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Newly elected Vice-Chair of IPEN: Dr Sarah Moulds

The IPEN Executive Team is pleased to announce that long-time Deputy Chair Dr Sarah Moulds has been elected as IPEN’s Vice Chair.

In line with IPEN’s governance statement, Sarah will take over as Chair in September 2026. We would like to express our heartfelt congratulations to Sarah and look forward to continue working with her in this new role.

We also would like to express our deep gratitude for all that IPEN’s outgoing Chair and co-founder Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira has done for the network. It is hard to overestimate the role Cristina has played in making IPEN into the force it is today.

We will mark the transition of chairs with a special event in September, expect more on this in the coming months.

Sarah Moulds said:

Dr Sarah Moulds, holding a book and a jacket

“I’m delighted to have been elected Vice Chair of the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN). I look forward to taking on this role and taking over as Chair later in the year.

A few words about my work on parliamentary public engagement

For those of you who do not know me, I am an Associate Professor in Law at Adelaide University and co‑founder of the Rights Resource Network South Australia. I have been teaching and researching in the area of public parliament engagement for many years. My work is driven by a simple idea: parliaments work best when they are genuinely connected to the communities they serve.

My training has always been grounded in how rules, institutions, and human experience intersect—particularly where public engagement shapes (and is shaped by) the legislative and law reform process. In my research, teaching, and policy work, I focus on building practical pathways for participation that inform drafting, committee scrutiny, human rights compatibility assessment, and post‑legislative review. This includes working alongside practitioners and community partners to design engagement that genuinely improves the quality and impact of lawmaking.

In 2022, I was honoured to receive a Churchill Fellowship exploring ways to empower young people to engage effectively with Australian parliaments. The resulting report, Connected Parliaments, continues to inform my contributions to IPEN and my broader program of research on democratic renewal and inclusive participation.

My involvement with IPEN

My involvement with IPEN goes back to its beginnings in 2020 and has been one of the most energising parts of my professional life. I’ve learned so much by broadening IPEN’s reach in the Australasian and Pacific regions, including through the Australia–New Zealand–Pacific Islands Community of Practice and in my role as Editor of the Australasian Parliamentary Review, and it has been a privilege to support colleagues to share practice, co‑create resources, and collaborate across jurisdictions.

I’ve seen the powerful, practical impact of the IPEN’s collaborative Guides on Citizen Engagement for Parliaments initiative developed in partnership with Inter Pares, and I am very keen to continue to nurture strategic relationships with organisations such as the Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

A key strand of my professional practice is capacity‑building for parliamentary professionals. I have coordinated and delivered the Parliamentary Law, Practice and Procedure course for colleagues across Australia and New Zealand, helping to translate comparative doctrine and institutional history into practical tools for scrutiny, engagement, and reform. These experiences keep me closely connected to the realities of legislative work and the opportunities to embed meaningful public engagement at every stage of the lawmaking cycle.

Looking ahead

I’m grateful for the leadership, generosity, and mentorship of the IPEN Executive, and in particular, Professor Cristina Leston‑Bandeira. Her example—combining scholarly rigour with inclusivity, curiosity, and collaboration—has shaped IPEN’s culture and my own approach to network leadership.

As Vice Chair of IPEN, I’m excited about the opportunities ahead. I’m committed to supporting IPEN’s members, nurturing new partnerships, and helping the network continue to flourish as a global leader in public engagement. Most of all, I’m looking forward to working collaboratively with colleagues around the world to champion approaches to engagement that are innovative, inclusive, and grounded in real‑world democratic experience.”

The future of IPEN is in good hands

As she steps into the role of Deputy Chair from September onwards, current Chair and co-founder of IPEN, Cristina Leston-Bandeira spoke of her delight of Sarah Moulds’ election as Vice-Chair:

“The International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN) has been a labour of love to many of us. As I step back from academic roles and the IPEN Chair position, I am delighted with the election of Sarah Moulds as our incoming Chair.

I know that IPEN will be in very good hands with Sarah at its helm. Sarah brings with her not only unique expertise in parliamentary public engagement but also a deep understanding of parliamentary practice – two key ingredients at the core of IPEN.

We are very lucky to have her as our future Chair and I look forward to working with Sarah in this transition to a new stage of IPEN.”

Connecting Communities to Petitions

Two worksheets, each with the symbol of UK Parliament Week, and each with a large drawing of a hand which is coloured and commented on with ideas for petitions.

Over the past year, the UK Parliament has celebrated the 10 year anniversary of its e-petitions platform. As part of this, its Education and Engagement Outreach team developed a bespoke programme on e-petitions for its annual UK Parliament Week programme to better establish connections between communities and petitions.

UK Parliament Week 2025 with the Outreach Team

The UK Parliament runs an annual outreach programme every November, which lasts about a week. Known as the UK Parliament Week, it consists of a series of events and activities across the UK that connects people with Parliament and democracy.

For UK Parliament Week 2025, the Education and Engagement Outreach team delivered a bespoke programme exploring the Power of Petitions. The theme marked the 10‑year anniversary of e‑petitions, the digital tool that enables the public to raise issues with Parliament.

In response, the team focused on educating classrooms and communities about how petitions work and how they can break down barriers to participation.

Bespoke activities

For school and college assemblies, the team developed interactive quizzes exploring e‑petitions, their rules, and the role of signatories, using real‑life examples from the past decade and linking directly to the e‑petitions website.

