Staffordshire County Council
Community Engagement Framework
July 2012
Engaging with our Communities
Staffordshire County Council aims to make effective commissioning decisions
and deliver services that reflect the needs and aspirations of our communities,
by putting them at the heart of what we do. Community engagement is one of
the key providers of customer insight, which will be used to help understand
the needs, views and expectations of local residents, service users and other
stakeholders. However, good engagement is not only about providing insight,
but also about empowering individuals and communities to play their full role
in society through participating in decision making and shaping service
delivery.
Effective community engagement is vital to driving the central themes in ‘For
your family, our community and a prosperous Staffordshire’ –
Staffordshire County Council’s Strategic Plan 2012-2017. It aims to give
Staffordshire’s communities a greater influence over local decision making,
commissioning decisions and service delivery, through the use of more
appropriate engagement activities.
The Community Engagement Framework therefore sits at the heart of the
council’s operating model, and is vital for its commissioning approach and for
the delivery of the priority outcomes which are presented in the Strategic Plan.
It also reflects three of the council’s core values:
 Customer and citizen focus;
 Listening and responding to local needs; and
 Provide efficiency and economy through innovation.
National Context
The future of engagement
Since the General Election in 2010, the Coalition Government has introduced
major new reforms, focused around the concept of localism: devolving power
and responsibility from central organisations to local ones.
The concept is based around voluntary and community sectors having leading
roles in delivering public services, and communities being empowered to act
in their own best interests. In the context of central governmental austerity
measures, involving communities and third sector groups and building up
close, cohesive community relationships is more vital than ever. This cannot
happen in the smooth, consistent and effective way that we need it to without
delivering community engagement to a high standard.
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As we move forwards, community engagement becomes the lynchpin of the
way local authorities operate. There is no longer a situation of top-down
implementation; instead, through consistent quality engagement, there will be
collaborative development.
Policy Context
The Localism Act 2011 is the most significant piece of recent legislation
related to community engagement, with considerable focus on empowering
local communities. It focuses on the provisions for communities to hold much
more influence over their own areas, enabling in particular:

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
The right to challenge – communities who feel that they can provide a
service better than the local authority can issue a challenge for the
delivery of the service, which the local authority must respond to;
where it accepts the challenge, it must run a procurement exercise
which the community group can take part in.
The right to bid for assets of community value – when a building or
amenity that a community relies on faces closure or sale, a community
group can trigger a 6-month moratorium to give themselves time to
prepare their own bid for the asset.
The chance to plan the development of their own neighbourhood: a
local parish council or neighbourhood forum can put together a
neighbourhood plan, to say where they want to see different types of
development, and where they do not.
These factors outline the importance of ongoing engagement with our
communities. If we as an authority are in a constant, productive dialogue with
local people, we will know already what the issues are that matter to them.
The Act introduces new powers for local authorities, too, such as the general
power of competence – even here, community engagement is essential,
because the whole reason for the introduction of the power is to enable local
authorities to act in ways which are innovative, focussed and, above all, for
the benefit of local communities.
It also makes some repeals, including that of the Local Democracy,
Economic Development and Construction Act 2009’s ‘duty to respond to
petitions’ – rather than this marking a move backwards, however, this
highlights the need to maintain good practice in our engagement, even
without legislative pressure.
Prior to the Localism Act there was the Local Government and Public
Involvement in Health Act 2009, the Communities in Control 2008 white
paper, and the Sustainable Communities Act 2007. These introduced,
respectively, the ‘duty to involve’, a series of calls for increased community
empowerment, and the power for councils to make proposals to the Secretary
of State about how central government could assist them in promoting the
sustainability of local communities.
The Equality Act 2010, though not new, also represents the responsibilities
which community engagement must be tied with; good engagement must be
inclusive and representative of all parties. Staffordshire County Council’s
commitment to the process of producing effective Community Impact
Assessments (CIAs) helps us in this, by forming clear links between those
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who could be affected and what could affect them. This is a process which is
reliant on robust and representative engagement.
If you require further support or are unsure about how a piece of legislation or
national guidance dictates the way engagement should be undertaken, please
contact the Corporate Community Engagement and Consultation Manager,
Wendy Tompson, who will be able to advise or signpost you to the
appropriate person.
Local Context
How Community Engagement Supports our Operating Model
The landscape in which Staffordshire County Council operates has changed,
with the introduction of the operating model and the development of its latest
Strategic Plan.
The Strategic Plan sets out nine priority outcomes which the council aims
everything it does towards: one of these specifically relates to strong
engagement. “Staffordshire’s people are involved in shaping the delivery
of public services” is directly linked to the commissioning model, and to the
much wider national context of community empowerment and local
responsibility.
The Strategic Plan sets out the county council’s new operating model.
‘Putting the customer first’ is a key thread running throughout the council’s
operating model. Delivery of high quality community engagement helps us to
understand the needs and expectations of Staffordshire’s communities, with
the outputs of this and other insight being used to guide service
commissioning and delivery. The diagram below illustrates the operating
model, with the ways that community engagement links to each core stage.
Engagement (and
other insight) drives
commissioning and
service delivery
Engaging
communities in
defining outcomes
Engagement to identify
needs and aspirations.
Outputs shared with
Customer Insight.
Engaging communities
in monitoring and
performance
management
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What is important to note is that commissioning is a cycle; neither it nor good
community engagement have a start, nor an end. The process of continuing
engagement is vital to continuing good standards.
Supporting the Commissioning Model
“Commissioning in Staffordshire County Council is delivering
positive outcomes, through the best use of resources, to meet the
needs of citizens, communities and service users in
Staffordshire.”
The operating model is based around commissioning services. Customer
insight, via community engagement is at the heart of the commissioning
process. It enables the organisation to:



