Community engagement
What is it? definition
Community engagement, as a concept, has been around for many years but there is no common or widely-agreed definition. This section summarises what is generally understood by the terms 'community' and 'engagement'. Later in the section, we discuss the idea of community engagement as it applies to policing. For more information see 'Policies and Legislation'.
Community
There is broad acceptance of the idea that a community is a group of people who all hold something in common. The concept of 'community' has tended to be associated with two aspects:
- people who share a locality or geographical place
- people who are or share communities of interest
Communities of interest are groups of people who either share an identity - for example, ethnicity or religion – or share an experience, such as people with a particular disability.
A person will be a member of multiple communities at any one time. For example, an individual could be a Muslim musician living in Leicester. Each of us is likely to move in and out of one or more communities over time. Some people may be unable - or unwilling - to identify with any community at all.
Engagement
Engagement is the involvement of the public, either as individuals or as a community, in policy and service decisions which affect them. In practice this involvement can take a number of different forms. The three main forms of engagement are:
Information |
The collection of information about public attitudes and requirements through surveys, etc.. There is no ongoing dialogue between the public and the organisation – for example, force or authority – seeking the information. The public usually participate in this as individuals. |
Consultation |
Members of the public and the organisation work together for a defined period to discuss a particular policy or service issue. The methods used can range from focus groups to citizens' juries. People are brought together as representatives of the demographic profile of a particular community. |
Participation |
Members of the public and the organisation work together, on an ongoing basis, on a range of policy or service issues. These tend to focus on the community rather than on individuals. Community forums are an example. |
A key difference between these three kinds of engagement is the extent of the 'dialogue' that takes place. The word 'dialogue' refers to the exchange of views, ideas and concerns between different groups, such as between a neighbourhood community and a neighbourhood policing team. The information gathering approach does not involve much dialogue, whereas the participation approach is about continuing dialogue as part of joint working.
A number of more in-depth models of community engagement have been developed, some of which involve handing over some or all decision-making power to citizens. Examples of these models can be found at:
http://iap2.org/practitionertools/index.shtml
http://www.partnerships.org.uk/guide/frame.htm
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/24/34/2384040.pdf
Metropolitan Police guide to Planning and managing consultations (Word, 375kb); (pdf, 250kb)
The public's appetite for participation
It is often claimed that the public are not interested in being engaged in discussions about policies and services. However, while it is true that turnouts at elections are mainly falling, interest and participation in local and national issues remains high. A recent academic study of participation (The Citizen Audit, University of Sheffield, funded by ESRC, 2002) found that over a twelve month period 33 million people (three in four adults) engaged in one or more political activities.
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