We devised and facilitated a 12-week consultation for North Cumbria ’s application for foundation trust status. The consultation needed to be sensitive due to the nature of the trust and include a wide variety of stakeholders in this large county. The consultation plan went beyond the traditional meeting. We established a consultation website www.cumbriaconsults.com which, together with the consultation document, allowed service users, staff and voluntary groups to have their say at any point during the 12-week period. This was supported by road shows, public meetings, focus groups, vox pops and stakeholder interviews.

We also filmed vox pops in the town centres and showed a rough edit of the day’s filming at each of the public meetings. We undertook a series of stakeholder interviews after this period to explore in depth the opinions of those with a close connection to the trust, including staff, service users and voluntary groups.

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