Glossary C
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Capacity Building
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The development of skills, infrastructure and capabilities so as to improve an organisation’s ability to fulfill its own role and mission. Note:
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CAPI |
See Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing |
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CAQDAS |
See Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis |
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Change-led Consultation |
Where the main objective is to facilitate major change by giving stakeholders opportunities to engage with consultors on key aspects of proposed changes. |
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Charette |
A meeting to resolve a problem or issue within a specific time limit. It requires that the facilitator possess extensive knowledge of group dynamics and processes and the ability to encourage all members of the group to participate. Charettes last a minimum of two hours though many are day-long events. Because of the time limit, people are challenged to address the issue quickly, openly and honestly and to seek solutions by way of consensus. |
Chat |
See e-Discussion Forum and VIP Chat |
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Circles |
See District Circles, also Samoan Circles |
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Citizen Advisory Committees |
Many government agencies use these committees to help with decision-making on a variety of issues (transportation, education, policing, housing, art, etc.). In principle these committees are a good idea but historically in some communities they have been ineffective for various reasons (such as limits on the issues they can address; politically appointed membership who are not truly representative of a community; set up to rubber stamp decisions already made; heavy influence from corporate representatives; limited input from citizens who are not members of the committee). Government agencies could work with communities to redesign advisory committees so that the community gets to appoint the members, the committee itself gets to decide which issues it will address, and how to get broader community input before making final decisions. |
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Citizen Engagement |
See Engagement also Public Engagement also Asynchronous Public Engagement |
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Citizen User |
Describes a member of the public when accessing Government services over the internet. |
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Citizen Relationship Management |
See Customer Relationship Management |
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Citizens’ Jury
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A dialogue method whereby a small group of citizens (chosen on a representative basis to reflect the local population) is brought together to consider a particular issue. They receive evidence from expert witnesses and can cross-examine them. A report is then drawn up setting out the views of the jury (including any differences of opinion). Also called
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Citizens’ Panel
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A dialogue method whereby a randomly selected, representational number of persons agree to be consulted on a regular basis on a range of local issues and services. See also Residents Panel and e-Panels Notes:
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Citizens’ Summits |
Citizens' Summits are deliberative meetings involving large numbers of people (typically between 500-5000) and using communication technology to facilitate discussions. The technology, which includes electronic voting, text messages, and online surveys, makes it possible to engage large numbers of people in the same place, at the same time. |
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Citizenship |
See Active Citizenship |
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Citizenship Management |
One of the six functionality categories identified in CRM in the Public Sector 1 and used to describe interactions between Government and its agencies and members of the public in their capacity as citizens rather than a service uses. [1] See “CRM in the Public Sector” Hewson Group 2003 |
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Cleaning (or Cleansing) |
Removal of incomplete or obviously erroneous data which would otherwise unduly influence the result of a consultation. |
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Closed Questions
Code of Practice |
These are questions where the answer you can give is limited to one option, such as choosing yes or no
A set of rules according to which people in a particular profession, or performing a particular task, are expected to behave. In consultation it normally refers to the BERR document. This revised (applied from Nov. 2008) Code sets out the approach, in the form of 7 criteria, that the Government will take when it has decided to run a formal, written, public consultation exercise. To see the full code Click Here Notes:
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Coding |
A process of turning text responses into a structured framework, so that they can be counted, and easily seen as meaningful feedback. Notes:
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Collaboration Agreement |
An agreement whereby two or more groups undertake to work together on a consultation project. Although the groups may share the responsibility and the cost, the work is often carried by only one group on behalf of both or all. This agreement may by a formal one, particularly if the groups are not normally associated. |
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Collage technique
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A projective or enabling technique whereby research participants create rough collages from magazines or other visual material to represent something relevant to the research - often a brand, or an activity. This enforced move away from the verbal helps to access intuitive knowledge and may allow access to non-verbal aspects of the topic that would otherwise remain unarticulated and thus open them up to discussion |
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Comment & Complaints Cards |
Complaint cards are usually displayed at the point of service delivery. Can be used to refine service delivery. Comments might also be received via telephone or a website. |
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Comments Box |
Similar to the below, but the comments and ideas are posted into a ballot box. Good technique suited to all events where anonymous comment is required and where do not want consultees to read each other’s comments. |
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Comments Tree |
Pre printed schematic or photographic tree. Ideas and comments are written onto post-it notes/leaves and stuck onto the tree. Very good technique suited to all events where anonymous feedback is required and where people may need to be encouraged to leave ideas and comments. |
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Commitments Register |
A published list of follow-up actions from a public meeting, focus group, consultation etc. |
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Communities of Interest |
1. Groups of people sharing similar interests and who generate most of their discussion from within their group. In consultation terms each group or community would normally hold a dialogue within a set of house rules and assisted by a facilitator. 2. Communities of interest are groups of people who share an identity - for example Afro-Caribbean people; or who share an experience - for example people with a particular disability. |
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Communities of Place |
People who live in a particular locality and all their different relationships and interests. |
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Communities of Practice |
Distributed groups of people who share a common concern. Often informal groups of experts who complement other structures by promoting collaboration and information exchange. |
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Community |
1. People living in a defined geographical area, or who share similar interests and concerns. 2. A community is a specific group of people who all hold a something in common. Community has tended to be associated with two key aspects: firstly people who share locality or geographical place; secondly people who are communities of interest. |
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Community Appraisal
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This involves a group of people from a community working together. The group works to build a description of the area taking into account all factors e.g. social, environment and economic issues. This is then used to inform decision-making.
