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A presentation by Simon Burall and Edward Andersson
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HOW TO MAKE PARTICIPATION COUNT?
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What we will cover
1. About Involve2. Why engagement is important 3. Motivations for Participation 4. Culture change and engagement5. New practices in engagement6. Q&A
• Registered Charity (nr. 1130568)• Focus: Public and stakeholder engagement• Works with: Central & local government.
Health organisations, NGOs and International Organisations•www.involve.org.uk
About
Why is engagement important?
• Consider the reasons• Write on post its• Share with others
Local engagement in democracyFindings and implications from Pathways through Participation
Available from:
www.pathwaysthroughparticipation.org.uk/resources
How and why does participation begin, continue and stop?
Research questions
Can trends and patterns of participation be identified over time?
What connections, if any, are there between different forms and episodes of participation and what triggers movement between them?
Approach
3 field work areas:LeedsEnfieldSuffolk
Individual at the heartQualitative research
101 in-depth interviews
Participation as ‘situated practice’
Stakeholder engagement
Life stories
What is participation?
Social participation: the collective activities that individuals are involved in
Public participation: the engagement of individuals with the various structures and institutions of democracy
Individual participation: people’s individual actions and choices that reflect the kind of society they want to live in
Why participation starts
An emotional reactionA personal life eventAn external influence
Practical resourcesLearnt resourcesFelt resources
Groups and organisationsLocal environment and place
Helping othersDeveloping relationshipsExercising values & beliefsHaving influenceFor personal benefitBeing part of something
Why participation continues or stops
Friendships
Life event
Relationships
TimeHealth
Enjoyment
Impact
Energy
The factors that shape participation
Individual motivations and resources
Relationships and social networks
Groups and organisations
Local environment and place
Wider societal and global influences
Conclusions
Participation is personal
Participation can be encouraged, supported & made more attractive
Significant barriers to participation are entrenched
Briefing paper
Also available from:
www.pathwaysthroughparticipation.org.uk/resources
Local engagement in democracy
Social participation: the collective activities that individuals are involved in
Public participation: the engagement of individuals with the various structures and institutions of democracy
Individual participation: people’s individual actions and choices that reflect the kind of society they want to live in
Local engagement in democracy
The language and image
The accessibility The practice
Language and image
Perceptions of activities were important
Perceptions of the political system
But perceptions can be overcome
Not ‘political’
Voting a ‘civic duty’
Safe seats discourage political participation
Politicians seen as self-serving
Positive opinions of particular political representatives
Low levels of trust and confidence
Practice
Opportunities to participate
Negative experiences of public consultations
Perceptions of impact
No examples of public bodies proactively engaging with people
Examples of bringing about change through lobbying
Tokenistic and/or repetitious
Decision already made
People wanted to see the impact of their participation
Tension between motivation of citizens and needs of public bodies
Accessibility
Opportunities to participate
People’s resources
Relationships and groups
Need to complement people’s lives
Need to respond to their needs motivations and expectations
A lack of resources stop people from participating
Sometimes due to systemic inequalities
Groups important source of public participation
Relationships can determine success of participation
Language and image
Practice Accessibility
Increase impact of individual’s vote
Engage with citizens on their terms
Value, respect and resource those already actively engaged
Involve people early and be genuine
Understand people’s motivations and be flexible
Show the impact and limit the cost of participation
Show that people will be welcome and valued
Support social participation
Work with those actively engaged to connect with others
Recognise what is easy and difficult to influence
Implications
What are your personal motivations to take part?• Consider a time when you participated• What drove you to?• What held you back?
