Citizen Space: consulting online A briefing paper on trends in digital consultation for environmental agencies and organisations

Transcription

1 Citizen Space: consulting online A briefing paper on trends in digital consultation for environmental agencies and organisations

2 In recent years, the following environmental and natural resource organisations have all adopted an online consultation system. Why the sudden surge? This briefing paper fills you in on the trend.

3 Environmental agencies have to consult Environmental agencies are responsible for issues and spending that have a huge impact on citizens from flood defence to energy infrastructure, land use to pollution and waste management. And these sorts of environmental, development and sustainability matters are only becoming bigger issues in the public consciousness. Consequently, effective public engagement and consultation has long been recognised as a vital part of best practice in this field. 1 1For instance, The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution states that effective and trustworthy governance arrangements must... have at least four key qualities. They must be informed, transparent, prospective and adaptive. Further, these qualities must be supported by a system that is inclusive, responsible, technically competent and based on trust. (Sciencewise, What The Public Say, 2010 citing RCEP, 2008)

4 It s smart to consult online As with the vast majority of public services, this type of public consultation has rapidly been moving online in recent years. 1 Consulting online: saves money over paper and offline processes is convenient for the public and returns great response rates is cost-effective for organisations, bringing all your consultation activity together in one place fits with the digital by default mentality connecting organisations with the public 24/7/365 1 See, for example, and Mobile usage of UK government e-petitions service over time. Source: GDS blog Source: GDS/2CV Digital Landscape Research, November 2012

5 Not should we? but how should we? Given that consulting is essential for environmental organisations, and that consulting online is now an expected part of that process, the question becomes which is the best way to consult online?

6 A recurring response: Citizen Space Lots of environmental bodies, having asked themselves this question, choose to use Citizen Space. This system was originally developed for the UK government and has since been used by more than 100 diverse organisations to consult on issues from cycle trails in Thetford Forest to the 3.2bn Thames Tideway Tunnel.

7 Why Citizen Space?

8 In their own words Defra needed to improve their internal processes around online consultation, ensuring they were in line with the digital by default agenda. As part of a wider improvement programme, we wanted to move Defra s consultations on to a digital platform to provide better accessibility and quality of service to stakeholders and the public. We also decided to provide a uniform style of consultation for both Defra and network of agencies, which was possible via a cloud based solution. Caroline O Flaherty, Relationship Manager, Defra

9 In their own words The Environmental Protection Authority of Western Australia initially selected Citizen Space to manage their comment on referrals a technical consultation process when considering new proposals. They were so happy with the system that they adopted it as their central consultation system across the organisation. The simple and clean interface of Citizen Space has helped the agency establish a clear internal cultural standard for online consultations. Donna Weston, Communications Coordinator

10 In their own words Forestry Commission wanted to make their huge range of consultations available online. Conscious that they needed a user-friendly system to engage their audiences, they opted for Citizen Space. Having tools like Citizen Space at our disposal means we are able to engage our stakeholders with varying degrees of formality; something that is invaluable for an organisation like ours with such a vast range of subjects to consult on. The viewpoints and feedback we ve been able to obtain through the tools has played an essential role in our decision making. Richard Tatnall, Digital Communications Officer

11 What makes it best? Of course, there are lots of factors in considering what constitutes best including, but not limited to, cost, convenience, quality of service, user-friendliness and so on. Here are some of the reasons we re proud of Citizen Space as an excellent way for environmental organisations to run their public consultation online.

12 Why we like Citizen Space It s really flexible and supports many different kinds of consultation. That means organisations aren t limited by the system, and the public can find everything in one place. People have used Citizen Space to: conduct thorough public consultations on general policy invite reactions to specific plans and one-off activity collect feedback on services run private consultations with selected stakeholders engage citizens with innovative proposals administer panels and run consultations in almost any other format you can imagine. Thousands of consultations have been run on Citizen Space.

13 Why we like Citizen Space Often, organisations find themselves with a complicated jumble of consultation activity scattered across different teams. Citizen Space brings these ineffectively fragmented activities together into one clear, easy, helpful and informative system. coordinate all your consultations from one place works across unlimited teams, users and departments on one organisational license manage all results, analytics, reporting and public feedback within one system

14 Why we like Citizen Space Very simply, it saves our clients money. it s far more cost-effective than many alternative consultation methods. Town hall events, paper postal surveys, vans full of questionnaires, street surveys and so on all have high overheads and don t scale well it enables organisations to reach a large number of people, not limited by time or geography, reducing the cost-per-respondent it makes more efficient use of internal resources, aiding planning and collaboration and reducing waste unlimited users and consultations which can create lots of efficiencies of scale with no price penalty sting in the tail

15 Why we like Citizen Space This one s important to us, too: it genuinely means more of the public can engage with important decisions that affect them. It s essential that services like consultation be at least available online (see diagram) but, more than that, we ve repeatedly seen that Citizen Space can open up these processes to a wider audience. Busy people, young people, people in remote geographical areas or those who can t travel to events for all of these hard to reach groups and more, Citizen Space connects more people with decision-making. Meme sourced from post/25590/maslow-pyramid-20-now-with-wifi

16 One more thing

17 A better way of buying We re not that enamoured with the way IT usually gets sold (and bought). We re part of a growing movement to what we hope is a better way of buying: Straightforward pricing with no hidden fees Simple subscription pricing. We always make clear what's included and what's an optional extra. Free demo to guide you through the product One of our consultants will take time to understand your needs, then walk you through the product to explain how it can work for you. No high pressure selling We'll answer all your questions, and offer any advice we can on your project. Then we'll leave you in peace to make a decision. Dedicated account management An account manager will provide proactive support from start to finish.

18 Our clients love this Access to online support, sharing insight gleaned over years helping customers run engaging consultations. Online Knowledge Base offers a library of support articles. Customer support will answer your query within hours. Resources and guides to help you run an engaging consultation. An account manager who provides proactive support from deployment through to analysis. Full product training at your desk via screen share. Guidance in consultation and engagement best practice. Mid-project review to assess progress and opportunities.

19 Getting started with Citizen Space

20 It s not difficult It takes about a week to set up a new Citizen Space. It costs less than running a monthly town hall style meeting. And you get an account manager who will provide proactive support from deployment through to consultation completion.

21 Get your own If you want to get a demo, talk to us about adapting Citizen Space for your specific situation or just ask a couple of questions, please do get in touch. info@delib.net (Worldwide)

22 delib.net Delib Limited, Co. # , Registered at 6th Floor, Bridge House, Baldwin Street, Bristol, UK, BS1 1QB