Consultation and Engagement

An official partner of the Consultation Institute, over the last fifteen years we’ve developed first class techniques and experience in undertaking consultations and engagement programmes for diverse national and regional clients. We design, deliver and analyse consultation and engagement activities and help to embed good practice within organisations.

Accurate and effective consultation drives better and more cost effective decision-making and enhances reputation.

Whether it’s one stage, or the whole thing, we’ll make sure your process fully engages and involves the people you need it to, offering independent support to give you the assurance of transparent, effective, practice that stands up to scrutiny.

We’ve also just produced New Conversations, a toolkit for the LGA on community engagement. This builds on pilot projects in four boroughs and offers extensive guidance on different ways of building a better dialogue with residents. Click here to take a look.

What we do best

Strategic planning: Working with you to effectively design, plan and communicate your consultation or engagement process, we help run consultative processes that are cost-effective and watertight procedurally, giving you confidence that the process will stand up to the closest political, regulatory and legal scrutiny.

Consultation and engagement assessment: We are pleased to be collaborating with the Consultation Institute with a ‘Consultation and Engagement Assessment’ that can rationalise, streamline and align your consultation processes with your corporate objectives. It raises standards, cuts out duplication and saves you significant amounts of money. Find out more.

Public meetings and focus groups: From co-design, to set up and expert facilitation; in-depth insight and constructive engagement. We regularly facilitate events in highly charged situations managing to achieve quality outcomes for clients and participants. We also regularly successfully engage with difficult to reach groups.

Events: We can engage key players, test plans and ideas, and conduct deliberative stress-free events that work for you.

Surveys: Delivery and analysis, to get engage a large number or get a representative view.

Our approach

  • We put into practice the best advice and processes assured by industry experts The Consultation Institute.
  • A depth of experience working with groups who are sometimes hard to reach or traditionally don’t get involved in public engagement activity.
  • We know that people have different needs and for that reason offer a flexible process. We start by understanding the context before designing a services that addresses your needs.
  • Joined-up thinking, working with communications teams to develop strategies to support effective consultation activities.
  • We believe in the benefit, importance and prosocial value of consultation to engage and include local people in the decisions made about their public services.

Latest work

Creating a guide for LGA & NALC for partnership working between local and principal councils

Creating a guide for LGA & NALC for partnership working between local and principal councils

Understanding community cohesion in south-west London

Understanding community cohesion in south-west London

Building a Citizens’ Assembly for Camden Council

Building a Citizens’ Assembly for Camden Council

Helping set the direction of travel for the Camden Commission

Helping set the direction of travel for the Camden Commission

Getting the best deal for residents on Earls Court housing estates

Getting the best deal for residents on Earls Court housing estates

Empowering local neighbourhoods with the Community Development Foundation

Empowering local neighbourhoods with the Community Development Foundation

Online health for the whole of Westminster

Online health for the whole of Westminster

Keeping residents at the heart of neighbourhood change

Keeping residents at the heart of neighbourhood change

Helping enable Opportunity and Fairness in Croydon’

Helping enable Opportunity and Fairness in Croydon’

Starting a New Conversation around engagement

Starting a New Conversation around engagement

Co-producing a children and young people’s plan for Lewisham

Co-producing a children and young people’s plan for Lewisham

Driving Camden’s Big Healthy Weight Conversation

Driving Camden’s Big Healthy Weight Conversation

Building a leadership programme on cohesion with DCLG

Building a leadership programme on cohesion with DCLG

Tracking change over time in Northamptonshire

Tracking change over time in Northamptonshire