacional, Brasília, Brazil. Photo by Cristina Leston-Bandeira.

Article published 25 April 2025

Resources on the theme of Youth Parliaments are now available for members in our IPEN MS Teams space.

They include two case studies, written by Emma Brewis (Postgraduate Researcher at the University of Leeds) alongside IPEN members from the Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament) and the Parliament of Indonesia.

Emma has also put together the first of our quick guides which shares insights and tips on setting up and running youth parliaments.

Explore the resources

The following case studies and quick guides can be accessed by IPEN members in the files section of Channel 1.1: Toolkits, Case Studies and Quick Guides in MS Teams:

• Case Study – Indonesia Youth Parliament
• Case Study – Welsh Youth Parliament
• Quick Guide to Youth Parliaments

Create your own case study / quick guide

If you would like to share your work as a case study or are interested in working with us to create more quick guides, then we would love to hear from you. These can be on any theme connected to public engagement with parliament.

More information can be found here on the IPEN website.

Critical Conversation – Youth Parliaments

We’ll be holding our second Critical Conversation event in a couple of months time on the theme of youth parliaments. This event will be open to all IPEN members – please look out in MS Teams and future newsletters for information, date and times.

For these events, we are keen to discuss real life issues and challenges that practitioners face on specific themes related to public engagement with parliament.

If there’s a particular aspect relating to youth parliaments (or anything connected to involving young people in decision making) that you’d like to propose for this event, then please email us at ipen@leeds.ac.uk. It could be some advice you’re looking for, a particular problem you are trying to solve, or practice you’d like to share.

Join IPEN

If your work or research is connected to youth parliaments, you are very welcome to apply to join the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN).

The network brings together academics, parliamentary officials and third sector representatives from across the world, to promote collaboration and encourage knowledge sharing around parliaments and public engagement.

Find out more and join IPEN.

Images

1. IPEN case studies and quick guide on the theme of Youth Parliaments.

2. Welsh Youth Parliament Residential in the Chamber, 26 November 2022 Senedd Ieuenctid Cymru, Gyfarfod Preswyl yn y Siambr, 26 Tachwedd 2022. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

3. IPEN brings together academics, parliamentary officials and third sector representatives from across the world.

Page published on 25 April 2025

The second edition of Exploring Parliament – a textbook providing an engaging and accessible introduction to the UK Parliament – has been published by Oxford University Press.
 
Exploring Parliament is edited by IPEN members Professor Cristina Leston Bandeira (University of Leeds), Dr Alexandra Meakin (University of Leeds) and Dr Louise Thompson (University of Manchester). The book includes contributions from 73 authors – a mix of academics and practitioners, including many members of IPEN.
 
Exploring Parliament brings in theory, combined with practice, through a series of short chapters accompanied by case studies which make the subject come to life, plus features such as a glossary of parliamentary terms.

Four of the chapters are specifically relevant to IPEN’s focus, on spaces and places, the media, public engagement and trust.

Exploring Parliament – book launch event

Exploring Parliament will be launched at a hybrid event on Thursday 15 May, starting at 17:30 GMT+1 / UK time.
 
At this event, the editors will make opening remarks, reflecting on the book’s unique approach. A panel of the book’s authors will discuss their chapters and insights, followed by a Q&A session.
 
The event will be chaired by Dr Hannah White, Director and CEO at the Institute for Government.
  
Book your place to attend the book launch online.

Book to attend in person.

Find out more about the second edition of Exploring Parliament on the Oxford University Press website.

About the editors

Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira is a Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds. She has worked on parliaments for nearly 30 years. She is Chair of the International Parliament Engagement Network and a previous Chair of the UK Study of Parliament Group (2019-22). Professor Leston-Bandeira’s research focuses on public engagement with parliament, having published widely on the topic and having secured funding from the AHRC, the British Academy, ESRC and the Leverhulme Trust. She regularly gives evidence to parliaments on public engagement, having held a fellowship with the Petitions Committee of the UK House of Commons in 2016-17. She is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing the quality and innovation of her teaching, including a Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellowship (2012) and the Political Studies Association Bernard Crick Main Prize for Outstanding Teaching (2010).

