We have just released a short briefing paper - research, engagement and impact – that reviews the project’s approach to research and stakeholder engagement, highlights how the project set about linking research to policy and practice, and critically assesses some of the research methods and tools that were used. The paper also reflects on some of the challenges of conducting research and summarises the key practical learning from the project for future research.

The two other briefing papers that have been produced – local engagement in democracy and volunteering as a participation pathway – can be found in our resources section.

• Language and image of local engagement in democracy
• Practice of local engagement in democracy
• Accessibility of local engagement in democracy

The briefing paper can be found, along with the briefing papers on volunteering and national policy implications, in the resources section of the website.

Launch event

The launch event was hosted by Stella Creasy MP in the Houses of Parliament and was attended by over 40 people from a range of public, and voluntary and community sector organisations. We have produced two reports of the event: one in PDF format that you can download and print, and one in blog format that you can read and listen to online. The e-report includes audio and slides from the presentation, audio and transcripts of the three speakers’ reflections, and audio and summaries of the group discussion. The last post in the e-report links to some excellent blog posts that were written after the event by Mark Parker, David Wilcox, Tessy Britton and my colleague Annie Quick. The blog format also allows you to leave comments – so please feel free to share any thoughts, we’d love to continue the conversation.

The paper was presented at a workshop on 26 September, led by the IVR (Institute for Volunteering Research). Notes from the small group discussions that took place at the workshop have now been written and are available to download here.

We are running two more  workshops in October. For more information and to register:

Local engagement and democracy
Tuesday 18 October 2011, 4.00 to 6.00
Houses of Parliament, London

National policy agendas
Friday 21 October 2011, 10.00 to 12.30 (followed by lunch)
NCVO, London

The survey shows a slight drop in formal volunteering: 39% of people formally volunteered at least once in the last year compared to 40% for the year 2009-10. Interestingly though, the level of formal volunteering  in 2010-11 is now identical to what it was in 2001.

In 2010-11, 34% engaged in civic participation at least once year. The level of civic participation is unchanged on 2009-10 but lower than in any year before then (between 38% and 39%).

Unfortunately, this is the last edition of the survey so we won’t be able to see how the trend evolves.

These free workshops will provide an opportunity to discuss the implications of the research and consider how this knowledge can be used to encourage the development of opportunities for participation that are better suited to people’s needs and aspirations.

For more information on these events and to register:

Local engagement and democracy
Tuesday 18 October 2011, 4.00 to 6.00
Houses of Parliament, London

National policy agendas
Friday 21 October 2011, 10.00 to 12.30 (followed by lunch)
NCVO, London

Both the final report and the summary report are available to download from the resources section of the website.

Follow #pthwys on Twitter for updates from the launch and to contribute to the debate. As ever, we greatly value your feedback, so please take some time, if you are able, to leave us comments on this post.

To whet your appetite, here is the foreword to the report:

The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR) and Involve are pleased to publish this important new report about how people participate in society. Pathways through Participation is an ambitious research project that aims to improve our understanding of how and why people participate, how their involvement changes over time, and what pathways, if any, exist between different types of activities.

The project emerged from a common desire across our three organisations to create a fuller picture of how people participate over their lifetimes. It builds on work completed at NCVO on active citizenship, adds to IVR’s research into volunteering by exploring it in relation to other forms of participation, and extends Involve’s research and practice in empowering citizens to take and influence the decisions that affect their lives. National and local governments have grappled for decades with the challenges of how to encourage people to be more active citizens. Their reasons have varied over time, from improving public services to reducing public spending or enhancing democracy. Recent policy developments around localism, the Big Society, outsourcing public services, encouraging charitable giving and the role of the voluntary sector have made questions about participation more topical than ever.

This report provides the practical intelligence that will enable voluntary and community organisations, public service providers and government at all levels to better support and develop participation. It is only through hearing people’s personal stories, and focusing on their individual experience, that the complexities and dynamics of how participation works in practice can be fully understood. We interviewed over 100 people across three localities – their stories of participation provide the powerful body of evidence drawn on in this report.

This research shows that people participate in a myriad of ways, depending on what has meaning and value to them. They participate as individuals and collectively. Their reasons for participating are sometimes altruistic and sometimes it is to achieve something more explicitly for themselves. We have found many stories of how life enhancing participation can be, but also of its negative effects. Participation can be a core part of people’s lives or something they do once in a while. It doesn’t happen in a bubble but connects to different aspects of their lives. And it is shaped by their circumstances and capabilities, as well as the personal, practical and political opportunities and barriers they face.

