communities, regeneration, sustainabililty
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Work areas

Stakeholder and community involvement

CAG has extensive experience of designing, delivering and evaluating stakeholder involvement processes and policy development in this area.

Much of our work focuses on linking communities into local decision-making processes and involving stakeholders in strategic decision making and policy development. In all our work we aim to influence policy, enhance accountability and engage policymakers with the stakeholder voices that they do not normally hear.

We offer:

We strongly believe that processes should be designed to meet the needs of specific situations, and offer a tailored approach, rather than "off the peg" tools or techniques.

Examples of our work include:

Designing processes:

As most of our community and stakeholder engagement processes are designed for the specific needs of local areas, we have adapted or designed afresh methodologies that meet these needs.

Examples of new methodologies we have designed include

  • Peer evaluation of community engagement processes
  • Field feed back ©
  • Vox pops
  • Web based consultations

Delivering processes:

We have extensive experience of delivering stakeholder processes. For example, we linked a local community into the decision making process through a needs of Young People in Greater Humberstone.  Using mind mapping, interviews and questionnaires, we consulted with young people to understand local needs, and project ideas. We also designed and ran large consultation events for Sutton Partnership in the London Borough of Sutton in 2002 and 2003. Within the 2003 event we created a process for the participants to examine the links between the Partnership themes, and how they could be addressed. After the events we produced a report feeding back the results to the Partnership, and making recommendations on the next steps.

We also deliver processes which involve stakeholders in strategic decisions, such as for the Regional Planning Guidance in the East of England where we designed and facilitated a series of cross-stakeholder workshops to provide a route through which stakeholders could influence the key issues stage of the Strategy development.

CAG in association with Diverse Ethics and Land Use Consultants was commissioned in July 2008 to prepare a Faith Community Profile and Places of Worship Needs Assessment for Oadby and Wigston Borough Council. The aims of this piece of work are to provide a comprehensive profile of the Borough's Faith Communities and a needs assessment in relation to places of worship and associated facilities. The work is expected to be completed in September 2008.

Evaluating processes:

We evaluated the SRB 6 community involvement processes in Oldham, Lancashire. For this programme we adapted the Yorkshire Forward Active Partners Programme to suit the local need and worked with community participants to evaluate the level of community involvement in the SRB processes.

Working with The Environment Council we undertook an extensive evaluation of British Nuclear Fuels Limited's long-running National Stakeholder Dialogue. This evaluation focused on the process of dialogue.

 

Advising on policy development:

We have worked with Local Authorities, Voluntary Sector Organisations and Government departments to advise on policy development in stakeholder and community involvement. Examples include:

  • Working with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) we undertook a literature review to advise on the involvement of stakeholders within the context of the nuclear industry. This work was developed by the DTI's Liabilities Management Unit to inform the development of a national stakeholder engagement framework in the future National Decommissioning Authority.
  • Working with stakeholders in Leeds we developed a draft Statement of Community Involvement for the Leeds Local Development Framework, in line with the current guidance and regulatory frameworks in planning.
  • Working with Diverse Ethics and Land Use Consultants, we were commissioned by the GLA in late 2007 to explore the needs of faith communities in relation to places of worship in London. The work has now been completed and the published research reports on our findings and conclusions from the research and engagement process with faith communities and planning authorities in relation to places of worship in London can be viewed on the Greater London Authority website.

For more information contact

Emma Cranidge
01706 817347
ec@cagconsult.co.uk

Susan Parham
020 7704 0018
sp@cagconsult.co.uk

Gerard Couper
01364 653003
gc@cagconsult.co.uk

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