Community Engagement
South Lakeland District Council's Community engagement Strategy was
developed and approved in 2007.
Community
Engagement Strategy
Community Engagement takes many forms and is best described by
the Ladder of Engagement ,as seen in the diagram below, which
describes the different levels of involvement.
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Empowering: placing decision-making in the
hands of the community.
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| Collaborating: working in partnership with
communities in each aspect of the decision, including the
development of alternatives and the identification of the preferred
solution. |
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Involving: working directly with communities to
ensure that concerns and aspirations are consistently understood
and considered. For example, partnership
boards, reference groups
and service-users participating in policy groups.
|
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Consulting: obtaining community feedback on
analysis, alternatives and / or decisions. For example,
surveys, door knocking, citizens' panels and focus groups.
|
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Informing: providing communities with balanced
and objective information to assist them in
understanding problems, alternatives, opportunities,
solutions. For example, websites,
newsletters and press releases.
|
Consultation and Community Engagement Database
The database is a partnership project with Cumbria County
Council, the six district Councils, Cumbria Police and NHS Cumbria.
All consultations undertaken by the partners are available in one
place in the partnership hub section or individually. The database
is accessed by clicking on
Consultation and in the 'do it online' section on the
right hand side of every SLDC webpage.
Other groups can also use the database contact the
Community Engagement Officer for details.
Consultation
Consultation is one form of Community Engagement that the
council is developing further, the Consultation Strategy was
approved in July 2010 and includes a Consultation Toolkit.
Consultation
Strategy
Consultation Toolkit
The Consultation Toolkit helps to guide consultations ensuring
they use the best methods and are as effective as possible. The
toolkit is available to anyone who wishes to ask others their
opinions, including voluntary and community groups, residents
associations and other public organisations.
Consultation
Toolkit
Community Engagement Standards
South Lakeland District Council is committed
to monitoring the quality of its community engagement work with a
view to supporting the development of more effective practice over
time.
As a benchmark standard the Cumbria County Council has adopted
the Scottish National Standards for Community Engagement.
South Lakeland District Council is working with Cumbria County
Council to implement these standards. Currently there is no
equivalent authoritative statement for England. The Scottish
Standards were commissioned by the Minister for Communities and
developed through an extensive engagement process that reviewed the
quality of practice from the perspective of communities and
agencies. The resulting standards were published by Scottish
Government.
Cumbria Community Engagement Standards Self Assessment
Guidance