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Community Audit |
This is the use of a combination of techniques to gather comprehensive information from local people about an area to help identify local priorities and inform the consultation process. It allows a complete picture of the area to be built up because of the high level of community involvement. Although they have the potential to give a full and realistic picture of an area, community audits can also be used to audit a particular issue. For example, a community health audit or community safety audits.
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Community Empowerment Network |
Community Empowerment Networks are being established as a link between the community and voluntary sectors and the Local Strategic Partnership in each of the 88 most deprived local authority areas in England. This is to help community and voluntary sector groups, particularly those that are marginalized, to get more involved in decisions concerning how public services are delivered in their area. They will be set up by a 'lead organisation' from within the sector using funding from the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit's Community Empowerment Fund. |
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Community Engagement |
1. The process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest, or similar situations to address issues affecting the well being of those people. 2. In the context of civil renewal, community engagement is the term for processes which help to build active and empowered communities. Its characteristics include enabling people to understand and exercise their powers and responsibilities as citizens, empowering them to organise through groups to work for their common good, and requiring public bodies to involve citizens in influencing and carrying out public services. |
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Community Indicators
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Tools that are intended to measure local trends by listening to the opinions of local people Note:
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Community Inventory |
A process for discovering what kinds of skills, abilities, and experiences individuals, associations and community businesses possess that could be translated into community building (e.g., economic activity and increased economic stability). |
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Community Issues Groups |
A combination of the focus group and citizen jury. The purpose is to capture the energy, reach and cost-effectiveness of a focus group, combined with the potential depth of the jury. CIGs consist of 8-12 people who meet for roughly 2-2½ hours on several occasions to discuss designated issues in depth. Each meeting is designed to build on discussions of the previous session. |
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Community Kitties |
See Participatory Budgeting |
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Community Led Plans |
A step-by-step structured process of creating a vision for a community or neighbourhood. The vision covers social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of the community and all those who live and work there. |
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Community Mapping |
An approach to the question what do you value about the place where you live? People are asked to mark on a map what it is they value about their area and things they are worried about. The resulting map is placed somewhere in the public eye to be added to or amended as appropriate. It helps raise public awareness of many local issues.
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Community Panel |
An alternative name for a Citizens Panel.
