CommunitySpiritPartnership CIC

CSP CIC’s Notes, Tips and Tools for community groups in developing their Neighbourhood Development Plans

PAPER 1 of 3 BasicsAn Open Source Document produced by Community Spirit Partnership CIC.

More about Data Analysis, Questionnaires and Event Planning is given in Hints, Tips and Tools papers 2 and 3 of this series. These are very simple basics and we hope they are helpful.

Neighbourhood Development Plans provide an exciting and unprecedented opportunity to positively shape your surroundings. We wish you every success in developing your Plans.

Clare Wright, Mary-Ann Nossent and the Community Spirit Partnership CIC team

Contents

1. Foreword2. Beginning at the End!3. Statutory requirements for public engagement in NDP4. Public engagement notes5. Engagement to-do list and timescale6. Risk Management7. Public engagement strategy8. Audience9. Ways to engage10. Afterword11. Resources12. More about Copyright/ copyleft

AppendicesAppendix 1 Diversity Monitoring Form.Appendix 2 Reasons and importance for capturing Diversity information.Appendix 3 Example spread sheet for capturing the data requested.

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1. Foreword To provide a complete story, there is some crossover and repetition in this initial set of Notes, Tips and Tools with national advice. The authors encourage communities to read and shape the advice and templates in this series of 3 Papers to suit their individual circumstances. The resources are a snapshot from some of our own materials and experience. They are based on proven good practice over many years, most recently assisting communities in developing community-led strategies for Neighbourhood Plans and Community Land Trust development. These are additional materials to the excellent guidance and Worksheets provided in the Locality Roadmap, http://locality.org.uk/resources/neighbourhood-planning-roadmap-guide/ and the resources and templates in the Community Planning hub, http://www.communityplanning.net/useful/forms.php.

1.1 Copyright/ Copyleft Do use and shape any of this work for your Plan and pass to other groups, attributing the source to show it is derived from Community Spirit Partnership CIC. No part of this work shall be used for sale, resale or other commercial use in any shape or form. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 UK: England & Wales License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/.

1.2 About Community Spirit Partnership CICThe CommunitySpiritPartnership is a Community Interest Company whose purpose is to assist local people in achieving development that they want to see, through different ways including Neighbourhood Development Plans, Community Land Trusts and other mechanisms. We provide a partnership of outside professional skills - focusing on public engagement, design and policy support - with inside local knowledge and expertise to deliver plans and development that will benefit the local community by being inclusive, economically beneficial and environmentally responsible. More information about us may be found at http://communityspiritpartnershipcic.org/

1.3 Disclaimer Materials and comment in this paper are our own, from many years practical experience in public, private and voluntary sectors. Whilst the authors are Planning Aid volunteers and members of Locality’s pool of NDP consultants, the materials and comment are our own, without formal endorsement from RTPI or Locality. Direct assistance/ verification of your strategy may be sought via your Locality/RTPI funded advice or other specialist advice from consultants such as ourselves if we are not already engaged on your project.

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2. Beginning at the End! From the very start consideration needs to be given to the end of the process which is the Referendum. This consideration should inform the way you approach your public engagement activities in generating your Plan. Are your activities sufficient to answer the following:

1. Will local people have felt engaged enough throughout the process of developing our NDP to bother to turn out and vote at all?

2. Will there have been sufficient agreement generated throughout the development of our Plan for local people to vote Yes in the Referendum?

3. Will our Plan have been based on meaningful public involvement in generating useful local policies to grow our community how we want?

4. Will we have reached as much of the local community as possible to engage in developing a Plan that is locally relevant?

5. Have we used different approaches for engagement for the sections of community that have not engaged with earlier approaches?

6. Will we have documented sufficient evidence to prove this to the Examiner?7. Will there have been sufficient trust in the integrity of our Plan development

process for local people to turn out and to vote Yes in the Referendum?

Planning1, the professional magazine for town planners, has taken the views of leading people from the community and the profession, on ‘Five steps to securing public backing for a neighbourhood Plan’:1. Make sure a neighbourhood plan is right for your area;2. Proper consultation is vital;3. Ask for help from professionals;4. Keep it simple, and;5. Involve the whole community.

Consultation and engagement is so important to a successful Neighbourhood Development Plan that they form points 2 and 5 of this short list.

