1. What is community engagement?
Maggie Laidlaw VeitchCooper Ltd The University of Edinburgh

2. Community engagement is often thought of as meaning…
Consulting
Informing
Surveys
Questionnaires
Interviews
= Informing people, and asking feedback on pre-designed/pre-decided issues & questions
…. But often results in someone outside wider community making the decisions on behalf of community.
16/11/2018
Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd

3. SPECTRUM OF PARTICIPATION
Increasing level of public impact
INFORM
CONSULT
INVOLVE
COLLABORATE
EMPOWER
Public
Participation
goal
Inform public with balanced in objective information = assist understanding
To obtain public feedback on analysis/decisions etc
To work directly with public throughout process to ensure public concerns are understood & considered
To partner with the public in each aspect of decision
To place final decision-making in hands of public
Promise
to the
public
We will keep you informed
We will keep you informed, listen to you & acknowledge your concerns & aspirations – and provide feedback on how your input has influenced decisions
We will work with you to ensure concerns/aspirations are directly reflected…& provide feedback on how your input has influenced our decisions
We will look to you for advice/innovation in formulating solutions & incorporate your advice/recommendations to the maximum possible effect extent
We will implement what you decide
Example
techniques
Fact sheets
Websites
Social media
newsletters
Public comment
Focus groups
Surveys
Public meetings
Workshops
Deliberate polling
Citizen's advisory committee
Participatory decision making events
Citizens’ juries
Charrettes
Forums
Mini publics
Ballots
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Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd

4. Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd
Types of engagement
Purpose
Newsletters
Social Media
Websites
Presentations
Share information
Consultation and feedback - however decisions are often made by others.
Surveys
Questionnaires
Interviews
Consultation and feedback: people share their experiences and seek to understand where others are coming from
- however decisions are often made outside of focus group.
Focus Groups
Allow people to identify and provide solutions to problems and often keeps communities engaged in longer term.
Provides more democratic solutions.
= Lengthy – sometimes taking place over days
Group Forums
Creative Methods
Charrettes
Citizens’ Juries
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Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd

5. Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd
The Imagine Project – written evidence 2017
Imagining better policy: Evidence published by House of Lords Select Committee
Collaborative methods of engagement allow communities to be empowered and to collectively construct new futures, and through the process, make visible new kinds of knowledge that can be articulated and heard in new ways.
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Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd

6. Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd
Co-producing research through use of poetry
SMART Fintry Christmas event 2017
Walking interviews & conversations
‘Imagining different futures’ with young people
Co-producing research with young women across Forth Valley using poetry
‘Imagining different futures’ with young people
Co-producing research with Scot.Gov and Scottish pharmacists
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Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd
Involving communities in deliberation: A study of 3 citizens’ juries on onshore wind farms in Scotland (see links on slide 11)

7. Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd
Denny 3-Day Charrette
A charrette is an intensive planning session where citizens, designers and others collaborate on a vision.
- Coming together to explore ideas and talk about how they might realise them.
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Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd

8. Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd
Inform
[Research]
[Converse]
Consult
Involve
Collaborate
Empower
Public engagement beyond public lectures! A training programme for researchers’ | Designed and delivered by Wendy Faulkner & Oliver Escobar | Beltane Network Oct 2015
Crafty Hookers Knitting group – participating in Denny Charrette poetry workshop 2015
Participatory and collaborative types of engagement can be transformative for individuals, groups, and whole communities.
Anne Rathbone – Co-ordinator, Boing Boing, Brighton
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Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd

9. Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd
Flows of meaning: people share their stories and seek to understand ‘where others are coming from’
Collaborative: everyone has something to contribute, experiential knowledge as well as specialist
Carries a strong ethic of inclusiveness and mutual respect
Makes a difference: …
Image & Text from: ‘Public engagement beyond public lectures! A training programme for researchers’ | Designed and delivered by Wendy Faulkner & Oliver Escobar | Beltane Network Oct 2015
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Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd

10. Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd
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Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd

11. Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd
Further Information:
Slide 1: visual summary created by Tony McKay over the three days of the Denny Design Charrette
Citizens Juries
Beltane Network: Public Engagement Network
Charrette Scotland
Connected Communities:
Imagine:
SCDC: Community development and co-production
What Works Scotland
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Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd

12. Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd
Thank- you
Contact: Maggie Laidlaw
16/11/2018
Maggie Laidlaw. VeitchCooper Ltd