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Shared Practice publications

Deliberative public engagement: nine principles
In partnership with the National Consumer Council/Involve
Lead author was Diane Warburton, supported by Lindsey Colbourne at the Sustainable Development Commission, Karin Gavelin and Richard Wilson at Involve and Anthony Noun at the National Consumer Council (2007-08)

Deliberative public engagement is a distinctive approach to involving people in decision-making. It is different from other forms of engagement in that it is about giving participants time to consider and discuss an issue in depth before they come to a considered view. The aim of this document is to encourage and support deliberative public engagement in public policy.

The government and other public bodies are currently developing general guidelines on public and stakeholder engagement – making it timely to draw on the growing body of learning and evidence to contribute a set of specific principles on deliberative public engagement from outside government. This is far from being the last word. Over the next year we will continue to monitor the field, listen to feedback on the value and relevance of these principles, and consider the potential need for more detailed guidance.

Guidance PDF 136 KB

Advocacy, participation and NGOs in planning
APaNGO Interim Report 1 - Commissioned by the TCPA
Written by Diane Warburton with Gideon Amos and the APaNGO partners(2007)

APaNGO is a transnational partnership project, led by the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) with Brusselse Raad voor het Leefmilieu, (Belgium); Geuzenveld-Slotermeer, City District of Amsterdam (the Netherlands); Planning Aid for London (UK) and Spectacle Productions Ltd (UK). The project, part-funded by the European Union’s INTERREG IIIB programme for North West Europe (NWE), is one of the first European Union action research projects on community participation in planning and development. Its underlying philosophy is the importance of fostering constructive community engagement in order to help deliver sustainable development on the ground.

This final report summarises the research on planning systems, participation mechanisms, tools and techniques in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, and the UK.

The final report includes essays on individual demonstration projects from the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands, describing the participation processes employed and the lessons learned. The report concludes with a summary of the overall issues arising from these case studies, followed by conclusions drawn from them on the conditions necessary for effective participation in planning.

Interim Report PDF 736KB
Final Report PDF 7.4MB
Final Report Summary PDF 412KB

Evaluation of public dialogue on energy research
Commissioned by the Research Council UK (2007-08)

In March 2007, Research Councils UK (RCUK) launched a public dialogue to elicit and understand the public's priorities for energy research to inform their strategic decision-making for the next three years. The aim was for information on public views to be provided to these decision-makers alongside academic, industry and government views, to help them shape their thinking and decisions on future energy research priorities.

Shared Practice was commissioned to research and evaluate the whole of the dialogue process, which ran from April to November 2007, which included interviews with public participants, project advisors, decision makers and associated experts. The full report includes detailed analysis of all the collected statistical and qualitative data, and the summary identifies the main findings from the evaluation study of the dialogue.

Full report 216KB and Report appendices 148KB
Summary findings 108KB

Improving poor environments: the role of learning architectures in developing and spreading good practice
Commissioned by the Environment Agency(2006-2007)

In 2005, the Environment Agency began a programme of work to develop a system to identify and improve the poorest environments in England and Wales: the Improving Poor Environments (IPE) programme. With Defra, the Agency recognised that, in order to build an effective national programme, a different approach to learning was needed from conventional models based only on providing guidance and disseminating good practice. Shared Practice was part of the team (with Sustainable Futures) commissioned to review learning approaches in the public sector, and propose a new approach to learning to support the design and development of the IPE programme.

This report summarises the research (including a literature eview and interviews), provides analysis of the implications for the IPE programme, and makes a series of recommendations for a learning architecture for sharing knowledge and good practice from innovative local practical projects. The research was completed in 2006 and this report was published by the Environment Agency in 2007. It is one of a series of four reports on the IPE programme.

Full Report PDF 536 KB

Community learning and action for sustainable living
Commissioned and published by WWF (2007)
Written by Diane Warburton

Community learning and action for sustainable living (CLASL) is a three-year WWF project, funded by Defra. The project is working with three pilot communities to develop a community-based method which encourages and enables local groups to define and work towards sustainable living.

WWF commissioned Shared Practice to review current thinking on behaviour change and methods for community engagement to feed into the early development of the project. The full literature review provides a synthesis of current thinking on behaviour change, community techniques and sustainable development. The shorter summary paper identifies the main themes that have emerged.

Full Literature Review PDF 2.7 MB
Summary Report PDF 736KB
Evaluation Report PDF 1.9MB
Guide PDF 932KB

See also www.wwf.org.uk/localmatters

Making a difference: A guide to evaluating public participation in central government
Commissioned by the Department of Constitutional Affairs
Written by Diane Warburton, published by DCA/Involve (2007)

Public participation has become a central plank of public policy-making. Increasingly, decision-makers at all levels of government build citizen and stakeholder engagement into their policy-making processes.

