Consultation Support and Delivery
We provide bespoke packages of specialist community research and consultation support for organisations across the community sector.
The consultations we deliver could be focussed on exploring any subject such as:
- Community attitudes and beliefs about their area
- Engagement of community members for co-design for new developments
- Gathering views for service redesign, for example in health, employment support or care provision
- Needs assessment to inform service improvement
- Programme design and establishing need for new projects to back up funding applications
- Statutory consultation, for example with young people on the SEND register as part of Local Offer, or for planning applications
We have a track record of being able to engage harder to reach and disadvantaged groups in the community who are often overlooked, this includes less heard and quieter voices. We are experts at getting past the initial resignation and engaging people who normally do not get involved. In 48 of our most recent consultations with more than 12,500 people, on average 76% said they had either never been consulted with before (61%) or not much (15%); and only 2% said they had been consulted with a lot previously.
Our consultation work has been listed as best practice by orgnisations including the Department for Communities and Local Government, and The Young Foundation.
Our consultation packages provide end to end support including:
- Consultation design and strategic planning, including co-design with communities
- Development of consultation materials and questionnaires
- Delivery of consultations with up to several thousand people
- Analysis and report writing
If you are interested in any type of consultation in the community please do not hesitate to contact us. We would be delighted to speak with you about how we can help and provide a bespoke package of support to you.
Example Projects: Community Consultation and Research
- A youth consultation with more than 1400 children and young people, on behalf of LB Waltham Forest, to understand their views about the climate emergency to feed into the policy development by the climate change commission.
- Consultation and engagement with over 1,200 community members for Trafford Housing Trust in Manchester on the co-design for the development of a new community centre.
- A research consultation with over 1500 people for Islington Council and Islington Giving to hear from local people in Islington about their lives and their perceptions of the Borough – the challenges they face and the aspirations they have for themselves and the Borough as a whole.
- Engagement and consultation in 30 estates across the country for Hanover Housing Association to understand resident views about proposed service delivery model changes.
- A research consultation for the London Fire Brigade (LFB) to explore how to have the LFB become more representative of the diversity of London. We consulted with over 900 young people across London, identifying the perceived barriers, motivations and strategies and approaches that could help to engage more people from BAME backgrounds to apply for jobs with the LFB
- Design and delivery of a consultation with over 1000 members of the community in Poplar on health and wellbeing, commissioned by Poplar HARCA to support them and partners in developing a health strategy for the area.
- Carrying out a consultation with young people on the development of a programme of arts and cultural activity for the library service for Merton Council.
- Community engagement and consultation with over 1000 people for Brighton CCG and Healthwatch to hear from harder to engage community members to get their views on how health services can be improved.
- Consultation with over 100 young gang members in Southwark and Lambeth, for Leap Confronting Conflict as part of development of a large lottery bid to run a gangs programme.
- Design and delivery of an engagement and consultation with young people with special needs and disabilities for Central Bedfordshire Council