The Council is committed to meaningful engagement with residents to inform or influence decision making with the aim of improving standards, efficiency and quality of life for residents and other stakeholders in the borough.
Keep your eye out for Council Consultations
The Council will aim to improve its services through regular public consultation and explain the actions, which are to take place as a consequence. Consultation will be conducted in a manner that allows all interest groups to participate.
The Importance of Community Engagement to East Staffordshire Borough Council
East Staffordshire Borough Council consults in order to identify what to focus on and improve; develop a clear idea on what outcomes are desired and to understand what is important to residents. The Council wishes to listen to, learn from and engage with, service users, local people, community partners and other stakeholders.
There are many benefits from consulting residents and other stakeholders:
- Determining how resources should be prioritised
- Better public services - consultation helps improve services by making them more relevant to people’s needs
- New services can be developed to meet the needs of current and future users.
- Informing service planning
- Testing ideas and policies before starting them on a large scale
- Improving relationships with residents and community groups
- Providing a way to monitor resident satisfaction levels over time
- Enabling residents to look at an issue from different perspectives
- To stimulate community involvement when bidding for external funding
- To promote the democratic process - people have a basic right to have control over their lives
How East Staffordshire Consults?
There are many different consultation techniques, and we need to ensure that the most appropriate method is selected for the particular purpose.
For example, where a decision affects only a few people, or relates to service detail, consultation can be small and tightly focused upon the issue. If the decisions affect a larger group of people or relates to service plans, then consultation may need to cover several groups of users and stakeholders. Broad consultation involving a cross-section of the whole population will be required where the decisions could affect many people, or relate to a strategy that will impact on the whole authority.
In East Staffordshire we use the following forms of consultation:
- Citizens Panel (four times a year)
- Surveys/Questionnaires
- Focus Groups
- User Group Forums
- Customer Compliments, Comments & Complaints
- Meetings
- Budget Consultation
- ‘One-off’ Consultation exercises on specific issues
If you would like more information about the way East Staffordshire Borough Council consults or would like to get involved please contact:
Alison Gardiner
01283 508685