Dr Alexandra Meakin is Lecturer in British Politics at the University of Leeds. Her research focuses on parliamentary governance and the plans to repair the buildings of the UK Parliament (known as the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster). Dr Meakin’s PhD ‘Understanding the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster: A case study of institutional change in the UK Parliament’ was awarded by the University of Sheffield in 2019 and received the 2020 Walter Bagehot Prize for best dissertation in the field of government and public administration by the Political Studies Association. She is a member of the Study of Parliament Group and the International Parliament Engagement Network, and a former convenor of the Political Studies Association Specialist Group on Parliaments and Legislatures. Prior to entering academia, Dr Meakin worked for over a decade in Westminster, for select committees in the House of Commons and for MPs.

Dr Louise Thompson is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on legislative scrutiny, committees and political parties in the House of Commons. She is the co-editor of Parliamentary Affairs and a POST parliamentary fellow (2024-2025) undertaking research with the UK Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. She was previously the Co-Convenor of the Political Studies Association’s specialist group on Parliaments and Legislatures (2014-2018). In 2022, Dr Thompson was awarded the Political Studies Association’s Richard Rose Prize for a distinctive contribution to the study of British Politics.

Image

Exploring Parliament book, Oxford University Press.

Article published: 24 April 2025

Last year, we launched a survey to create an accessible global map of parliamentary public engagement practice.

The survey is part of a project titled Mapping public engagement in parliaments across the world, developed as a Parliamentary Academic Fellowship through the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), together with the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN).

The map is now coming together and will soon be launched online. Huge thanks to those of you who have contributed by completing a survey to help us understand how different parliaments engage with their citizens.

Coordinating the survey is Dr Laura Sudulich, a Parliamentary Academic Fellow based at the University of Essex. Laura has now created a beta version of the map and is in the final stages of collecting and collating the data.

It’s not too late for details for your parliament to be added. If you have any information you wish to be included in the map, the survey is still open and can be accessed here.

We are interested in including public engagement activity in all parliaments across the world, whether that be national, subnational or supranational.

IPEN members can try out the beta version of the map – to give feedback and check that information you have submitted so far is correct – by accessing it in IPEN’s MS Teams space.

Find out more about the project and survey to create a map of public engagement practice in this news story on the IPEN website.

Image

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

Page published: 23 April 2025

Book chapter by Sarah Moulds on the Australian House of Representatives

A new book published by LSE Press includes a chapter on the House of Representatives in the Australian Parliament by Dr Sarah Moulds (Associate Professor in Law, University of South Australia and IPEN Deputy Chair).

Edited by Patrick Dunleavy, Mark Evans and John Phillimore, Australia’s Evolving Democracy: A New Democratic Audit uses an audit approach to critically explore Australia’s government institutions, as well as state- and territory-level politics, and to examine how each has contributed to or held back Australian political life as it has changed and diversified.

Sarah’s chapter is one of 28 in the book which covers a range of different aspects of Australia’s democracy, including the protection of human rights, the 2023 Voice to Parliament Referendum, elections and voting, the role of interest groups and mainstream media, and the impact of federalism on lawmaking and policy.

Each chapter outlines recent developments along with an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, to fully evaluate the state of Australian democracy in the 21st century. In doing so, the authors draw key lessons for other democracies, showing in detail how robust major and micro-institutions can guard against democratic ‘backsliding’ and policy failures.

This comprehensive audit also highlights scope for potential democratic improvements. Australia continues to confront the challenges of partisan political barriers to addressing climate change and improving the situation of First Nations peoples, redressing modern social inequalities, and responding to popular mistrust of government and politicians.

‘Parliament – the House of Representatives’ by Dr Sarah Moulds was published by LSE Press in Australia’s Evolving Democracy: A New Democratic Audit (Evans, M et al (eds.) on 5 December 2024.

The book and Sarah’s chapter can be found here via open access.

Image

Book launch event for Australia’s Evolving Democracy: A New Democratic Audit.

Article published: 24 April 2025