Community engagement

This section looks at why community engagement should be a top priority for councils and how they can get their messages across to their communities, including the hard-to-reach.

• The business case
• Consultation
• Engaging with hard-to-reach groups
• Tips for communicating with your communities

See also Community empowerment

The business case

There are three compelling reasons why councils have to get better at engaging with their communities.

The first is the government’s empowerment agenda, which means that councils have a new duty to inform, consult and involve their stakeholders. Under the new comprehensive area assessment (CAA), councils will be judged on how well they work with partners to engage their citizens and improve the local area. All three main political parties share a belief in giving more say and power to local communities.

The second is to improve their reputation and build trust among their residents, councils need to demonstrate that they offer value for money and keep their residents well informed. Research by Ipsos MORI in 2006 for the Local Government Association's (LGA’s) Reputation Campaign showed that people often distrust local government. A report by Communities and Local Government says that one of the reasons for this lack of trust was that many people feel that their council makes little effort to communicate with them.

The LG07 Study – on the Karian and Box website

The third and final reason is that effective communication is also fundamental to promoting better community relations and should be mainstreamed throughout the council’s communications.

If communications managers are fulfilling the strategic role in their councils that they ought to be, community engagement should be high on their agenda. Yet the LG07 Study 2007 revealed that nearly a third said they were not involved in community engagement activity. And just under half said that community engagement activities were of little or no focus for them.

Consultation

Consultation is an important way of engaging your residents and building trust. But if it is not done properly, it can backfire and damage a council’s reputation.

Residents can be sceptical about consultation. They often believe that it is a phoney 'box ticking' process and that the council had already decided what it wants to do. The LG07 Study 2007 findings suggest that councils still see citizens’ forums and panels as a way to ‘give information’ to residents rather than to actively engage them.

Councils are most likely to win residents’ trust if they are clear at the outset why they are consulting and what residents can and can’t influence. They should also tell people what has happened as a result of a consultation and why.

Communicators need to be in from the start of the planning for a consultation. Their involvement will be to:

• help shape the questions
• advise on communications implications
• actively promote it and make sure that the results are properly communicated.

Newcastle City Council has been working with communities at a local level for more than 30 years. In that time its approach has evolved organically, so local engagement and service delivery are well embedded. Particular approaches include ward-based governance, localised approach to environmental services, ward planning and neighbourhood management.

West Berkshire District Council was awarded Beacon status for its work on community-led planning. The council has worked closely with its partners in the local strategic partnership (LSP). It worked particularly with Community Action West Berkshire (CAWB) to support both the development of quality community – parish – plans and their implementation.

Engaging with hard-to-reach groups

Communicating with hard-to-reach groups is extremely important. Some disadvantaged groups have a greater need for council services while also experiencing greater barriers to accessing them.

Local knowledge and understanding the diversity of the community are essential, as is understanding the way different groups like to communicate. Some people will prefer direct contact with the council, either face-to-face or over the phone. Others may prefer communicating through the web, text messaging, blogs and podcasts. Some may need very directly targeted communication because of disability, culture, language or literacy may be a factor.

Community centres and residents’ organisations can be particularly effective channels for two-way communication.

People in deprived areas may have particular difficulties in communicating with the council, such as:

• living on estates that do not receive the council newspaper
• lack of access to IT – the ‘digital divide’
• lower literacy levels
• limited social interaction outside their immediate area because of higher unemployment, poor health and low incomes.

In anticipating the 'duty to involve' – which came into effect in April 2009 – the council has taken its work on participatory budgeting a stage further. It has directly identified the needs and wants of residents and got residents to price them with virtual but limited budgets.

Southwark first developed community forums for disadvantaged communities as part of its Neighbourhood Renewal project. Since then the council has been helping the forums to extend their responsibilities. They aim to become more self-sufficient, permanent, independent and more influential. It has also actively supported new ones.

Reaching the hard-to-reach

Tips for communicating with your communities

One size doesn’t fit all

Take the time to find out how your communities like to communicate and how they want to communicate with the council. Use residents’ surveys, residents’ panels and community groups to do this. The development of e-communications offers a range of opportunities for more targeted and imaginative communications.

Boost community relations

Communications can play an important role in promoting better community relations.

Tackle harmful myths – for example, that housing or other services are unfairly allocated – head-on when and as they appear. Use your usual communications to flag up a myth and tell the truth.

Showcase strong human interest stories of an individual’s or a community’s achievements and contributions to the area.

Celebrate festivals or cultural events.

Always report back on consultations.

Promote the results of consultation and explain what has happened as a result. Don’t shy away from talking about unpopular or controversial decisions. Those opposing you won’t.

Practical ways to engage with your community

More case studies of council and partnership good practice

Page published July 2009.