clearly understand needs;
highlight where resources should be directed; and
help define the outcomes that need to be monitored and
performance managed.
Essentially, the commissioning cycle should be open to influence from all
stakeholders, via ongoing engagement activities, to secure the delivery of
community objectives.
Also of note with commissioning, is the statutory guidance related to the Duty
of Best Value. Part of fulfilling this responsibility to ‘secure continuous
improvement in the way in which its functions are exercised, having regard to
a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness’ involves the Duty to
Consult – representatives of a ‘wide range of local persons’ must be involved,
and this must happen ‘at all stages of the commissioning cycle’.
Supporting Staffordshire’s Localism Arrangements
This Framework also sits in the context of ever-expanding work in
Staffordshire County Council around localism and community empowerment.
The Localism Strategy, focused around unlocking the capacity of individuals,
communities and ourselves, and the continuing work with elected members
enables us to develop joined up and appropriate local engagement
arrangements, giving Staffordshire people a voice in a wide range of services.
Engaging Communities Staffordshire
In understanding how our community engagement fits with the way the
organisation wishes to operate, there are also other key developments.
Engaging Communities Staffordshire (ECS) represents a holistic way of
obtaining and responding to customer feedback, initially in the Health and
Social Care arena, but with a view to expanding beyond this. It is an
independent community led organisation that will bring together engagement,
consultation, complaints and consumer advice and insight services for health
and social care in one place. In this way it will reduce duplication and support
consistent, transparent engagement.
As the company establishes and builds on its successes, it will provide
Staffordshire County Council with a unique opportunity to add value to what
engagement and consultation is already in place. The model supports the
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council’s commissioning approach and commitment to delivering effective
engagement in a coherent and joined up way. ECS is therefore a key
consideration in any future approach to how we strategically manage our
engagement activity.
ECS also offers partner organisations the opportunity to reduce duplication
and provide a more efficient, community-led approach to engagement.
Partner organisations will be able to commission Engaging Communities
Staffordshire, as an independent and transparent organisation, to develop
relationships with communities, which will generate feedback. This will provide
insight for informing commissioning decisions. As a central hub of
engagement information it will allow organisations to the see the ‘big picture’
in a way that has not previously been possible. There will be a greater
understanding of who we are not engaging with, and therefore solutions can
be put in place to target these groups.
Why have a Community Engagement Framework?
In the transition to a commissioning model, community engagement has never
been more crucial to the way Staffordshire County Council operates.
Therefore, a clear, long-term strategy for approaching community
engagement is essential. By developing, and adhering to, a Community
Engagement Framework, we will be able to maintain:

A consistent approach – an agreed set of common standards for
community engagement across the council, ensuring communities get
the same standard of engagement regardless of the service area.

Co-ordinated and targeted engagement – we can rationalise the
community engagement that we undertake, ensuring that we do not
duplicate activities and thereby maximise efficiencies.

Better services – we will be listening and responding to local
communities, meaning that services meet their needs effectively and
efficiently.

An ongoing, developing relationship with our communities, who feel
and are empowered through a high quality engagement experience.

Targeted, appropriate commissioning – through a combination of
effective engagement and other customer insight we will be able to
efficiently establish the areas in which we need to act, and monitor the
reception of everything we do.
This Framework sets out Staffordshire County Council’s approach to
community engagement, including examples of how we currently engage, and
the standards that we will adopt when engaging with our communities.
What do we mean by community?
The term community describes clusters of people that have relationships or
associations. There are several different types of communities.
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They can be grouped by things that they have in common: a place (e.g. where
they live, work or study), an identity (e.g. ethnicity or age) or an interest (e.g. a
sport or hobby).
Staffordshire is a changing county, and our residents are from a diverse range
of backgrounds and communities. Whether these are people from rural
communities, for example, or black and minority (BME) groups, older people
or people with disabilities, to name just a few different communities, we must
ensure that every voice is heard equally and consistently.
Staffordshire is on the whole a relatively affluent area when compared to the
rest of the country, but it does have areas of deprivation. The county council is
focusing on ‘closing the gap’ between communities. This means identifying
those communities that have greater problems than others and looking at how
we can improve the quality of life in these areas, and bring their conditions
closer to the areas with fewer problems.
What do we mean by Community Engagement?
Community engagement has been defined as:

The actions that agencies take to enable them to consult, involve, listen
and respond to communities through ongoing relationships and
dialogue.
For Staffordshire County Council community engagement means enabling
Staffordshire communities to have a greater influence over local decision
making and service delivery.
We recognise that there are a range of activities that we can undertake to
facilitate community engagement. We do not favour a single approach;
instead we believe that the appropriate engagement activity will depend on
the needs of the community and the issue under consideration.
With this in mind we will use our knowledge about local communities to
ensure that we are engaging in the most effective way. Customer Insight
enables us to understand our communities, meaning that we can adopt the
most appropriate engagement method for local people, and thereby make
such activities more targeted and effective. Thus, before undertaking an
engagement activity we must not only ensure that the methodology chosen
fits with the needs and possibilities of a local community. In this way we will
achieve consistently good engagement, and also guarantee that we do not
need to duplicate work because of an original approach being inappropriate to
a community.
The diagram below outlines the different forms that community engagement
can take. Community empowerment can be seen as the outcome of
undertaking engagement activities and building an ongoing relationship with
the community. Staffordshire County Council currently engages with local
communities in various ways: the table below gives an outline of this (more
information about the examples can be found in the appendix).
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Continuum of Community Engagement
Minimum Involvement
Maximum Involvement
Acting
together
Information
Consultation
Involvement
Keeping people
informed about
what’s going on
Seeking opinions
about a document,
idea or policy
Seeking views, ideas
or opinions and using
them to make
decisions
Local people and
public organisations
working together to
carry out work or run
parts of a service
Exhibitions/
learning and events
Staffordshire
People’s Panel
Mystery
shopping
Third sector
working
Leaflets and written
documents /
publications
Open surgeries
E-panels
Engaging
Communities
Staffordshire
The media
Reputation Tracker
The internet
Market research
Social media
Focus groups
Annual reporting
Public meetings
‘Your
Staffordshire’
Magazine
Stakeholder events
Surveys
Neighbourhood
Highway Teams
The Youth Action
Kouncil (YAK)
Locality Working/
Total Staffordshire
i.e. Blake
Supporting
independent
community
initiatives
Helping the local
community to do
what they want
Community/
resident
champions
Staffordshire
Local
Community Fund
Community
budgets
District
Commissioning
Leads (DCLs) and
Community
Partnerships
Officers (CPO’s)
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Community Engagement Roles and Responsibilities
Ensuring effective community engagement is a joint responsibility; we all have
a role to play in ensuring that we are listening to the needs of customers.
Corporate Model
While effective community engagement is all of our responsibility, we have in
place a Corporate Community Engagement and Consultation Manager and a
Community Engagement Policy Officer who have an additional responsibility
for having that overview and ensuring community engagement is at the heart
of what we do (see table below for more information on their role). They are
also supported by an internal Community Engagement Network of officers
who have a role in undertaking consultation and engagement.
Alongside the responsibilities set out below, the corporate team are
responsible for working with others to develop and update the:
 Community Engagement Framework, which sets out the standards of
engagement;
 Range of community engagement tools, which provide guidance on the
planning and undertaking of engagement activities;
 Mechanism for planning and coordinating engagement activities, with
the aim of reducing duplication; and
 Examples of good practice that demonstrate the outcomes of our
engagement / learning points.
Staffordshire
County Council
Corporate
Community
Engagement and
Consultation
Manager, and
Policy Officer
(Community
Engagement)
Staffordshire
County Council
Community
Engagement
Network
The Corporate Lead for Community Engagement, responsible for
corporate engagement activities such as the Staffordshire
People’s Panel, having an overview of current and planned
engagement, ensuring that these activities are coordinated
across the council and their outputs are fed into the Customer
Insight Team to inform commissioning and service delivery. The
corporate team also provide advice and guidance on engagement
matters both internally and externally.
This is a group comprised of officers currently involved in
community engagement and is responsible for developing the
county council’s approach to community engagement. The
Network now exists virtually, but meets when necessary to
ensure the Community Engagement Framework is as relevant
and encompassing as it needs to be.
There are also other roles who have a key contribution to the community
engagement process, and who therefore contribute to the aims and objectives
of this Framework.
Customer Services
A key part of this is that we deliver excellent customer service by putting the
customer at the heart of everything we do. Our commitment is to provide a
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service which meets the needs of our communities, and one of the ways in
which we do this is to monitor compliments, complaints and suggestions from
members of the public. By co-ordinating the county council’s approach to
customer services, and improving customer care standards, customers’