Locality Roadmap states ‘Effective community engagement and a robust evidence base are the pillars on which a good Neighbourhood Plan will be built.’2 Its Neighbourhood Planning Worksheet 4: Community Engagement and involvement gives a really useful outline of what to do. In this briefing note we give some further practical tips and tools from CSP CIC’s own experience and signpostings to web resources from RTPI and Locality.

1 Planning Magazine17 May 2013 2 http://locality.org.uk/resources/neighbourhood-planning-roadmap-guide/

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3. Statutory requirements Public engagement in a Neighbourhood Development Plan is advised in the National Planning Policy Framework, para 155 and 1833, the Localism Act 2011 which amends the various planning Acts to incorporate Neighbourhood Development Plans into the statutory planning system and The Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 20124 (‘Regulations’).

The Regulations require two Statements to accompany your completed Neighbourhood Development Plan5 for submission to the Independent Examiner and subsequent Referendum. These are:

Basic Conditions Statement and; Consultation Statement

The Basic Conditions Statement includes a requirement for compatibility with EU obligations, including human rights requirements. Therefore public engagement must be undertaken from the outset and recorded in a logical manner to form an audit trail. Specifically the Regulations state: -

“(2) In this regulation “consultation statement” means a document which—(a) contains details of the persons and bodies who were consulted about the proposed neighbourhood development plan;(b) explains how they were consulted;(c) summarises the main issues and concerns raised by the persons consulted; and(d) describes how these issues and concerns have been considered and, where relevant, addressed in the proposed neighbourhood development plan.”

3 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6077/2116950.pdf4 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/637/contents/made.5 Paragraph 15

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4. Public engagement notes, tips and tools: Public engagement can be very exciting on the day and appear deceptively simple. Yet there is a lot of planning needed in advance of each event, both in designing it and getting people to it. It is both a science and an art. There must be rational processes to ensure your engagement is carried out fairly and meaningfully. This needs to be demonstrated within your eventual Consultation Statement accompanying your Plan to Referendum.

1. Use every event as an opportunity to obtain data. 2. Design each event so feedback can be documented logically,

see example templates attached. 3. Record and document efforts taken to reach groups and where

advertising took place, etc (refer to Thame Examiners Report to see how important this is).

4. Design events to be enjoyable and fun – these often give the best results and encourage people to come back for other events

5. Engagement to-do list and timescale

All these things do not have to be hugely sophisticated – as long as they achieve the desired effect for a particular group. Create an Engagement Strategy from the outset: as a list of activities

and desired outcomes from each event to know what you are doing and the reasons why; highlight your target audience; and develop methods of recording (or ‘capturing’) data to ensure you have reached them; to efficiently use people’s time contribution and other resources; provide a timescale. Use other NDPs’ strategies as a base from which to develop your own.

Incorporate a Publicity Strategy to support the engagement strategy: stating methods of publicising events to reach your target audiences; the location they will be publicised and timescales, such as a lead-in period to each event and numbers of people invited/reached each time.

Allocate named people for specific tasks – including data processing Design the data recording/capture methods at the same time as you

design the questionnaires or other media if you can. It will allow any adjustments to be made to capture and show data more clearly.

Create a project timetable to focus efforts on what you need to do throughout the plan.

Understand what you are aiming to achieve with your plan. Last but not least! Fundamental in informing and targeting your activities.

6. Risk Management

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Creating an Engagement Strategy and Publicity/ media Strategy might sound too grand for a small to medium sized Plan. However they can be tailored to suit your needs and be as expansive or constrained as you wish.

There are many benefits to creating these Strategies from the start, not least in managing risks to your process: Target your activities more efficiently to meet your aims Not waste the energy of volunteers Enable you to ensure your efforts stand the best chance of achieving

what you want and of meeting your NDPs Basic Conditions Help manage budgets Help manage ‘consultation fatigue’ amongst the public and volunteers.

7. Public Engagement strategyBefore approaching your community it is worth considering the following to help shape your methods and timings of engagement:

Aims of each engagement activity – consider how your engagement will help you either develop or confirm your vision or aim of your Plan

Aims of the event – At what stage are you: Page 29 (Locality Roadmap6) Early stage - raising awareness and gathering information and initial

views On-going - people suggesting improvements, feeding back on earlier

suggestions, market testing in the middle period Consulting on the final draft Outcomes of the event - What information do you want to collect or

disseminate that will further this stage of your plan. How will you record the information? Consider how you will incorporate the results/ findings from this event into your Plan? Consider how you will respond to and record those results/ findings that will not be taken forward (this is important).

