Introduction
This step is about engaging with wider system stakeholders who are not represented on the housing partnership and who may or may not have been involved during previous steps. The purpose of this engagement is to share what you have found and developed so far in the previous steps and to gather feedback, address concerns and build buy-in. This will help reassure potential investors that your business plan has wider backing of all system partners.
Key questions
- Which partners and/or stakeholders do you need to engage with?
- What is the purpose of this engagement and how will this be achieved?
- What format or style of engagement is most appropriate; is this the same for all stakeholders or is a range of approaches useful?
- Which of the findings from steps 1-8 most resonate with stakeholders?
- Have the stakeholders identified any omissions or barriers you have not foreseen?
How to?
The wider system stakeholders that you decide to engage with will depend in part of the nature of your business plan. However, they should include representatives from:
- Older people and carers, representative groups, charities and community groups.
- Integrated Care Partnerships and Health and Wellbeing Boards.
- Housing providers and developers.
- Housing associations.
- Social care and community services providers.
- Community outreach teams: reablement, hospital discharge, step-down.
- Equality and diversity representative groups.
- Elected members (also known as local councillors).
The purpose of engaging wider stakeholders should be to share the information gathered, ideas generated and the tentative proposals for your business case that has been produced through steps 1-7. More specifically, you should:
- Share which aspects of the process and information gathered to date has been the most rewarding, interesting or surprising.
- Sense-check the material with stakeholders – do the findings resonate? Are there any glaring omissions? Any challenges or barriers you have not foreseen?
- Address any concerns raised by stakeholders – this will help foster a sense of ownership, buy in and being part of the journey of the development of the business case.
You will need to consider the format of engagement that is most appropriate and convenient for different stakeholders and develop content for that format. This can include:
- Communication over email – can be used to communicate to several stakeholders simultaneously, content of emails can be personalised and provides an ‘audit trail’ of communication.
- Surveys – online or email surveys can be a good method for involving a large number of people relatively quickly in a decision or set of options, however, it should usually be combined with virtual or face-to-face engagement with room for discussion.
- Virtual or face-to-face engagement – adds a personal dimension, enables discussion and fosters buy-in.
- Deliberative events – deliberation is an approach to decision-making that allows participants to consider relevant information from multiple points of view. Deliberative events enable participants to discuss the issues and options and to develop their thinking together before coming to a view, taking into account the values that inform people’s opinion. If a housing with care plan has several options, for example, this might involve giving the participants the pros and cons of each option before asking them to choose which one they prefer.
Collate and analyse or write-up the feedback and information from reviewing the findings with the stakeholders. Where appropriate, use this to add to your business plan or to identify gaps that could be filled.
Reflect on the activities with stakeholders and if this approach worked well. You could gather more formal feedback data and/or consider if your aims were met.
Finally, consider how engagement and communication with wider stakeholders will be sustained, feedback will be integrated, and any concerns raised will be addressed.
Co-production
The ‘I’ and ‘We’ statements below are illustrative examples of co-production outcomes associated with this step. We encourage housing partnerships to adapt them as they see fit to best reflect their local context.
For individuals:
- I help to build a list of stakeholders to be engaged with and the format and delivery of engagement with different stakeholder groups.
- I speak with and deliver presentations to stakeholders to make them aware of my views on housing for older people and how this is addressed by the business case.
For the partnership:
- We support individuals to identify stakeholders and plan the format and delivery of engagement with different stakeholder groups.
- We plan and make sure individuals have the opportunity to talk to stakeholders about their views on housing for older people and how the business case will match their views.
Planning with people who use and deliver services: Shared Lives Plus
In many public service settings, plans and initiatives, often with far-reaching consequences, are developed with little or no involvement from local people and other organisations working in the sector. This is not only morally wrong, in my view, it is likely that by not involving wider groups, you miss out on some of the best insights, ideas and viewpoints about how a service could be better designed and delivered.
That is why in developing a new service or way of delivering a public good, you need to engage all groups that are involved either in drawing on or delivering support throughout the process, checking back with them as often as you can on the plans as they emerge.
Ewan King
Chief Executive, Shared Lives Plus
(Shared Lives Plus is the UK membership charity supporting the shared living sector which comprises of Shared Lives and Homeshare.)