They also created a card sort game inspired by historic petitions from the Parliamentary Archives, highlighting the long‑standing relationship between public voices and social change.

Worksheet listing photos and titles of historical and more recent petitions, with adjacent dates, and post stick notes — Using historical petitions to connect with petitions – Copyright UK Parliament

The final part of the programme featured a creative activity for workshops, SEND groups, and community organisations, through which participants illustrated their own petition ideas on an outline of their hand (see feature image). This encouraged creative self‑expression and reinforced the historic link between signatures and democratic participation.

Reaching audiences nationwide

In one week, the team reached 11,248 young people through 81 interactive school and college sessions. Beyond education settings, they engaged 239 community participants, working with organisations including The King’s Trust, Mencap, and the Third Age Trust to make petitioning Parliament accessible to all.

“It was great using the new Petitions resources during November as they brought a different focus to my sessions and really showed the groups I worked with how they could directly engage with Parliament in a meaningful way. Many of the groups signed petitions during the workshop and one even started to set their own up.” – Rachael Dodgson, Outreach Officer for the North West

Screen in a classroom featuring a visual representation of Mr Blobby and a thumbs down, next to a sentence proposing for Mr Blobby to be crowned the next King of the UK. Standing in front of the photo is an outreach officer enthusiastically showing with his hands thumbs up and thumbs down. — Communicating about petitions through interactive quizzes – Copyright UK Parliament

Linking to research

These educational outreach activities align with Professor Leston‑Bandeira’s recommendations on reducing barriers to parliamentary engagement by “disseminating the value of petitioning to all citizens.” They also support deeper collaboration with classrooms and community networks nationwide, contributing to the development of a “citizen‑focused parliamentary petitions system” that helps communities to understand and engage with Parliament (Leston‑Bandeira, 2024).

Learn more

To learn more about where they went, what they delivered, and life as a UK Parliament Outreach Officer, explore the team’s visual story: Outreach’s Parliament Week 2025

Feature image: Using creative approaches to connect communities to petitions – Copyright UK Parliament

How parliaments structure their public engagement services – IPEN seminar

Parliament of Ghana, National Congress Palace in Brazil and Scottish Parliament

This seminar explored how three very different parliaments – Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, the Parliament of Ghana and the Scottish Parliament – structure the delivery of public engagement services. The idea for this seminar came directly from one of our new IPEN members, who is setting up a new public engagement department in their parliament and wanted to hear about how other parliaments have done this.

Public engagement is understood in many different ways across parliaments, with some putting more emphasis on education, others on participation and others still on communications; or a combination of these. This results in very different types of services supporting public engagement activity. This can matter in the way public engagement relates to other activities, such as parliamentary business.

Public engagement services also vary very considerably in size across parliaments. Some parliaments may have one small team that needs to attend to every public engagement needs, perhaps keeping everything well integrated and connected – to the detriment of capacity to undertake a high number of activities. Other parliaments have separate services that address different aspects of public engagement, being able to provide a high number (and often more complex) set of activities – but perhaps resulting more in a culture of silos, where each service does their own thing.

Chaired by Cristina Leston-Bandeira (Professor of Politics at the University of leeds and Chair of IPEN), the seminar followed an in conversation format through which we heard from Enock Adomah (Administrator for the Department of Public Engagement, Parliament of Ghana), Sally Coyne (Head of Public Engagement Services Office, Scottish Parliament) and Rodolfo Vaz (Coordinator of Digital Solutions for Citizens, Chamber of Deputies, Brazil).

Rodolfo, Enock and Sally started by outlining how their parliament structures public engagement services.

In the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, this is divided by two main directorates: the Directorate of Communications and the Center for Education, Training and Development. The former includes as diverse services as the children’s parliament website and the interactive debates with committees; in the main digital activities. The latter focuses on more in-depth, in person and longer-term education activities.

Snap shot of the organogram that supports public engagement services in Brazil's Chamber of Deputies — Organogram of services supporting public engagement in Brazil Chamber of Deputies

The Parliament of Ghana divides its services through an internally oriented service and an externally oriented one. The internally oriented educational service focuses on services taking place within Parliament, such as educational visits, tours and resources. The externally oriented delivers a wide range of outreach services.

Snap shot of the organogram of the services supporting public engagement in the Parliament of Ghana — Organogram of services supporting public engagement in the Parliament of Ghana

The Scottish Parliament has again a very different structure to deliver its public engagement services. The Directorate of People, Communications and Engagement brings together teams delivering very different types of services such as visits to parliament to committee engagement. The directorate is supported by other departments such as Events and exhibitions and Business information Technology.

Snap shot of the organogram of the services supporting public engagement in the Scottish Parliament — Organogram of services supporting public engagement in the Scottish Parliament

After outlining the services, the speakers discussed key issues such as decision-making power within these services, the link between strategy, structures and activity, and what works particularly well within these structures and what could be better.

The seminar was attended by 34 participants from as far as British Columbia in Canada, all the way to Ireland, Portugal and Ghana. IPEN members can listen to a recording of the seminar through this link. IPEN members can also access organograms of all three parliaments through the seminar’s thread in MS Teams.

Image credits:

1. Parliament House (State House) – Parliament of Ghana. Photo by Wgsohne. CC BY-SA.

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

3. Exterior view of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh. Photo courtesy of the Scottish Parliament.