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Community Participation or Involvement |
Participation in any of three core activities civic participation, informal volunteering and formal volunteering) (2001 Home Office Citizenship survey) |
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Community Profiling |
See Community Appraisal |
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Community Visioning |
See Visioning |
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Community Voices Network |
A Scottish national network for local people involved in the regeneration of their communities. |
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Community x-change |
An informal label for a variety of participatory action research practices that promote alternative principles of participation (often called “public engagement”) from those that currently dominate. It contains elements of the citizens' jury and DIY citizens' jury techniques, but avoids legal language or symbolism. First coined by community development worker and PEALS Research Centre academic Dr Jasber Singh in 2006, to describe a shift from naive attempts at two-way engagement such as the 2005 UK Nanojury . The term symbolises attempts to share ownership of the participation process with the community members who became involved in it. |
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Compact |
The Compact was published in 1998. It is a framework for partnership between Government and the voluntary and community sector, for mutual advantage. An important principle in the Compact is the independence of the sector and its right to campaign. The Compact is supported by five Codes of Good Practice in which Government and the sector commit to particular actions. One of these is the Consultation Code. There are also Local Compact Guidelines to inform partnership working between voluntary & community sector organisations and local bodies such as local authorities, primary care trusts and local learning and skills councils. |
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Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing |
Essentially means that the interview is conducted on a computer rather than using a paper questionnaire. It will involve direct or indirect interaction with an interviewer. |
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Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis |
Computer programs designed to make the analysis of data collected during qualitative research easier, more efficient, and more effective. Open-ended survey questions, focus group transcriptions, and interview notes are a few of the data forms they can deal with. |
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Concept board
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A form of stimulus material, comprising visual and/or verbal representation of an idea for a product or service, often outlining its attributes and benefits and used to present this idea to participants in research. These are usually mounted on large boards so a group of people can easily see them. Such concept boards may be quite polished and resemble advertisements, or they may be very rough and 'unfinished' |
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Conferences |
See Consensus Conference also Seminars and Conferences also Stakeholder Conference |
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Confidence Interval |
A confidence interval gives an estimated range of values which is likely to include an unknown population parameter, the estimated range being calculated from a given set of sample data. |
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Confidence Level |
The level of confidence that a consultor has that the statistical result the consultation has achieved is correct. |
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Conflict |
An ongoing situation that is based on deepseated differences of values, ideologies, and goals. The differences are hard to resolve because they reflect the core values of the disputants. The parties may not be influenced by facts and may not want to examine tradeoff options. |
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Conflict Interviews |
A technique by which people with differing behaviours and/or attitudes are recruited into a pair, triad or group discussion. The interviewing process is used to explore and dramatise the differences between these positions. Although a highly effective research approach, it requires sensitive handling by the facilitator |
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Conflict Resolution |
Dialogue methods that enable participants to by-pass personal differences and to open up to possibilities. It involves a powerful shift from adversaries to co-operative partners. In this shift each person benefits. |
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Consensus
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1. A mutually acceptable agreement that integrates the interests of all concerned parties.
2. General or widespread agreement. Tends to be used to describe an outcome that 'everyone can live with', as well as unequivocal agreement. A winwin solution. |
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Consensus Conference |
1. A panel of ordinary citizens who question expert witnesses on a particular topic. Their recommendations are then circulated to key decision-makers and the media. 2. A temporary group of 12-18 citizens selected from a volunteer pool to be demographically representative, who deliberate on a public issue, usually technology-related. Overseen by a committee of diverse partisan authorities, they study briefing materials, cross-examine experts in public forums, and craft consensus findings and recommendations, which are delivered to concerned public officials at a public press conference. |
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Consensus Democracy |
Consensus democracy reformulates how local democracy operates in the 21st Century. The basic principles of consensus democracy recognize the need for new institutional ways that allow all citizens to have access to direct control of the decision making process. |
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Consensus Voting |
The de Borda Institute , and OurKingdom are collaborators in online consensus decision making using the Modified Borda Count; a system of democratic voting designed to facilitate the identification of a consensus, if and when one exists. By posing problems as open rather than closed questions, it allows all participants to bring their preferred solutions to the table; next, after an open multi-optional debate, it asks everyone to cast their preferences on (one, some or hopefully) all the options listed; and then it identifies that option which gains the highest average. |
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Consultation |
The dynamic process of dialogue between individuals or groups, based upon a genuine exchange of views and with the objective of influencing decisions, policies or programmes of action. |
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Consultation Analysis |
The examination and evaluation of information gathered in the course of a consultation exercise, and the search for patterns or insights about the subject-matter leading to the formulation of conclusions. |
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Consultation Audit |
A systematic review of consultation policies and practices – either for an individual consultation exercise or for a programme of consultations. This will be done, preferably, by someone outside the consultation process |
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Consultation Calendar |
A publication or web page that lists by date consultations, past, present and planned in a single listing. See also Consultation Diary |
