Agenda item

The Head of Business Transformation and Organisational Development presented the Community Engagement Strategy and explained to Members that it addressed the legal standards surrounding consultation and was designed to help the Council ensure that services met the needs of its residents.  The strategy had been created following consultation with a number of residents and community organisations in order to ensure that it worked for everyone.  It clearly stated what the Council meant by engagement and the principles that it would work to.  It was explained that an action plan would now be formulated to ensure the strategy was put in place.  Members requested sight of that plan to understand better its purpose and to ensure that the strategy was implemented appropriately and in a timely manner.

Following presentation of the strategy Members discussed a number of areas including:

·                The use of a Citizens’ Jury and how this had been successful in the past.  Officers confirmed that something similar had been used previously and currently a group of tenants were being consulted for feedback.  Although they did not necessarily meet in person, they were asked for their views on a variety of subjects on a regular basis.

·                Members questioned how consultation would work across the Council.  Officers confirmed that different approaches were used by different departments and some subjects were easier to engage residents in than others.  This ranged from online surveys to people going out and about in the community with a clipboard.

·                The use of social media and text messaging in order to get feedback quickly on a particular subject.

·                The strategy was not designed as an operational tool and officers would be expected to speak to the Policy Team and work with them to determine how best to engage with residents on a particular issue.

·                Consultations which had been undertaken in respect of the Council’s Leisure facilities were also discussed and whether the principles had been followed sufficiently.

·                The Chief Executive reiterated that the Council needed to consult and engage more with its residents moving forward in light of the challenges it faced and advised that the Overview and Scrutiny function had a role to play in that process.

·                Members discussed ways in which measureable outcomes could be demonstrated in order to ensure that the appropriate groups of people had been consulted.

·                Officers confirmed there were national benchmarking percentages for the return of surveys which were normally between 25 and 28 per cent.  Some subject matters would always be of more interest to people than others, although the Council was keen to get as many responses as possible.  It was anticipated that key benchmarks would be included within the action plan.

·                Various types of electronic surveys were discussed and officers advised that a piece of software had recently been purchased which allowed the Council to create its own online surveys and also provided a detailed analysis of the responses received.

·                The difficulty in engaging with younger age groups and ways in which this could be undertaken, for example Facebook and Twitter.

After further general discussion it was

RESOLVED that

the Community Engagement Strategy be noted, subject to consideration of the Action Plan at a future meeting.