Knowing what you are trying to achieve will focus the ‘how’ you do it.

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8. Audience

Who are you targeting the event or intervention for? You may need to do a series of events in different ways to meet different audiences. If you find there are people missing from events you may need to rethink how you engage to attract them (see 8.7). How are you going to let people know of the event? Where are you going to meet them? Will this be a one off event or a series of events? Also: What interests this particular audience How much do they know already What sort of interaction would you anticipate this audience might

respond to?Consider: Time of day/evening Venue Day of the week You going to them – perhaps at their regular meeting places/ activities

8.1 About people within groupsPeople will use your area in different ways and at different times; some may use the area full time, weekly or occasionally. Consider how you will engage with these different groups: Residents Businesses Workers Shoppers School children and students Visitors

This is not an exhaustive list and you may add to this depending on the character of your area. See Locality Worksheet 4.

8.2 Who do you need to engage with?As an NDP comprises a collective response from the community, finding out who the people are that make up your community is the first step! Your experience of an area will be different depending on who you are and what you do. Each of us uses filters to sort information presented to us whether formally or informally. It is therefore important to not just rely on solely individual, personal experience or those of a select few in developing your NDP. By engaging as many people and that are representative of your community, it will ensure as many of these filters are used as possible for your widest community to be able to identify their hopes, issues, themes and potential solutions. See Locality Roadmap Guide worksheet 4. Quite

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often exclusion occurs because of lack of knowledge rather than by a specific intention.

8.3 Use of Equality and Diversity DataHere, we emphasise the importance of recognising that people’s needs and aspirations may vary according to their particular characteristics. Therefore, using data gathered via an equality and diversity framework, outlined below, is an important tool in achieving a more balanced and representative NDP. As NDPs represent development ambitions for your area, seeking answers to such personal questions are working towards a legitimate end, to both prove engagement with the widest range of local people and that their aspirations are reflected in the NDP. See: Worksheet 3 Locality Roadmap: Age Gender Disability Ethnicity/race Sexual orientation Religion or belief Employment status Geographical location Socio-economic characteristics Interest/knowledge/expertise Also – do you have access to a car, or do you rely on public transport or

other means of travel etc..

8.4 About people as individuals:Using the protected characteristics below as a base for analysis will provide a way of measuring who has been consulted, and an opportunity to highlight anyone missing who may need to be engaged with. Various attempts have been made to classify us as individuals, with all the richness of our lives and cultural associations. The Equality Act 2010 includes absolutely everyone, not just the so-called minority groups, and usefully defines us all under groups termed, ‘protected characteristics.’ Interestingly, of all the ‘protected characteristics’ listed below, most of us are within at least 4 of them. These characteristics are: Age – for all ages and tries to ensure certain age groups are not excluded Disability – people who have a mental or physical impairment that affects

their day-to-day activities. This includes people with learning differences and long term health conditions

Gender reassignment – people who have changed from one gender to another

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Marriage or civil partnership – as a comparator that for instance married people are treated more favourably than those in a civil partnership

Pregnancy and maternity- whilst expecting a baby and post birth and includes not treating a woman less favourably because she is breastfeeding

Race / ethnicity – This is all races and ethnicities including white British Religion or belief - includes non-belief and humanism Sex – male or female Sexual orientation - Whether a person's sexual attraction is towards their

own sex, the opposite sex or to both sexes.

Detailed definitions of these protected characteristics are on the Equality and Human Rights Commission, EHRC website http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/advice-and-guidance/new-equality-act-guidance/protected-characteristics-definitions/

8.4 Finding informationDemographics from existing data sourcesBefore doing any research it is advisable to check to see if there is information on the demographics of your area already available. Sources include:

• Your local District, City, Borough, County or Unitary Council• Latest census information from the Office for National Statistics.

8.5 Demographics you can produce within your areaAt your events, seek this data on people from either where they live or through questionnaires, or both.Appendix 1 Diversity Monitoring Form gives a layout you can use and the questions are in line with some asked in the census, so people should be familiar with the format. You may wish to add other questions depending on the culture of your area and the vision of your plan.Appendix 2 gives an explanation of why this information is being sought and how important its capture is.Appendix 3 gives an example spread sheet for capturing the data requested.Depending on the type of area, producing map-based data may provide information of geographic coverage of participants and also the type of housing which may give a broad indication of tenure and people’s socio-economic circumstances.