We hope that policy-makers, practitioners and researchers will find this report useful in developing a richer and fuller understanding of how and why people participate, and what makes them start and continue (and stop) participating. Beyond promoting understanding, we hope that this report will help institutions and organisations find ways in which they can support and encourage opportunities for participation that better meet people’s

Sir Stuart Etherington, NCVO
Simon Burall, Involve
Nick Ockenden, IVR

Rather than just looking at political participation per se, we were delighted to see that the project had adopted the three categories of participation in our literature review (social participation, public participation and individual participation) to capture the full contribution of multi-purpose organisations to community life, social action and political self-confidence. 

The report “suggests it may not always be helpful to divide community activities into ‘political’ and ‘non-political’ types or suggest a hierarchical ladder towards participation. The experiences highlighted in this research indicate that groups which may appear as purely social or leisure in nature can play a vital role in shaping a community’s potential and actual political influence. The experiences highlighted in this research indicate that groups which may appear as purely social or leisure in nature can play a vital role in shaping a community’s potential and actual political influence.”

The findings from the Pathways project which will be made available in September will confirm some of the report’s key messages: many of our interviewees highlighted the importance of multi-purpose hubs in providing spaces for groups to meet, fostering interaction between groups, supporting neighbourhood-level social networks, and linking different organisations and activities.

The project has explored how and why people get involved and stay involved in different forms of participation over their lives, building on the existing evidence base by examining participation from the perspective of the individual and exploring the links between different activities and episodes of participation throughout people’s lives.

Along with the final report, we will also be publishing a project summary which will set out our key findings and recommendations for future policy and practice. You can sign up to our newsletter (via the box to the right) to have the report emailed to you, or else check back on here on the 13th September to download it.

The authors recognise that, with public spending being cut heavily, it has never been more important to be able to make the business case for engagement. The toolkit therefore aims to help those who manage, design, deliver, plan or commission public engagement projects to understand and make the business case for engagement and present it to internal and external audiences. It can be used for all kinds of engagement from small scale ‘one off’ projects to major exercises across an entire town or wider local authority area.

In a blog linked to its launch, my colleague Edward Andersson (co-author of the toolkit and Deputy Director of Involve) presented his five top tips on how to make the most of the toolkit:

1. Don’t be daunted. Start with what you have. The toolkit was designed for non-economists. You don’t need to do a course before you start, nor do you need to gather all data on everything before you begin.  Assess your benefits and costs using existing information you have, identify things you can’t measure yet and start taking steps to fill in the blanks later on. By thinking creatively you can often come up with proxy measures; you don’t always need to carry out new research. Of course it is also important not to make exaggerated claims. Know the limitations of your work and what can be said and what not based on the evidence.

2. Don’t forget the potential costs of non-engagement. All engagement seems expensive unless the costs of not engaging are measured (or approximated) alongside the costs of your project. In most cases the alternative to public engagement is not ‘do nothing’ but to carry out PR and marketing, limited consultation, market research or other activities – all of which have costs. The comparator excel sheet allows you to make these calculations.

3. Use the business case to tell stories about why engagement matters. Equations and spreadsheets won’t shift people’s thinking on their own. We are all emotional animals and it is as important to place the data in a compelling narrative as it is to gather the data in the first place. Don’t forget that people are motivated both by opportunities and threats and in the current environment many managers are driven by the latter. If you can point to real cases where no engagement led to real negative impacts (conflict, costs etc) it can be very persuasive and make a convincing case for engagement as a risk management technique in difficult times.

4. Tailor your argument to fit your audience. Your business case is not an end in itself; it is a tool to get a message across and to convince. Make sure you understand your audience and what is most persuasive to them. Will cost savings over a longer term or budget savings that accrue to different budget-holders be persuasive? Are there non-monetary measures that matter to your decision makers, such as health outcomes, an improved reputation or less conflict? Often (even in the midst of cuts) it is not just pounds and pence that matter to people. You need to understand this to make a persuasive case.

5. Finally, if you really want to persuade people, give them the opportunity to see engagement first hand. I have found few things as persuasive as being a firsthand eye witness. A dry report is no substitute for a lived experience. The business case is only part of a wider process of educating colleagues and partners in the merit of engagement.