Planning theorists and educators have long grappled with the issue of what gives planning and planners legitimacy to ‘pronounce’ on the forms and outcomes of development that serves the public interest. The current political and societal climate with the rise of populist anti-truth movements in Europe and beyond presents challenges for professionals and their claims to possess forms of specialized knowledge. The first breakout session will explore these issues with contributors invited from planning education and private planning practice and an elected representative with responsibility for decision making in local planning.

This breakout session will report on an innovative collaboration between the University of Liverpool and the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) Education and Careers Task Force. Through this planning at Liverpool became the first Higher Education institution to partner with the RTPI in the codesign of an assessed project task fully embedded into a credit-bearing first-year module. As part of this students tackled an authentic group project addressing real-world planning challenges, focusing on town centre regeneration in the Liverpool City Region. The purpose was to develop authentic work-based experiences for first-year students. They engaged with public and private sector resources and presented their findings through digital storytelling. This initiative not only enhanced key skills but also increased awareness of careers in planning, inspiring positive and informed career management at an early stage of their studies. The session will provide a reflection on this experience and explore the potential of such approaches to be disseminated more widely as a way to foster inclusive practice facing learning in the planning curriculum.

Inspired by the key themes of legitimacy and inclusivity, PLACED will lead an interactive workshop challenging participants with a creative design task to explore some of the challenges involved in working with communities and stakeholders in complex development programmes. Working collaboratively in teams, participants will collaborate to create a ‘neighbourhood’, working through a series of challenges. The session will be drawn to a conclusion with a reflection and discussion on effective community engagement delivery and the conference themes of legitimacy and inclusivity.

PLACED, a local social enterprise, are experts in engagement, community facilitation and education, and firmly believe that locally driven and diverse insight can inform and support the creation of thriving and resilient places.

RTPI research on the profession in the UK reveals an overstretched and underfunded profession, with staff scarcity being one of the most significant challenges planners face today. Indeed, staff scarcity is a challenge across Europe, with seven countries reporting a shortage of town and transport planners. This shortage is particularly problematic in light of the core role that planners play in addressing some of society’s biggest challenges, from climate change, to nature depletion and economic inequality. Our responses to these issues need to be creative and innovative, and this requires a diverse range of professionals. One of the ways to tackle this skill shortage is strengthen the pipeline from planning education into professional practice. In this session we will, using the UK as a case study, look at this pipeline and what we know about any potential issues transitioning from the academy into the profession. We will focus on issues of diversity and inclusion, and problematise some of the ‘headline’ trends concerning diversity in UK planning education and practice.