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8.6 Groups that rarely engage or ‘Hard to reach groups’Voluntary sector organisations may provide access to these groups either directly, or using the support group as a conduit. Most areas will have a voluntary sector hub, normally known as Council for Voluntary Services or the NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations), that runs the website www.volunteering.org.uk which should be able to direct you. Local organisations like Age UK or your Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) groups may be able to advise on the issues or concerns for their members within the area. All of this information can form part of your evidence base of consultation.

8.7 Other ways to engageNot everyone will feel inspired to come and be part of a big public event, so it could be that you need to go to them instead. Some of your steering group will possibly already belong to groups that you can get introduction to and some may readily welcome a speaker who can explain the aims and process of the plan. By consulting with a group you will be able to engage with people who may have no experience of participating in this way, and might feel too intimidated otherwise to contribute. If you meet people on their home ground then they will be more relaxed and may well supply you with information about the area that can be incorporated in your plan.

Suggestions for groups to involve: Mother and toddler Knit and natter Older people’s lunch or coffee group Pensioners forum Ethnic minority forum Youth group Schools / colleges / university Sport club or teams History society Credit Union Gay and lesbian Women’s Institute Exercise or craft group Faith groups At the pub At the school gates On the allotment Significant employer/s in the area Face to face questionnaire (perhaps to shop owners in a high street)

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People are more likely to respond when they understand the question being put to them and why they are being asked. ‘Planning language’ may be off-putting, so it needs to be simple, direct and relevant to the audience.

8.8 What method or mix of methods? See Roadmap Worksheet 4Learning stylesConsider the different ways in which people learn and take in information. It is worth considering a mix of approaches when devising your public engagement activity. It is common to plan activities that suit our own learning preferences, so ensure that you work with people who can help you develop your understanding of how to broaden the appeal of your activities to the widest possible audience.The three main learning styles are:Visual learners - prefer learning by seeing. They enjoy communicating through images, graphs or objectsAuditory learners- prefer learning by hearing. They enjoy discussion, radio programmes, lectures and debatesKinaesthetic learners - prefer learning by doing. They draw from experience, movement and modellingInspiring Learning for All (www.inspiringlearningforall.gov.uk) has an excellent questionnaire which can help you determine your own learning preference.

9.0 Ways to engage

Consider how your events can incorporate these ways of attracting engagement. Perhaps: 1. Talks and presentations - extremely efficient way of conveying information to a relatively large number of people. However not always the best method of retrieving information.2. Hands-on events and activities – focus on your outcomes and how the activities will help to achieve them. Data can be collected from questionnaires as well.3. Exhibitions – a vehicle to communicate work achieved so far and how previous consultations have influenced emerging outcomes. Data can be collected from questionnaires as well.4. Written resources (including websites) that both provide information and a means of capturing data.5. Stalls in the local shopping area or marketFor more ideas: http://www.communityplanning.net/methods/methods_listing.php

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10. Afterword

It is worth restating that public engagement is a multi-layered activity. Creating a successful Plan for your Neighbourhood is very much about understanding the local context: physical layouts and boundaries of all distinctions - social, economic and environmental as well as people’s needs and motivations.

The physical boundary is important as it defines the legal boundary for your NDP. Getting to this point will require an understanding of this local context. It will lead towards making the best possible response for creating new and reshaping existing circumstances to serve the needs of your local community. Furthermore the aspirations of developers, designers and local authorities can be very different to those of the communities that make up your neighbourhood. To engage positively or to challenge institutional and/or established views, it is vitally important that as many local people are engaged, as effectively as possible and from as many aspects representing the local community. Equally, that their views are recorded in a way that the data can be extracted and inform the NDP so that it can withstand scrutiny – by NDP Examiner, by local people at Referendum; District, City, Borough, County or Unitary Council; and finally any challenge at Planning Appeal as part of the family of statutory local policies.

The pointers in this document will help and CSP CIC may be commissioned to assist. CSP will be uploading case studies onto its website to provide examples in practice. We hope you have found this paper useful.

