Consultation Support and Delivery
We recognise that each consultation is different and we provide bespoke packages of specialist consultation support for organisations across the community sector.
We have delivered large-scale community engagement projects funded by organisations including London 2012 Olympic Games, LB Lambeth, LB Camden, Poplar HARCA, The Metropolitan Police, and The Canal & River Trust, Brighton CCG, Trafford Housing Trust, Central Bedfordshire County Council and Enable East.
Our consultation work has been listed as best practice by orgnisations including the Department for Communities and Local Government, and The Young Foundation.
We have a track record of being able to engage harder to reach and disadvantaged groups in the community who are often overlooked. We are experts at getting past the initial resignation and engaging people who normally do not get involved. In over 20 previous consultations with more than 6,000 people, on average 73% said they had either never been consulted with before (54%) or not much (19%); and only 3% said they had been consulted with a lot previously.
We have consulted with a wide range of groups such as (see below for a range of recent projects):
- Young people with disabilities for Central Bedfordshire Council
- Community members for Poplar HARCA
- Young gang members in Peckham and Brixton for Leap Confronting Conflict
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
Our consultation packages provide end to end support including:
- Consultation design and strategic planning
- 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
- Undertaking a comprehensive review of tenant and homeowner engagement for Southwark Council with the aim of providing evidence to support improvements to the current structures and ways of working, including consultation with over 1000 residents.
- Large-scale community research, engagement and community building in a housing estate in South London, on behalf of Viridian Housing. This was a long-term project that involved interviews and engagement with residents, community workshops (including a youth workshop), supporting residents to agree on how to develop an unused space on the estate and develop other ideas.
- Consultation with over 500 young people in Waltham Forest to explore what the council could do to support young people with housing needs
- 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.
- Engagement and consultation in 30 estates across the country for Hanover Housing Association to understand resident views about proposed service delivery model changes.
- Design and delivery of a large scale community engagement and consultation for the Poplar Neighbourhood Community Budget. This was highlighted as national best practice in community engagement by DCLG.
- Delivery of 4 consultations for LB Lambeth targeting hard to reach residents to gather data on local priorities for allocation of CIL money.
- 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