In parallel with the new Government's focus on putting power into the hands of people and communitites through transparency, (source), Sciencewise has recognised the need for those involved in policy making to have access to the correct tools and resources needed to engage properly with the general public.
Knowing how and when to engage the public is critical to stimulating effective engagement and gathering intelligent information of value.
The Sciencewise-ERC provides policy makers with a valuable suite of tools and resource documents designed to help you make better decisions on when and how best to engage with the public, as well as offering guidance on how best to review and evaluate data once the engagement has concluded.
They are offering our key stakeholders a range of support.
• the opportunity to have a departmental engagement session undertaken in your department/organisation that can provide an introduction to engagement or an opportunity to discuss specific opportunities for engaging with the public.
• The assessment of the propensity of your department/organisation towards engaging with the public. We can work with you to apply the Departmental Dialogue Index (DDI) and assess your organisational readiness for undertaking dialogue and other engagement methods. This is invaluable in developing engagement within a Department and by using organisational development approaches ensures the nature of the engagement aligns with the department.
• Specific mentoring, advice and coaching on public engagement. We offer those currently, or likely to be, involved in engagement the benefit of advice and guidance from the Sciencewise-ERC specialists.
In addition to this Sciencewise also offer a number of online resources and information:
- Widening Public Involvement in Dialogue
- Their blog pages can help you to find out what issues the strategic workstream authors are highlighting as likely to have a significant impact on the public sector environment.
- You can join the debate
- Read their Workstream Reports
