contexts for public engagement: a policy perspective

1. contexts for public engagement: a policy perspective Julie Barnett Senior Research Fellow University of Surrey

2. Perspectives on engagement Practitioners and academics often note the value and necessity of policy development taking alternative framings and sources of expertise into account • Debates about upstream engagement and opening up • Focus on participation, dialogue and deliberation • Deliberative-analytic methods • Development of engagement ‘tool kits’ • Evaluating engagement

3. Consultation in the news

4. Policy considerations • the demand from policy for engagement • the messiness of policy making • evidence based policy making • contexts for engagement • the policy cycle • the policy domain

5. The demand from policy for engagement • Academics/providers suggest that engagement provides a ‘supply’ of worthwhile outcomes • Policy makers and practitioners in a range of institutional settings constitute the demand function • Generally little consideration of the framings that the policy setting imposes on the demand for engagement

6. The demand context of policymaking (I) • Increasing rhetoric around the importance of dialogue and deliberation. • Alongside this every day policy making is messy, mundane, expedient and often highly constrained “It will always be a part of the policy landscape to have indecisive ministers, policy conflicts, staff turnover and too few resources. Take all that as given and think of what to do about it” (National School of Government, Workshop materials, June 2007)

7. The demand context of policymaking (II) • Evidence based policy making dominant discourse in UK government policy development • “Evidence for policy making is any information that helps to turn a department’s strategic priorities and other objectives into something concrete, manageable and achievable” (Shaxson 2005)

8. AND USE IT WELL POLICIES THAT TAKE GOOD INFORMATION POLICIES THAT TAKE BAD INFORMATION AND USE IT BADLY A simple schema of evidence-based policy making Evidence based’ is about the processes of using information as much as about the quality of the information itself (Shaxson, 2005)

9. Context for engagement EVALUATION PURPOSE CONTEXT PROCESS + + = OUTCOMES

10. Context provided by the policy cycle • The shape of the space for engagement to make a difference is likely to vary at different stages of policy development • For example: principles, strategy, policy options & implementation • Implications for who to involve, what questions to ask (who asks the questions?), what change is possible

11. Start of policy focussed engagement process Engagement to: Scope the issue; Set the agenda; formulate the problem Agenda setting Continuous improvement Widening and deepening of engagement Define the issue Learning lessons Understand the situation Evaluate & adapt Engagement to: Develop policy options; Shape policy proposals Outcome focus Engagement to: Review after delivery and learn through monitoring and evaluating Develop & appraise options Implement & monitor Narrowing of debate but opening to formal consultation Engagement to: Refine the policy options Commit to responsibilities Prepare for delivery Creating the space for engagement

12. When not to engage... " The reason we fetch up for our local elections is not so that we may have our neighbourhood ruled by the madness of guesswork but so that we may elect representatives of sufficient commitment, intelligence and ability, first to identify critical issues and then to find, and use, the greater expertise available" 

13. When to engage… • Extent to which the policy domain • displays public values • is characterised by uncertain science • has a history of contestation • might require public behaviour change • From a demand perspective policy makers need guidance about how to decide which aspects of context to be sensitive to and how this should be done

14. In summary.. Developing public engagement initiatives should take account of • the characteristics of the policy environment • the context of the policy cycle • the context of the policy domain