« Previous | Contents |
Listen
Summary of the Evaluation of the Impact of the National Standards for Community Engagement
TheNational Standards for Community Engagementwere developed with the involvement of over 500 community, voluntary and public sector representatives over a two year period and were launched by the Minister for Communities in May 2005. The launch was followed by a support programme to help community planning partnerships, community learning and development partnerships and community groups to implement and use the standards.
In May 2007 Communities Scotland commissioned this study to evaluate the impact of the National Standards for Community Engagement on community engagement practice and on demonstrating the impact on service planning and delivery.
Prior to commissioning the evaluation seven geographic areas, Argyll and Bute, Aberdeenshire, Glasgow, Highland, Stirling, South Lanarkshire, and West Lothian were selected to inform the evaluation. The evaluation examined and analysed the use of the National Standards and their impact on community engagement practice in each of these areas. The key findings were:
The National Standards are, with few qualifications, regarded positively by all stakeholders in community engagement. In the relatively brief period since the National Standards were published, they have established an important niche as a catalyst for change and have become the most commonly used resource to support review and improvement of planning and practice in community engagement.
The impact of the National Standards has primarily been on improving process of community engagement and building the capacity of practitioners, service managers and communities to design and manage effective community engagement processes.
Despite the brief period in which community engagement activity has been influenced by the National Standards, it was possible to identify outcomes of community engagement, i.e. change in services or commitment to change in services, which were attributable to processes influenced by the National Standards.
The National Standards are contributing to a 'culture change' in how community engagement is perceived by Community Planning Partners.
Uses of the National Standards
Community planning partnerships use the National Standards to review and improve the 'fitness for purpose' of the community engagement structures and strategies of the partnership and of partner agencies.
Community planning partners use the National Standards to review, quality assure and improve the effectiveness of consultation exercises.
Individual practitioners use the National Standards as a tool for reflection and to improve their own community engagement practice.
Communities use the National Standards to reflect on their own experiences of community engagement and to articulate the nature of the improvements they felt were necessary.
Factors affecting the Impact of the National Standards
Awareness and Exposure to National Standards
Awareness of the National Standards is very high among professionals who consider themselves specialists in community engagement. This is partially a result of the participative nature of their production and partially a result of the intense level of promotional work and support to their implementation sponsored by Communities Scotland.
Communities who are significantly involved in community engagement work had a high level of awareness of the standards. Awareness is lower in communities who are less associated with community planning processes.
The National Standards as a Common Language
The National Standards provide a shared language and consistent understanding of the nature and elements of effective community engagement which did not exist before their publication. This has had the effect of enhancing communication between those who consider themselves to be community engagement specialists and those who do not.
Despite the standards being considered a clear statement of the nature of community engagement, non-specialists in community engagement found them insufficient as a practical resource for identifying how to plan or improve community engagement. Support is required from community engagement specialists to assist them to identify actions as a result of their exposure to the standards.
The development of complementary resources which highlighted the relevance of the standards to specific types of service provision was an effective method of supporting community planning partners to understand the application of the National Standards to their practice.
The relevance of the National Standards is not always immediately apparent to community planning partners. Their relevance can become more apparent in situations where community planning partners are required to undertake or evidence community engagement or consultation as part of service/strategic planning and review processes.
Community planning partners who had significant experience of managing consultation exercises used the standards to identify opportunities to improve the quality and efficiency of community consultation exercises. The two standards that were most frequently identified as being of significant influence in these situations were the Involvement standard and the Feedback standard.
The evaluation found that the Involvement standard has contributed to the inclusion of other stakeholders, including communities, in planning the scope, timescale and methods used in consultation exercises. The Feedback standard has contributed to a significantly enhanced awareness of the importance of investing time and resources in providing feedback from community consultation exercises.
Although some practitioners required support to develop confidence in applying the standards, there were others who had a level of misplaced confidence in the quality of their community engagement practice which the National Standards have not been effective in challenging. This misplaced confidence has the potential to limit the impact of the standards on improving community engagement.
The National Standards and Commitment to Community Engagement
The study found that although community planning partners were using the National Standards, their use tended to be to be confined to 'enthusiasts' and those with sufficient experience to have confidence in their skills in engaging with communities.
Community engagement specialists reported that the status and profile of the National Standards allow them to be effective in influencing community planning partners to consider improving community engagement. The association with Communities Scotland was reported as an important factor in influencing community planning partners.
Community engagement specialists also report that the publication of the National Standards has facilitated a reduction in the extent to which community planning partners perceive community engagement to be "something that somebody else does".
A combination of the endorsement of the National Standards by national bodies and networks, and the consultancy support had been successful in generating commitment to the standards from policy makers within community planning partners. Despite this, the attitudes of individual resource holders to community engagement could still be the 'make or break' of whether the National Standards were effective in facilitating improvement in community engagement.
The National Standards and Resourcing Improvements in Community Engagement
Community engagement specialists used the National Standards to persuade senior colleagues within their own service to invest greater resources in improving community engagement.
The National Standards were used to make the case for additional resources for community development support and for ensuring that community representatives with additional support needs were able to fully participate in community engagement processes.
Conclusions
The National Standards have assisted community planning partnerships and community planning partners to identify and prioritise specific areas for improvement of community engagement processes by providing them with a framework to identify the different elements of effective community engagement practice.
The National Standards were designed as a resource which can be applied by community planning partners and communities to improve community engagement. As a result no prescriptive targets or expected outcomes for what should be achieved through the National Standards have been set. Assessing the impact of the National Standards is therefore a matter of accurately describing what has been achieved by the National Standards and making an informed judgement on whether this is reasonable given the scale and complexity of the task, the resources applied and the timescale available to achieve this impact.
The National Standards have provided a resource for practitioners to consider the nature of community engagement outcomes and how to evidence them. They are however insufficient as a tool to provide evidence of community engagement outcomes.
If the impact of the National Standards were only to have taken a central role in the review and improvement of the community engagement structures and processes of community planning partnerships, in our view this would be a sufficient achievement given the period they have been available.
In the long term the status and impact of the National Standards will change as commitment to effective community engagement becomes more embedded in the culture of public service provision.
The challenge for community planning partnerships, community planning partners and central government is to maintain a continuous improvement in community engagement. Promotion of the improvements achieved to date in a way that can be observed and appreciated by all will be important to maintaining confidence in the National Standards as a resource and the commitment of community planning partners to improving community engagement.
About this study
This study was conducted by Clear Plan ( UK) Ltd. The study evaluates the impact of the National Standards for Community Engagement on improving community engagement practice and on demonstrating the impact of community engagement on service planning and delivery.
The evaluation focused on practice in Argyll and Bute, Aberdeenshire, Glasgow, Highland, Stirling, South Lanarkshire, and West Lothian. Methods used to profile the practice in each area included interviews, discussion groups, direct observation and review of documentation. A seminar was held with managers, practitioners and community representatives from the areas studied, to contribute to the analysis of factors affecting the impact of the Standards, learning from the experience and measuring the impact.
Related research
These reports can be found on the archived Communities Scotland website at www.communitiesscotland.gov.uk
Evaluation of effective engagement of communities in regeneration - final baseline report. Communities Scotland report 77, December 2006.
Interim Evaluation of the Community Voices Network. Communities Scotland precis 101 and report 88, March 2007.
This summary and the full report are also available on the Scottish Government website at www.scotland.gov.uk
July 2008
« Previous | Contents |