Need to design the process of engagement before services can be co-designed
People need a motivation to participate in anything and in many cases it’s the same people that step forward to have their voices heard. Many of the more ‘bureaucratic’ forms of engagement are likely to appeal to those who are most comfortable with that mode of exchange. It will be worth thinking about who we need to engage and therefore how to design the process of engagement - this may mean different engagement ‘propositions’ for different groups (loud and quiet voices).
Engagement is an organisational challenge
Seeing services as your users see them is as much an organisational and cultural challenge as it is a challenge of engagement. Given the right conditions, service users will not disappoint when it comes to feedback, insight and service innovation. The more complex issues are around how a local authority and its delivery partners plan the process of engagement and organise themselves to benefit from that process. There is little point in creating skilled and engaged users if the ‘organisational will’ isn’t there to convert the investment of users into improvement. The objective of capacity building is as important for those within the local authority as it is for services users.