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Consultation Charter |
A document published by The Consultation Institute and intended to act as a Statement of Best Practice principles to be followed by all those involved in the consultation process. |
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Consultation Co-ordinator |
An official or member of staff with responsibility for ensuring that consultation exercises initiated or undertaken by different departments or agencies, are co-ordinated so as to optimise the use of resources and minimise effort and inconvenience for stakeholders. Note:
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Consultation Culture |
Values and behaviour that reflect considerable emphasis on consultation as a routine method of taking decisions in an organisation. |
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Consultation Diary |
Similar to a Consultation Calendar but usually only covers current and future consultations. |
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Consultation Directory |
A register of forthcoming, current or past consultation exercises relevant to a particular organisation or group of organisations. See also Consultation Calendar and Consultation Diary Note:
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Consultation Exercise |
A single consultation project focused on a defined objective and frequently part of an overall consultation programme Notes:
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Consultation Fatigue |
A perception voiced mostly by consultees, reflecting an excessive burden of dealing with too many consultations. First coined in a Northern Ireland debate in 2000. |
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The Consultation Institute |
Founded in 2003. Seeks to promote the highest standards of public, stakeholder and employee consultation by initiating research, publications and specialist events in order to disseminate best practice and improve subsequent decision-making. |
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Consultation Mandate |
A document prepared at the time of instigating a consultation exercise, and specifying its essential objectives. Note:
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Consultation Narrative |
An account of the background to a consultation exercise, followed by a description of the issues and an explanation of how consultees can contribute a response. |
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Consultation Outcome
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May be simply a report or may refer to a decision, policy or programme announced or taken as a direct consequence of a consultation exercise on the relevant issue. Note:
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Consultation Output |
The knowledge, data, material or insights complied in the dialogue phase of a consultation exercise, and/or any analysis or report based upon this material. |
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Consultation Paper |
Frequently used term to describe a consultation narrative complete with covering explanations and background. |
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Consultation Period |
Normally used to describe the interval between publication of a consultation narrative and the closing date for responses. Notes:
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Consultation Process |
The sequence of activities and actions undertaken as part of a consultation. |
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Consultation Response |
A Response is the statement made by a consultee in answer to a question or as comment upon a document as part of a consultation exercise.
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Consultation Sclerosis |
A climate of policy inactivity caused by too many consultations. See also Consultation Fatigue Note:
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Consultation Strategy
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A document explaining an organisation’s (or department’s) approach to defined aspects of consultation and normally covering its objectives, policies and preferred methods, along with key processes required to meet those objectives. |
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Consultation Toolkit
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Materials assembled to assist those involved in the preparation and execution of a consultation. Can contain detailed descriptions of dialogue methods and occasions when and how these should be deployed. |
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Consultation Window |
The period of time (usually within the overall decision window) allocated to the process of consultation, and culminating with the publication or delivery of the consultation output or findings. Notes:
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Consultative Referendum |
A referendum that is not binding but whose outcome will be taken into account by its instigator. See also Referenda |
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Consultee |
The individual or organisation who responds to a consultation or participates in consultation exercises. |
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Consultor |
The individual or organisation initiating a consultation exercise and who will normally be responsible of acting upon its findings. Note:
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Contribution |
Statement or Statements made by consultees as part of a dialogue in a consultation exercise. These could include statements made in public meetings, focus groups, survey responses or a posting as an e-discussion forum. |
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Conversation Café |
A Conversation Café is a one-and-a-half hour hosted conversation, held in a public setting like a café, where anyone is welcome to join. A simple format helps people feel at ease and gives everyone who wants it a chance to speak. At Conversation Cafés, everyone is "the talk show"-and it's also fine for people to simply listen. Conversation Cafés are not instead of action. They are before action-a place to gather your thoughts, find your natural allies, discover your blind spots and open your heart to the heart of "the other”. |
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Convenience Sample |
Using a sample of people who happen to be handy or easy to survey. Regarded as acceptable in preliminary research, but would not be considered representative of the population as a whole. |
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Corporate Consultation
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Where large organisations in the public, private or voluntary sectors use consultation techniques to engage with a range of stakeholders on issues relating to the organisation’s role, objectives and activities. Note:
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Cultural Complementarity Process |
Diverse people working together to attain mutually agreed goals that would be difficult to accomplish via separate efforts. Work is done in a circle using a process of consensus, believing that all cultures and people have different areas of excellence as well as different challenges which, when brought together, will complement each other. |
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Customer Feedback |
See Comment & Complaints Cards |
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Customer Panels
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See User Panels |
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Customer Relationship Management (CRM) |
The management of all interactions with customers. Note:
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