EngagementS
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3 types of democracy:
1.Representative2.Direct3.Participative
Number of democracies
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 20100
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
‘Free’ societies according to Freedom House
Free
Enthusiasm
1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 20090
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Turnout in European Parliament Elections
Trust
1983 1993 1997 2003 2007 20110
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Politicans
UK political parties
1951 1965 1975 1984 1993 2000 20080
500,000
1,000,000
1,500,000
2,000,000
2,500,000
3,000,000
3,500,000
Conservative Labour
Drivers for engagement
• Structures out of date• Mismatch demand/supply• Public expectations different• Legitimacy harder to acquire• Co-produced problems
Understanding Engagement:Making it all add up
OutcomeWhat
Process / Structure
How
PeopleWho
ContextWhere
PurposeWhy
Process/ Structure
How
Implementation
Understanding Engagement:Policy Cycle – PE at different points
Political Vision
Policy Proposals
Decision Making
Policy FormulationShaping PoliciesDeliberative forumsCitizen panelsFocus groupsDialoguesPollingConsultation
WrittenFace-to-faceMedia generates debate
Follow ProcessAttend meetingsWebcastingNewsletterEmailReportsMedia
Feedback/ EvaluationUser/ Citizen PanelsPollingSurveys
Agenda SettingVisioningDeliberative forumsCampaignsFuture searchMapping
DeliveryDeliveryCo-production
Service delivery
Understanding Engagement:Policy Cycle – role of evidence
Point in Cycle
EconomicPersonal Prejudice PE Process
Cultural
Political
Scientific/ medical
Media
Patients
Medical staff
Animal rights
Media
Religious leaders
Business
Parents
"It's easy to come up with new ideas; the hard part is letting go of what worked for you two years ago, but will soon be out of date."— Roger von Oech
What civil servants think
“…it’s got a number of different uses (…) no-one is quite sure what it means.” “finding out what people think and using that information to come up with better policies.”“makes our policies more robust (...) it needs to have the buy-in from society as a whole”“it’s all about creating behaviour change”
What civil servants think
“...it’s a box ticking exercise for people who have no constituency, no decision making and are routinely ignored by anyone who does actually have any influence over decision making; it’s a sham”
Problems
“If you consider yourself an expert and have been schooled as such and have spent years getting a scientific background or whatever else, you might be more reluctant to say I’m going to try and speak to the man in the street”
Problems
“There’s lots and lots of consultations that are about (…) either a political fix to get the answer that people want by, you know, slanting questions or only including certain groups that you think might agree with you.”
Problems
“I think it is for officials to understand the value of going out there and talking to people and it needs to be a mindset rather than set of rules, I think there is a real disconnect there. People with the mindset came up with a set of rules and people without the mindset just obey the rules without actually doing it.”
Cynicism...?
“Some policy makers end up disappointed because they think, ‘well what’s all this talk that engagement will help to develop shared ownership. No it didn’t, we did everything we could to engage them – took them to nice hotels and had long discussion groups and they still didn’t like what we said’.”
... Or Opportunity?
“For the policy makers, the policy colleagues recruited to work on public engagement were actually all very enthusiastic and some of them started being mildly enthusiastic and finished being very enthusiastic, and are now advocates for the value of public engagement amongst their colleagues.”
Culture Change
"The achievement of excellence can only occur if the organization promotes a culture of creative dissatisfaction."— Lawrence Miller
Institutional factors1. Mission 2. Leadership3. Communication4. Reward5. Support 6. Learning7. Staff8. Stakeholders9. Public
Empowerment vs Big Society?
Community Empowerment‘’the giving of confidence, skills and power to communities to shape and influence what public bodies do for or with them.”
(Source: An Action Plan for Community Empowerment, 2007)
Big Society “Central government need to focus on doing the things that only government can do (…) what we need to facilitate is that – at the most local, most individual level – people both identify and solve problems in the way that they wish to solve them”.
Dame Helen Ghosh
Central inputs
Geography
Service type
Social capital
Political culture
Institutional culture
Structures
Context
What engagement needs
Start• Planning• Time• Staff• Skills• Strategic
focus
Middle• Skills• Staff• Resources
After• Senior
Commitment
• Analytical capacity
• Communication
• Evaluation
Current EngagementLots of activity (but limited methods):
– Written consultation– Public meeting– Satisfaction surveys– Questionnaires
Current Engagement• Late in decision making cycle• Fixed in format and structure• Limited in scope • One size fits all• On Government terms • Focus on hard numbers
Radical EngagementInnovative practice:
– Participatory budgeting– Online – Bottom up– Informal engagement
Radical Engagement• Starts with lived experience of citizens.• Builds capacity of citizens to problem-solve.• Designed with long-term impact in mind.• Citizens commissioned to tackle challenges.• Uses right incentives –including having fun. • Makes most of behavioural sciences• Personalises engagement opportunities.• Uses social networks analysis
My Estonia
‘Our Budget Our Economy’
‘Geraldton: 2029 and Beyond’
Citizens’ Initiative Review
Only ask: • If you want to know the
answer• About things that people know
something about Imag
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involveRoyal London House 22-25 Finsbury Square London EC2A 1DXt: 0 20 7920 6470e: [email protected]: ed_andersson