This guide to evaluating public participation in central government is intended to help those involved in planning, organising or funding these activities to understand the different factors involved in creating effective public participation. It provides guidance on setting and measuring objectives, evaluating impact, and identifying lessons for future practice.

Guide PDF 288KB

Evaluation of the HFEA public consultation on hybrid and chimera embryos
Commissioned by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (2007)

In April 2007, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) launched a major public consultation on the creation and use of human-animal embryos for research. The consultation ran for three months, from 26 April to 20 July 2007.

HFEA commissioned Shared Practice to evaluate the public consultation exercise which was the largest of its type the Authority had undertaken. Written by Diane Warburton, the full report of the evaluation findings includes detailed analyses of all the statistical and qualitative data (with separate annexes), and the summary identifies the main findings from the evaluation study of the public consultation.

Full Report PDF 292 KB and Report Annexes PDF 208 KB
Summary findings PDF 104 KB

Evaluation of Your Health, Your Care, Your Say
Commissioned by the Department of Health (2006)

The Your Health, Your Care, Your Say (YHYCYS) initiative for the UK's Department of Health created one of the largest and most ambitious public engagement exercises ever mounted in the UK. The aims were complex and ambitious: to ensure that the public (especially the 'seldom heard') were actively involved in deliberative debates on contentious issues in health and social care services, alongside creating a high public profile to encourage wide public and stakeholder involvement.

Shared Practice was commissioned to evaluate the initiative, with a focus on the local, regional and national deliberative events that involved members of the public. The evaluation aimed to come to conclusions about the extent to which the methodology chosen for delivery of YHYCYS met the objectives set, and draw out learning for future public engagement activity.

Main Report PDF 852KB
Summary Report PDF 852KB

See also www.dh.goc.uk/NewsHome/YourHealthYourCareYourSay

People and Participation
How to put citizens at the heart of decision-making
A publication by Involve (2005)

Set up in 2003, Involve aims to create new systems that enable people to influence decisions and get involved in actions that affect their lives.

'People and Publication' is the first publication from Involve and is based on new research funded by the Home Office Civil Renewal Unit during 2004/5. The publication first examines some of the main issues affecting participation in the UK today, then offers guidance to planning for participation, identifying key steps to ensure that participation works and providing a detailed assessment of some different participation methods.

The publication was co-researched, produced and edited by Diane Warburton, Richard Wilson and Edward Andersson.

People and Participation report PDF 2.1MB

See also www.involving.org

Evaluating the Heritage Lottery Fund development programme
A publication by the Heritage Lottery Fund (2005)

Report of evaluation by Diane Warburton of the HLF's outreach and development programme to encourage grant applications from hard-to-reach and other groups new to heritage activities.

In 2002, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) made some important changes to the way it delivered services to applicants and potential applicants, guided by the aims of HLF's Strategic Plan 2002-2007. This evaluation focused on the programme of development work launched as part of these changes in 2002, involving a mix of statistical analysis, interviews with staff in four HLF regions, and interviews with a small selection of grantees who had direct experience of HLF's development work.

Final Evaluation Report PDF 532KB
Summary Evaluation Report PDF 92KB
Report Annexes PDF 284KB

The True Costs of Participation
Funder: Home Office Civil Renewal Unit (2004-2006)

The aim of this research by Involve has been to take a step forward in our understanding of public participation and develop a greater appreciation of the wider costs and benefits of participation, moving away from the narrow ranges of disourse that have dominated thus far.

In recent years there has been a huge rise in participatory activity across the UK, but this rise in activity has not been matched by the development of the analytical frameworks to enable us to fully understand the phenomenon or to continue to improve practice. Therefore, the development of a framework for assessing the costs and benefits of participation has been an essential and major part of this study.

Framework PDF 136KB
Final Report PDF 1.1MB

Community and Sustainable Development
Participation in the Future
Edited by Diane Warburton (1998)

Community and Sustainable Development is about the future - a future in which people have the resources to meet their needs. This basic message of sustainable development recognises the need to conserve environmental resources, but also to support and build the human resources through which the future will be realised, by ensuring that local people are able to particpate in the decisions and activities which affect their living environment.

Featuring contributions from many leading figures in the fields of community participation and sustainable development (including Tim O'Riordan, Robert Chambers, Amitai Etzioni, Gary Lawrence, Alex MacGillivary, Judy Ling Wong), this book shows how participation can extend democracy, citizenship and accountability. It also considers the role of lay knowledge and civic science in setting and achieving appropriate goals for development, and describes how participatory initiatives can inspire sustainable action on poverty and social inclusion.

