It's time to close the loop, report & evaluate

Closing the loop and reporting findings are a critical stage of any engagement. Do not underestimate the importance or power of this step.

We need to evaluate our community engagement activities in order to determine if Council is effectively adhering to the community engagement principles set out in our Community Engagement Policy (a requirement of the Local Government Act 2020).

It is critical to show that Council genuinely values the time and energy that our community and stakeholders have spent in providing their input to your project. It also provides transparency to the decision makers as well as sharing learnings, data and other information to assist in the eternal cycle of continuous improvement.

In April of this year, the Community Engagement Evaluation and Reporting Framework was endorsed by Council. The document measures the success of the Policy and the Practice Framework and provides the key measures and performance indicators to guide rigorous and transparent evaluation and monitoring that will help inform better decision making, planning and practice.

We have developed performance indicators against our principles of engagement. The Community engagement team will be reporting to Council via an annual Community Engagement Report on these indicators and they include:

  • 100% of engagement plans have objectives, negotiables, non-negotiables, scope, reasons for engagement, what we have already heard from the community, levels of influence for community groups identified.
  • 100% of community engagement processes have a 4-week minimum for people to contribute.
  • 80% of all engagement processes that are not public exhibition/submission process will include at least 2 different engagement methodologies.
  • 100% of engagement plans are able to articulate participants/stakeholder analysis and how to best reach these people including Council networks.
  • 100% of projects have a link to the language/interpreter services.
  • 100% of community engagement plans have considered face-to-face community engagement as part of their planning. If not, appropriate rationale is provided.
  • 100% of findings reports from community engagement activities are included in recommendations made for decision makers.

A number of people have asked if it's necessary for ALL projects to have a 4-week minimum for people to contribute to the consultation. The answer is yes.

Why?

Within our Community Engagement Policy principles, we state:

"We will ensure people have the information with enough time so that they can participate meaningfully in engagement activities."

Four weeks ensures you are allowing the maximum number of community members and stakeholders to hear about your consultation. They might need to see or hear about your project engagement activities SEVEN times before they decide to contribute!

It also allows our community to develop a solid understanding of your project and what you are asking them. This ensures they are confident in formulating a meaningful response that will provide you with the most accurate data.

Let's find out where you are up to in the community engagement process.

Community engagement process 4 steps

Let's get started

Reporting your findings and evaluating your project might sound daunting, but we've simplified it. Download and complete the Evaluation and Reporting Template. We've even included the handy red text to guide you.

What's included in the Evaluation and Reporting template?

1. A checklist

To prompt you (and us) what needs to be done when closing off an engagement.

2. A reporting section

This is where you show your methodology, who participated, the breadth of feedback received and allow participants to see how their input will be considered and used. There might be two versions of this for internal facing (ELT, Councillors and other project stakeholders) and external (for community/participants). We can help you decide what's appropriate for each. There's a great example consultation report you can download and steal some ideas from available on the right hand side.

3. An evaluation section

Now that you have delivered your engagement, it is time to evaluate the process.

  • Did you achieve what you set out to accomplish?
  • What would you do differently if you had your time over again?
  • What advice would you provide to teams working on a similar issue, or with similar community groups or stakeholders?
Don’t forget constructive criticism actually gives you the greatest opportunity to improve your practice, so try to embrace the potential in embrace the potential in any negative feedback you receive, but remember to celebrate your successes too.