Government crest UK Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)

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Laying the foundations for better local public services

Community Engagement Playbook

This discovery project, led by South Gloucestershire Council and Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames, aimed to develop a ‘playbook’ that includes systems and tools that councils can use for various forms of public engagement.

Throughout COVID-19 local authorities have needed to find new and different ways to interact, consult and engage with citizens. The discovery explored how a playbook could capture and share these new practices so that local authorities can learn from each other.

The focus of this discovery was to:

  • Define the user needs councils have around community engagement that the playbook would address
  • Identify the local constraints that councils face when engaging with communities, and use these insights to build a taxonomy and case study structure
  • Create and test a prototype based on user insights to develop something tangible as a final output

The project utilised work that is ongoing in all of the partner organisations and work that has previously been undertaken by LOTI, coupled with citizen user research.

Project outputs

Project overview

A high level overview of the project, including key insights from the discovery summary and alpha brief. Download project overview as an accessible PDF or download project overview as an ODP.

Alpha brief

A summary of what the product is, its core elements, and what needs to be built on or tested in the next phase. Download alpha brief as an accessible PDF or download alpha brief as an ODT.

Discovery summary

Documenting the process taken during the discovery, what decisions were made as part of it, and why they were made. Download discovery summary as an accessible PDF or download discovery summary as an ODT.

Roadmap

Outcomes-focused goals for next steps and the future of the project. Download the roadmap as an accessible PDF.

Prototype link

Two prototypes were built as part of the discovery:

  • A Figma prototype to test the format, taxonomy, information architecture and case study structure of the playbook.
  • The second built on the insights from testing the Figma prototype and used the GOV.UK prototype kit. This HTML prototype should be tested with users during the alpha phase.

The prototype also includes three fully formed case studies of community engagement activities.

View prototype

Username: MHCLG
Password: MHCLG

Project details

Phase: C-19 Challenge

Funding granted: £80,000

Duration: August 2020 - February 2021

Partners: South Gloucestershire Council and Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames with Sutton Council, West Berkshire Council, LGSS, Oxford City Council, Staffordshire County Council, Northamptonshire County Council, Cambridgeshire County Council, Waltham Forest Council and London Office of Technology and Innovation (LOTI)

Project links