There is a growing interest in the principles of good engagement practice. From a pragmatic point of view, engagement provides a meaningful, fair, and proportionate method by which consultation can potentially be avoided, thereby saving time in developing new understanding and approaches.

Within our lens of consideration, focusing on the world of consultation and engagement, there are two stages to the change management timeline. Pre-consultation engagement and formal consultation, which suggest there is an automatic link between the two. In our role as champions of best practice we are, however, keen to make the case for engagement as a standalone activity. But, let’s be equally clear about this: there are cases where consultation is unavoidable, depending on statutory requirements, legitimate expectation and the scale of the change being proposed, amongst other factors.

The common thread running through this lies in the stage at which the engagement takes place, in both cases as early as possible is best. For pre-consultation engagement we are seeking views to explore scenarios and develop the options to formally consult upon. When considering engagement as a discrete activity we are seeking views on a range of issues to understand the perspectives of communities, service users or others directly impacted.

Perhaps the simplest way of differentiating the two activities is to ask the simple question “…are you collecting information to further understand the issues, or are you collecting information with the intent of influencing a programme of action?” If the former is true then it’s engagement; if the latter it is consultation, which is further subject to the principles of common law established around such activity.

This is an extremely high level discussion of a complex issue, which we invest a lot of time and effort in exploring and understanding for our members’ benefit. However, there are a number of key approaches to be considered when looking at good engagement practice, which include, among other things:

• Adopting an asset-based community development approach which enables communities to develop their own solutions.
• Using asset-based approaches in partnership with communities and key stakeholders through techniques such as appreciative inquiry.
• Working in an environment of shared power to co-produce or co-design.

We are currently working to support members in a number of ways in exploring good practice in this area, including developing engagement toolkits and best practice guides, developing professional certificates to explore the principles of effective community engagement, co-production, and asset-based techniques as well as directly delivering appreciative inquiry led engagement exercises.

If you want to discuss this in more detail please get in touch and we’d be happy to arrange a more detailed conversation.