presentation to finnish delegation 16 jan 2012 making participation count v01

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

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involveRoyal London House 22-25 Finsbury Square London EC2A 1DXt: 0 20 7920 6470e: edward@involve.org.uktwitter: ed_andersson