access to services and feedback, we are able to improve standards of
customer service, building on effective working relationships across the whole
organisation. The county council uses the results of feedback received to
improve the quality of services that we offer.
More information on the feedback
www.intra.staffordshire.gov.uk/feedback/
standards
can
be
found
on:
Customer services also offer a unique opportunity to expand on our
involvement opportunities through their day to day interactions with
customers, citizens and service users.
Elected Members
Councillors have a key role to play in community engagement, representing
the concerns and wishes of the community. They are able to listen to and
represent the voice of the local community to the council and other public
services. The role also means feeding back to the community on the work of
council and its partners (where appropriate).
District Commissioning Leads (DCLs) and Community Partnerships
Officers (CPOs)
The DCLs act as a single point of contact for partners operating at a district
level. Their role involves ensuring that commissioning and provision is joined
up at a local level, and a large part of this involves close engagement with
specific members of communities – in this way the DCLs provide a vital link
with reality, between the commissioners within Staffordshire County Council
and those affected by changes.
DCLs and CPOs continue to support the development and delivery of locality
working across Staffordshire. In addition, they are key to supporting the
implementation of the Localism Strategy and roll out of Local Member Focus
Events, which will give Staffordshire people a real opportunity to get involved
in shaping service delivery.
The CPOs’ role also involves this very close-level interaction, and with making
sure that all county councillors’ voices are heard and responded to. With the
role of the members as leaders and voices within their communities, this link
back is essential in properly hearing the voices of the communities
themselves.
Between the two roles, they also ensure a continual network of close links
between officers and members (at upper- and lower-tier council levels) and
local communities. They represent points of liaison, and so their position, with
regards to good, inclusive community engagement, is vital.
Customer Insight Team
The Customer Insight team bring together knowledge and information from
across the council. This includes:
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•
•
•
•
Making the best use of demographic intelligence and evidence;
Taking account of national / international trends and forecasts;
Engaging local partners, businesses and residents in a debate about
the long term aspirations for the area; and
Focussing performance management on long term outcomes
Engaging Communities Staffordshire
ECS is bringing together engagement, consultation, complaints and consumer
advice and insight services into one place, making the system of engaging
and analysis more efficient. More detail on ECS is included earlier in this
document.
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Our Community Engagement Standards
Having a shared set of standards will mean that we adopt a consistent ‘one
council’ approach to engagement across Staffordshire County Council,
thereby ensuring that communities get the same standard of engagement
regardless of the service area.
When undertaking community engagement, activities will be:
Clear
We will outline:
 the purpose, scope, duration and parameters of the activity
 how much influence over decisions is being offered
 the decision-making process and how views will inform decisions
 how we will feedback
Coordinated
We will:
 keep councillors informed of engagement activities in their constituency
 ensure that engagement is both part of the annual business planning
cycle and a consistent and regular feature of service planning and
evaluation
 check what partners are doing before initiating engagement activities
 promote activities internally and work together when engaging similar
groups to avoid duplication – checking and contributing to the
Consultation Database and Annual Consultation Plan is vital in this
 share findings from engagement activities
Timely
We will:
 involve communities at the earliest opportunity (for example, the design
stage) to ensure views can be fed into the decision making process
 ensure that participants are given enough time and information to make
informed decisions
Accessible
We will ensure that:
 information is provided in a way that is accessible and where necessary
tailored to different audiences to support engagement
 engagement opportunities reach relevant parts of the community - we will
be proactive in seeking the views of ‘hard to reach’ groups and
individuals and ensuring that no one group dominates. However,
sometimes it will be necessary to conduct targeted consultations because
of the remit of the project.
 activities are held in venues that are easy to get to and at times
appropriate to those we are engaging with, providing transport options
where necessary
 the needs of individuals are met to enable participation (for example, in
the provision of translators, signers, crèche, where necessary)
 health and safety guidelines are adhered to
 carry out engagement using internet based methods where appropriate
(but not in a way that excludes those without access to the internet)
High Quality
We will ensure that:
 staff are appropriately trained, and have the skills and experience to
engage
 the appropriate method of engagement is adopted for the audience that
we are trying to reach
Ethical
We will:
 obtain informed consent from participants in engagement activities (and
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