Published 1998, Reprinted 2000
ISBN 1 85383 531 5 (paperback)
ISBN 1 85383 530 7 (hardback)
See also www.earthscan.co.uk

From Here to Sustainability
Politics in the Real World
The Real World Coalition, written and edited by Ian Christie and Diane Warburton (2001)

For more and more people, politics is increasingly divorced from the problems it should be addressing and solving. The evidence is all around us, in food safety and other health scares, traffic congestion and decaying infrastructure, rural decline and urban squalor, natural disasters, loss of species and habitats and the threat of climate change. With increased affluence and consumption, there are also growing inequalities within and between societies, and more stress and greater insecurity at work, at home and in the community.

This book explains the 'joined-up' approach that must be taken if government commitment to sustainable development is to become a reality. It shows how large the 'sustainability gap' is between rhetoric and action, and what has to be done to begin to close it. It identifies a series of interlocking problems we face, and proposes a radical agenda of reform in national and international politics and economic policy to attain quality of life and a shared sense of purpose to our lives and societies.

Published January 2001
Paperback 216 x 135mm, 224 pages
ISBN 185383 735 0
See also www.earthscan.co.uk

Rematerialise.org
Design Council and Kingston University
Project directed by Nigel Ordish

Design Council Innovation funded research to develop Rematerialise.org, a unique virtual library of environmentally sustainable and low impact materials. The library allows designers to view materials by type, process, character and application, with accompanying case studies, videos, and links to related contacts.

The information is targeted particularly to suit small and medium size enterprises unable to research, develop or maintain their own technical information resources on the innovative and creative use of less resource hungry materials.

The Rematerialise.org site is hosted and maintained by Kingston University, and much of the information now needs to be updated. The report details the contextual development of the project in relation to other research led by Nigel Ordish with Jakki Dehn and Jonathan Chapman when at the School of 3D Design at Kingston University.

Download report PDF 80KB
See also www.rematerialise.org

Evaluating participatory deliberative and co-operative ways of working
A working paper by InterAct (2001)

This document is designed to provide a framework for evaluating participatory, deliberative and co-operative processes, based on the experience of practitioners. The paper was produced by Diane Warburton on behalf of the Interact evaluation group (Jonathan Dudding, Florian Sommer and Perry Walker).

InterAct is an alliance of experienced practitioners,researchers, writers and policy makers committed to putting participatory, deliberative and co-operative approaches at the heart of debate, decision-making and action across the UK.

Download report PDF 488KB
See also www.interactweb.org.uk

Changing Places BBC Radio 4 programme
Series produced by Sandra Sykes, BBC Natural History Unit
Factsheets written and compiled by Diane Warburton

A long-running radio series about ordinary people who are changing the place where they live and creating new lives for themselves and those around them. An accompanying directory of useful contacts compiled for the BBC is no longer available at their site. Contact Shared Practice if you would like a copy.

Evaluation of the Environment Council's National Waste Dialogue
Final and Summary Reports written by Diane Warburton (2004)

The Summary and Final Reports of the evaluation of The Environment Council's (TEC) National Waste Dialogue (NWD). The NWD was a series of stakeholder dialogue processes that ran between 1999 and 2002 as an experimental approach to addressing the complex sustainability issue of waste management. This detailed evaluation summarises the stakeholder dialogue approach and reviews its strengths and weaknesses in this instance.

The Summary Report presents a brief outline of the main findings of the evaluation research in relation to identified key themes. The Final Report, contains more detail on the theoretical background and the methodology used for the evaluation, the processes used in the two phases of the NWD and a more detailed analysis of the findings.

Final report PDF 744KB
Summary report PDF 340KB
See also www.the-environment-council.org.uk

Your place and mine
Reinventing planning • A publication by TCPA
Report written by Diane Warburton, Secretary to the Inquiry (1999)

A TCPA Inquiry into the future of planning which was established to recover the capacity to thinkstrategically about planning in the UK and to establish a new consensus on first principles. The aim of the Inquiry was to develop a new strategic vision for planning; establishing the principles, purpose, function and scope of planning in a changed world, and recommending how the system should be restructured to reflect and fulfil these principles, purposes and functions.

The role of the Inquiry Panel was to receive and consider evidence presented in a number of forms, and to develop conclusions and recommendations. The report was drafted and debated by the whole Panel and, although all Panel members do not necessarily endorse all aspects, they are pleased to offer the report as a stimulus for further debate.

Final report PDF 1.6MB

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