Getting started: research and readiness

Before you start

Community participation isn’t just a one-off event, it’s something you can build into a project or service, from the start and throughout.

The process should start as early as possible - ideally at the very beginning of any project. Things might not always go to plan, so it’s useful to build flexibility into your plans at the start so that you’re able to adapt things later.

A Community Participation Project can involve different phases and different levels of community participation during its life cycle, for example:

you might first do research through focus groups or questionnaires to test user experiences before developing your proposals
you then might have a phase of co-producing your proposals with the community or service user who will be directly impacted,
then finally, you might consult on the final proposals with the wider community.

Do your desk research

Before starting, it’s good to check if there is any existing research that already provides some of the insight you need. You can:

see previous engagements carried out recently in the borough that you can find on Engage Barnet
speak to the Consultation and Engagement team who can let you know if there is anything coming up on the Consultation and Engagement forward plan that would be relevant. There could be opportunities to collaborate with another team looking to involve the same communities or ask similar questions
you should also ensure your community participation project is put on the Consultation and Engagement forward plan as soon as you become aware of it
check regional and national research for comparison data.

Will your project include a consultation phase?

Consultations are a special kind of community engagement with legal requirements and formal processes. The word consultation is used to describe a lot of engagement projects, but it’s important not to call something a consultation unless it truly meets the criteria.

If you’re not sure if your project counts as a consultation, please refer to the Consultation Policy. You can find more information in the consultation section of this toolkit.