Meaningful
Efficient
for the use of any photographs that may be taken)
respect the rights of people to withdraw from engagement activities
obtain CRB clearance for those running an engagement activity (if
appropriate)
respect the welfare of those involved in engagement activities
(particularly where there is a concern about violence or abusive
behaviour)
ensure that all information is held in confidence and follows data
protection requirements
We will provide feedback on:
 the outcomes of the engagement
 how the engagement has contributed to the decision-making process /
service delivery
We will:
 use resources proportionate to the issue subject to engagement
 in doing all of the above, take account of value for money and seek
opportunities for realising efficiencies
The Role of Members in Community Engagement
Members play a vital role in community engagement, representing the
concerns and wishes of the local community. As democratically elected
representatives they provide a unique connection between the county council
and the communities it serves.
Local councillors are often the first to pick up on local concerns so it is
important that they are supported in feeding that softer intelligence into the
council and feeding back to communities the actions being taken to address
those concerns.
There are several aspects to Members’ role within community engagement,
which include:





Influencing the delivery of public services in their patch
Addressing the issues important to the local community and local people
and empowering local people so that they can act themselves
Hearing and feeding back the voice of the local community to the county
council and other public services
Communicating what has happened about local issues to local people - if
something has been done (or cannot be done) and why
Encouraging community participation and citizen involvement in decision
making
There are a range of well established mechanisms in place to support
Members in terms of community engagement. These include the Local
Community Fund, Staffordshire Local Priority Scheme, Local Member Events,
district based data and local member interest notifications. These schemes
are supported by training and development linked to the Members’ role as
community leaders.
The Local Community Fund is one of the simplest mechanisms for Members
to influence community capacity and activity. Annually £620,000 is given as
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grants by Members to help community and voluntary projects within the local
area. Community groups contact their local County Councillor and, subject to
meeting some simple criteria, they can bid for funding.
The Staffordshire Local Priority Scheme extends Member influence into
mainstream council budgets. The Priority Scheme is a way for county
councillors, on a district basis, to prioritise work based on their knowledge of
their local communities. This has been most successful in relation to local
highways funding, whereby Members are involved in the decisions around
which projects take priority.
The County Council has introduced Local Member Focus Events on a double
district basis to provide. The events provide a means of working through the
impact of County Council policy and service delivery in a local area and
provide a public means of ensuring commissioning decisions are in the best
interests of those communities.
The Council’s Constitution makes clear that Members should be notified of all
decisions that affect their patch. There is a clear commitment in ensuring
Members hear first about what the council does – from the council, rather than
from their constituents.
The changing demands on councillors have resulted in additional support and
training to support them as community leaders. Two Member events are held
annually (Spring and Autumn events) which are used to provide a forum for
Members to understand and debate the real impact of what the Council is
doing at a local level. In addition a training package has been developed,
which is focussed around 4 key strands – building dialogue, relationships and
networks, accessing support and advice, evidencing influence and impact,
and identifying and voicing community concerns along with feeding back.
This has been built around key aspects of the localism agenda.
Working Together
The county council continues to work in partnership with our partners, elected
members, communities and the voluntary sector to look at how we
commission and deliver the best possible service.
There are several approaches that show how we are doing this, through the
Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Strategic Research Group (supported by
Staffordshire Engagement Network), the Staffordshire Observatory and
Locality Working and making a commitment to working with the Voluntary and
Community Sector.
Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Strategic Research Group and
Staffordshire Engagement Network
We are working with our partners across Staffordshire to develop the
research, consultation and intelligence on behalf of the Staffordshire Strategic
Partnership. This includes delivering coordinated strategic planning through
identifying potential opportunities for joint consultation and for partnership
working in the delivery of intelligence and insight.
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The work of this group is also influenced and supported by the Staffordshire
Engagement Network (a network of consultation and engagement
practitioners from across the partnership) to avoid duplication of effort and
ensure that priorities are shared across the partnership in its widest sense.
This will help to bring about consistency and rigour to our engagement,
enabling us to reduce inefficiency and provide a better service to the people of
Staffordshire. The county council is playing a leading role in this.
The Staffordshire Observatory
The Staffordshire Observatory has a key role in community engagement and
should be used when planning your engagement. The research, analysis and
intelligence produced by the team provides an up-to-date, robust evidence
base to allow us to understand our communities. Furthermore, the
Observatory provides support for the analysis and presentation of data from
consultation activities.
A key priority for Staffordshire Observatory is developing a Local Intelligence
System which is a web-based portal designed to ensure all partners have
access to a robust evidence base and facilitate the sharing of data about
Staffordshire’s communities.
http://www.staffordshireobservatory.org.uk/IAS/
Locality Working
Originally introduced as part of the Total Staffordshire work, initiatives like the
project in Blake focus on implementing a whole-area approach, in an attempt
to deal with the cross-cutting issues which can cause real differences to the
quality of life in an area. Through working with the community, partners and
Members, the aim of this work is to bring about a sustainable, long-term
change, and to empower the communities through this.
This form of locality working is still ongoing, and continuing engagement is
vital to its continuing success; through feedback and consultation, along with
monitoring the changes in those factors which were affecting the quality of life
in the first place, we are able to build on early successes and continue with
the whole-area approach.
The Voluntary and Community Sector
The Staffordshire Partnership Compact is a commitment between the third
sector and public organisations across Staffordshire, and aims to help them
work better together. We have signed up to the Staffordshire Compact – a
protocol that clarifies the relationship between third sector organisations and
statutory agencies in terms of how they work together.
To ensure the Compact is embedded it is underpinned by five codes of
practice. The Funding, Commissioning and Procurement code of practice
reinforces the importance of community engagement in the various stages:
using insight to inform the analysis of need and engaging communities in the
design, defining of outcomes, performance management and evaluation of
our services.
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We have aligned our Standards for Community Engagement in conjunction
with the Compact Consultation and Policy Code of Practice to ensure
consistency in our engagement approach. Aside from the standards covered
above, this also includes the ambition to always allow 12 weeks in
consultation.
The Compact is available on the Staffordshire Strategic Partnership website:
www.staffordshirepartnership.org.uk/thirdsector/
Reducing Duplication
The county council is committed to working together, both internally and with
our partners to ensure greater coordination and minimise duplication of
engagement activity. In order to do this and realise efficiencies, before
undertaking any engagement activity it is vital that we check what
engagement activity has already been undertaken, is currently taking place, or
is planned to take place in the next 6 months.
The consultation database and annual plan must be referred to before
planning any activity and information regarding any engagement activity must
be shared with the Corporate Community Engagement and Consultation
Manager for inclusion in the Annual Consultation Plan. It must also be
supplied via a form for inclusion in the consultation database. This process
will enable us to reduce duplication and join-up engagement activities where
appropriate. It will also help to reduce the possibility of engagement fatigue
being felt by communities that have been consulted on similar issues
previously.
It is also important to make sure, where possible, that engagement is carried
out through existing community networks and lines of communication, rather
than wasting resources and time by setting up something new unnecessarily.
Communications
Effective and timely communication is a key component of effective
community engagement. This means ensuring that local members, partners
(where appropriate) and other key stakeholders are kept informed of the
intention to undertake community engagement as well as the outcomes of
such engagement.
Furthermore, managing expectations of participants and communities is
central to effective community engagement especially due to the challenging
times that we are in and difficult decisions that have to be made.
Feedback
Developing a consistent approach to feeding back on the outcomes of
engagement is vital if we are to build trust and confidence with our
communities. For this reason it is an absolute requirement that we feed back
to both participants and to each other after engagement – to participants so
that they have a clear understanding of what has happened as a result of their
engagement, and to each other to allow the Customer Insight Team to further
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discern how services should be commissioned or delivered. It also helps to
further avoid duplication and engagement fatigue.
To participants and the wider community
To ensure that community engagement is effective it is vital that we feed back
the outcomes of the engagement activity to participants, as well as how the
engagement activity has contributed to the decision making process / service
delivery.
The way that we feed back will vary depending upon the engagement activity
and/or how the participants want information fed back to them:

When undertaking large scale engagement activities (for example,
surveying local people about service design) it may not be possible to
provide individual feedback. However, in the survey a statement could
be included stating how the information will be used and where
participants will be able to access the survey findings. This enables
participants to follow up what has happened as a result of their input.

However, if a more in-depth relationship has been established through
the engagement activity (for example, through asking a user group for
specific input) it is important that feedback is given to this group directly
so that they can see what has happened as a consequence of their
input.
Feeding back in this way helps to build a relationship with local people.
If we haven’t been able to act on the views of participants it is particularly
important that we set out why a particular decision was made and how the
engagement contributed to it.
To each other
It is also essential that findings are shared across the county council; this
helps to both improve coordination and reduce duplication. Here, the
Customer Insight Team are vital in gathering evidence and intelligence to
inform commissioning and decision making.
Community Engagement and Social Media
Social media provides us with additional opportunities to communicate with
and involve communities in the development of our services. The county
council has produced a set of corporate guidance on the use of social
networking sites which we will adhere to. This states the commitment of the
council to communicate effectively with all communities both county and
nationwide. The full guidance is available on the following website:
www.intra.staffordshire.gov.uk/comms/marketing/socialnetworking/
It is recognised that social networking and video sharing web sites are widely
used by people of all ages. The aim of their corporate use is to support the
county council in communicating with a variety of groups of people who use
this media as their main source of information and cannot be reached through
other, more traditional channels.
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In particular social networking sites can be used as a form of engagement to:
 Publicise news and provide alerts;
 Obtain informal feedback from the public about the site and services in
Staffordshire;
 Provide messages about events, initiatives and services;
 Link to pages for more information about Staffordshire County
Council’s services;
 Appeal for interactivity and involvement; and
 Promote the work of county councillors.
The use of social media in terms of community engagement does, however,
go beyond merely the provision of information. Staffordshire County Council’s
new Social Media Strategy places emphasis on the Customer Services Team
being in direct engagement with Staffordshire residents, as it means they now
respond directly to members of the public who have approached the council
via social networking sites. With this new layer of engagement added to the
Customer Services role, the use of social media is expanding and will be
continually reviewed for further opportunities.
How will we measure success?
The key purpose of the Community Engagement Framework is to ensure local
people feel able to shape the delivery of public services. As the Framework
directly contributes to the delivery of this outcomes (Priority Outcome 8) we
have aligned our measures in accordance to this plan.
As such, we have developed a number of measures that enable us to quantify
how effective we are at engaging local people:



The percentage of people who feel informed about the county council
The percentage of people satisfied with opportunities to be involved
(tbc)
Number of people involved (to be measured from 2013 onwards via
consultation database)
The following will also provide further evidence of how we’re performing: we
will know if we are achieving the objectives set out in this document through
people telling us that our opportunities for engagement and involvement
present high quality experiences.
Other positive outcomes that result from this Framework include:




Customer feedback processes impacting positively on service provision;
More voluntary and community sector organisations operating in
Staffordshire;
More people volunteering in their communities; and
Elected members feeling satisfied with the support they are receiving in
their community leadership role.
We will know is we are achieving effective engagement through the
development of a number of best practice case studies submitted to the
evidence bank, and the use of the consultation database.
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We will also know if we are successful through evaluating whether we can
demonstrate that resources have been used effectively. We will be able to
evidence this if:



Community engagement is embedded within business plans;
Engagement activities are involving partners; and
People are using the mechanism for coordinating engagement
activities.
For further information and guidance please contact:
Wendy Tompson
Corporate Community Engagement and Consultation Manager
01785 854267
wendy.tompson@staffordshire.gov.uk
Kristian Walker
Policy Officer (Community Engagement)
01785 276820
kristian.walker@staffordshire.gov.uk
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Appendix 1: Community Engagement in Staffordshire
Staffordshire County Council aims to give communities a greater influence
over local decision making and service delivery, via more appropriate
engagement activities. Here are several examples of how local people have
helped shape service delivery and made a difference to their communities:
Staffordshire People’s Panel
The Staffordshire People's Panel is a panel of around 800 Staffordshire
residents who have agreed to give some time to share their views with
Staffordshire County Council. The panel includes residents aged 18+ from all
backgrounds and areas of Staffordshire. The panel is broadly representative
of Staffordshire as a whole, both demographically and geographically. It is
engaged with through a variety of methods, with results informing local
service delivery. Findings from recent panels have influenced service delivery
in numerous ways, including: the development of plans for much wider-scale
superfast broadband, the continuing marketing of the Your Staffordshire Card
(see later in this Appendix), much greater investment in roads and
infrastructure, a joint venture between Staffordshire County Council and the
Staffordshire police to fund 38 new Police Community Support Officers and 16
new youth workers, and an increased focus on the use of the Your
Staffordshire magazine as a means of providing relevant information to the
people of Staffordshire.
Neighbourhood Highway Teams
Staffordshire Highways has established Neighbourhood Highway Teams to
tackle issues important to local communities. The work programme is
designed in advance through discussions with local community
representatives, often local parish councils. Devolving decision making in this
way enables parish councils to work together with Staffordshire Highways to
improve the effectiveness of this element of the Highway service. Some
recent successes of the Neighbourhood Highways Teams are the creation of
a war memorial in Tamworth (which was brought about through close
engagement with the local community to cut red tape and allow them to
establish the project), a pedestrian crossing in Lichfield (which was brought
about in partnership with a local business, through good partnership working
and engagement with those affected by the dangerous road) and a series of
20mph speed zones around schools, which have been funded using savings
from efficiencies in good partnership working. In all of these examples, strong
engagement with all parties has been vital throughout the process.
Staffordshire Local Community Fund
The Staffordshire Local Community Fund highlights the county council’s
commitment to connect with and support communities through its councillors.
Launched in 2009, it enables groups that provide important services in their
communities to further their work with the help of the county council,
benefiting local residents in the process. Community groups and
organisations apply for grants for projects, initiatives or for general running
costs. Applications are made directly to county councillors who then make the
decision on which should be successful. Each county councillor has an
allocation of £10,000 – meaning groups across the county receive £620,000
each year. Village hall committees, residents’ associations, sports teams,
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youth groups, societies, festival organisers and schools have all received
funding over the last year.
Youth Action Kouncil (YAK) and the Your Staffordshire Card
The Youth Action Kouncil (YAK) is Staffordshire’s Youth Forum and its
members campaign and take action on issues that affect young people. In
2009, following the problem of public transport costs being repeatedly raised
through young people’s ‘Issues’ surveys, the YAK included a workshop
specifically on public transport in that year’s young people’s conference,
Speakout09. When the issue was raised again in 2010, YAK launched a
campaign based around ‘Access to Positive Activities’. They published a
manifesto, presented it to the council, and followed it up with appropriate
surveys, targeted to be eye-catching to young people, which gathered over
1,800 responses.
In early 2011 the Your Staffordshire Card was launched, entirely possible
because of the strong, close-level and appropriate engagement which was
carried out. SCC then followed this up with close consultation with YAK on
how to promote the card, and its success began. As of April 2012, there are
now more than 25,000 young people signed up with the scheme – a huge
success. This is a very clear example of how close, appropriate engagement
from an early period has created something which was both necessary and
welcomed, and of Staffordshire people having direct input in shaping the
delivery of their services.
Staffordshire Cares
Staffordshire Cares is a partnership between Staffordshire County Council,
members of the public and representatives from the public, private and
voluntary sectors in Staffordshire. The original conception for Staffordshire
Cares came from the community – they wanted one place to go to find out
more about their options for a happier, healthier and more independent life.
After six months of engagement with the community and over 100 stakeholder
groups, Staffordshire Cares was born. Since June 2010, over 28,000 people
have used Staffordshire Cares. By continually engaging with the people who
need Staffordshire Cares, we have carried out a number of improvements
since the launch:
 Improved the accessibility of the website, to ensure that anyone can