More about data analysis, Questionnaires and Event planning is given in Hints, Tips and Tools papers 2 and 3 of this series. These are very simple basics and we hope they are helpful.This is an exciting and unprecedented opportunity to positively shape your surroundings. We wish you every success in developing your Neighbourhood Development Plans.

Clare Wright and Mary-Ann Nossent and the Community Spirit Partnership CIC team

Community Spirit Partnership CIC123 Marlborough Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 5HDt: +44 (0)1634 321 745 and 07855 350864e: clare@communityspiritpartnershipcic.org

http://communityspiritpartnershipcic.org/

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11. ResourcesHelp is available from: http://locality.org.uk/projects/building-community/. Work may be commissioned from consultants such as ourselves, Community Spirit Partnership CIC. Funding may be applied for from the Locality fund http://mycommunityrights.org.uk/neighbourhood-planning/Editable checklists and forms: http://www.communityplanning.net/useful/forms.phpPlanning Aid England support for Neighbourhood Plans: http://www.rtpi.org.uk/planning-aid/neighbourhood-planning/BibliographyThe Localism Act: provisions on neighbourhood planning - http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/20/part/6/chapter/3 DCLG's Introduction to Neighbourhood Planning (recently updated) - https://www.gov.uk/neighbourhood-planningPlanning Advisory Service Planning reform page - including FAQs (though not all the answers are endorsed by DCLG) - http://www.pas.gov.uk/pas/core/page.do?pageId=1089058Locality’s Roadmap - http://locality.org.uk/resources/neighbourhood-planning-roadmap-guide/The first two Neighbourhood plans and Examiner Reports:Thame - http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/services-and-advice/planning-and-building/planning-policy/neighbourhood-plans/thame-neighbourhood-plUpper Eden - http://uecp.org.uk/upper-eden-neighbourhood-development-plan/uendp-referedum-version/ and also Upper Eden - http://uecp.org.uk/upper-eden-neighbourhood-development-plan/upper-eden-development-plan-examination-proposal_examiners-final-report-2/Use this link to find more: http://www.communityplanning.net/pub-film/pubfilm.php#the%20guide%20to%20effective%20participationThe Community Planning Event Manual: How to use Collaborative Planning and Urban Design events to improve your environment, Nick Wates, Earthscan, 2008, 978-1-84407-492-1. Explains why and how to organize community planning events. With lots of illustrations, sample documents and checklists to help save you time. Community Planning Handbook: How people can shape their cities, town and villages in any part of the world, Nick Wates, Earthscan, 2000, 978-1-85383-654-1. Features an accessible how-to-do-it style, best practice information on effective methods, and international scope and relevance.

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12. Requirements of use for Community Spirit Partnership Open Source Public Engagement MaterialsThe underlying premise and purpose of CSP’s Open Source public engagement materials contained in this pack is to make them freely and openly available to others working on Neighbourhood Development Plans for non-commercial purposes. Through this, CSP grants the right to anyone to use the materials, either "as is," and preferably in a modified form. There is no restriction on how a user can modify the materials for the user's purpose. Materials may be edited, translated, combined with someone else's materials, reformatted, or changed in any other way. However, there are three requirements that a CSP OpenSourceWare user must meet to use the materials:

1. Non-commercial: Use of CSP OpenSourceWare materials is open to all except for profit-making entities who charge a fee for access to educational materials.

2. Attribution: Any and all use or reuse of the material, including use of derivative works (new materials that incorporate or draw on the original materials), must be attributed to CSP.

3. Share alike (aka "copyleft"): Any publication or distribution of original or derivative works, including production of electronic or printed class materials or placement of materials on a Web site, must offer the works freely and openly to others under the same terms that CSP OpenSourceWare first made the works available to the user.

"CSP CIC", "Community Spirit Partnership CIC”, and its logos are trademarks of the Community Spirit Partnership CIC. Except for purposes of attribution as required by our Creative Commons License, you may not use CSP CIC’s names or logos, or any variations thereof, without prior written consent of CSP CIC. You may not use the CSP CIC name in any of its forms nor CSP CIC seals or logos for promotional purposes, or in any way that deliberately or inadvertently claims, suggests, or in CSP CIC's sole judgment gives the appearance or impression of a relationship with or endorsement by CSP CIC

If you would like to use these materials, but you are unsure whether your intended use qualifies as non-commercial use, please contact CSP CIC.

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