How can we join up our community engagement activity?
What do we mean by this?
We simply mean - are there ways that organisations can work together to plan and organise community engagement activity.
If we don’t work together to co-ordinate engagement and consultation, we can sometimes end up asking people about the same things time and time again. But people are giving up their own free time to take part in engagement activity. We need to use this precious time as effectively as we can.
How can we do it?
Co-ordinating your activity can be as simple as checking that someone else hasn’t done the same consultation, through to setting up joint consultation mechanisms.
• Sharing information - a critical stage in joining up engagement activity is sharing information about activities. Find out more about Fife Partnership’s approach, below.
• Planning together – at a strategic level, this should happen through Community Planning Partnerships and a joint Community Engagement Strategy. Find out about this approach in West Lothian and Somerset.
• Involving people jointly – in many cases, you could gather views on a range of issues at the same time, and share this information between organisations. Find out how Citizens Panels were used in Aberdeen.
• Building on existing relationships – sometimes, other organisations may have developed trust with communities that you have not yet worked closely with. Find out how Sussex Police worked jointly with the Council to engage with minority ethnic communities.
An example: joint community engagement in Fife
Fife Partnership – which leads community planning in Fife – has worked to co-ordinate its community engagement activity at a strategic level. It has adopted the National Standards for Community Engagement. Each partner organisation has nominated a number of ‘Engagement Champions’ – with Champions at both senior management and practitioner level.
These Champions are responsible for encouraging good practice on engagement within their organisation, and creating links with other partners and communities. In early 2007, the Partnership surveyed all Champions to identify the range of community engagement skills and expertise within partner organisations.
To co-ordinate the wide range of consultation activity that is taking place, Fife Council has developed an online Consultation Diary, for use by all community planning partners. This includes details of all current, recent and planned consultation events. The diary helps partners to:
• keep track of the volume of consultation taking place
• access results of previous consultations
• contact people with recent experience of consulting
• plan events avoiding clashes with others.
The online diary is also used to provide participants and other agencies with feedback on findings.
Fife Partnership is continuing to develop its activity co-ordinating community engagement activity. It is currently mapping all of the community engagement structures in place across Fife – including Community Councils, tenants groups, community organisations and so on. This will provide a resource for staff to make contact with the range of different groups and individuals across the area.
‘Community engagement is at the heart of community planning, and we have a commitment to make sure that people and communities are in
regular dialogue with all partners’
(Anne McGovern, Chair of Fife Partnership to March 07)
Find out more…
Fife Partnership’s website contains much more information about their strategic approach to consultation.
Access Fife Partnership’s Handbook of Good Practice: Consultation Guidelines online.
The National Standards for Community Engagement contain lots of advice about working jointly.