use the website with ease.
 Completely redeveloping the homepage to give direct and easier
access to the things people most want to know about.
 Encouraged more organisations in more places to upload their details
onto the Purple Pages to give more people access to things to do.
 Redeveloped the promotional materials to more clearly describe what
Staffordshire Cares can do for people.
 We’ve also developed and launched a GP Staffordshire Cares portal,
to help the community’s most trusted source of information to find what
they need on Staffordshire Cares to help patients.
We’re about to reengage with over 50 groups representing a range of people
from across Staffordshire about what they think about Staffordshire Cares and
how to improve it.
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Street Lighting
Following good engagement and piloting, Staffordshire County Council now
intends to move forwards with proposals for dimming streetlights, or turning
them off altogether – in areas where communities want it. This involves
working closely with the parish councils in Staffordshire, to build a picture of
what local people want in their area; through this initiative, the county council
can reduce energy costs and light pollution, whilst implementing something
the community support.
Consultation is continuing, and will continue right throughout this process, to
ensure that where lights are dimmed or switched off there are no negative
impacts, and that communities remain happy with the situation. This,
therefore, makes an excellent example of an initiative in which strong
engagement and partnership working with parish councils and other partners
has helped to positively impact Staffordshire, and shape the delivery of what
we do.
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Appendix 2: Tools to help you engage
There are a range of toolkits available offering guidance on how to plan your
engagement activity and what methods to use.
Community Engagement and Consultation Database
A corporate consultation and community engagement database enables
information about county-wide engagement activities to be shared across the
county council.
http://www.intra.staffordshire.gov.uk/ppp/communityengagement/db/Consu
ltationDatabase.aspx
It is important to be able to manage and share engagement and consultation
activities across the organisation, and at the same time minimise duplication
by having all information in one place. There is also a need for the county
council to be transparent by showing details of all consultation and
engagement activities to all stakeholders – staff, partners, elected members
and the public, so they can get involved and easily access the findings and
outcomes of these activities.
In addition, the database will allow employees/stakeholders who are involved
in consulting with the public to take advantage of existing consultation
activities which are already in place, but which they may not be aware of.
Work is underway to replace the current database with a more modern, robust
and user-friendly system in the next 3 to 6 months. The Framework will be
updated to reflect this change and the new system will be promoted across
the organisation.
How our Community Engagement is Making a Difference
Examples of good practice are being developed and shared across the
organisation to demonstrate successful community engagement and
consultation in Staffordshire. You can view these at:
http://www.intra.staffordshire.gov.uk/ppp/communityengagement/examples
ofgoodpractice.aspx
The case studies are from across all service areas, and exist to show how
successfully engaging with a particular community or group of people can
help to improve and shape public services. If services are not familiar with
community engagement then they are encouraged to use this resource by
learning from others.
We are also keen to hear about other good examples that showcase people’s
community engagement achievements, which can be incorporated into this
area. Please visit the web page (see above) to find out more.
Corporate Consultation Toolkit:
This toolkit has guidance on how to plan an activity, who to engage, how to
engage (including different methods for involving local people), and a
consultation checklist.
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
http://www.intra.staffordshire.gov.uk/ppp/communityengagement/toolkit
Parents:
The Parent and Carer Engagement Toolkit is an online resource for those
undertaking engagement activities. It offers tips to anyone wanting to engage
parents and/or carers in their services. While its main target is parents and
carers it also contains useful tips (for example, on better quality engagement
and good practice) for those engaging with other groups.
 www.parentandcarerengagement.org.uk
Children and Young People
There are several resources for those planning to engage children and young
people.
Hear by Right sets out standards for organisations wanting to improve their
practice and policy on the participation of children and young people.
 http://www.nya.org.uk/quality/hear-by-right
Participation Works is a consortium of six national children and young
people's agencies that enables organisations to effectively involve children
and young people in the development, delivery and evaluation of services that
affect their lives. It has several ‘how to’ guides for involving children and
young people, including, ‘how to involve children and young people in
recruitment and participation’ and ‘how to use creative methods for
participation.’ Some of these guides are useful for engaging with all groups,
not just children and young people.
 http://www.participationworks.org.uk
Creative Methods
The Consultation Through Creativity toolkit was produced by Staffordshire
Arts and Museum Service and is a guide to using creative methods in
consultation. It also contains a step-by-step guide to running a consultation
project.
 www.staffordshire.gov.uk/leisure/museumandgalleries/artsdev/Projects
/consultation/
Disabilities
Staffordshire Public Access Network (SPAN) is made up of representatives of
disability groups from most districts across Staffordshire. Through the
Network, a wide range of disabled people are engaged in both local and
countywide issues and have an opportunity to help shape local services and
public policy.
SPAN are regularly approached by organisations and asked to consult on
policies, services and strategies that are being developed. SPAN welcome
this opportunity to be involved and have developed a set of guidelines, which
are intended to help you engage with SPAN in the most effective way. A copy
of the guidelines is available from the Communities and Equalities Lead.
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