East Cambridgeshire District Council

Community Engagement

The Council recognises the importance of consultation and community engagement with different audiences, including individual residents, partner organisations and parish councils in the development and implementation of its responsibilities for equality and diversity. Involvement and consultation helps to give minority groups an opportunity to provide input about the provision of services.

Good examples of consultation and community engagement at the Council include:

• The Annual Strategic Assessment - which gathers opinions on community safety issues around hard-to-reach groups.
• The two-yearly Place Survey - which asks residents about their perception of East Cambridgeshire and the services provided by the main public agencies.
• Quarterly Neighbourhood Panels - where local people can request action about issues of concern in their immediate area.
• Consulting on the development of the Council's Local Development Framework has been carried out over the last 3 years on potential policy options to guide the growth of the district over the next 18 years.
• Development of the Council's Register of Consultees - where the Council invites members of the public and local groups to join a ready panel of interested parties who have agreed to comment on proposed policy and service changes.
• Consulting with specialist groups, individuals, associations and organisations, e.g. the Access Group and/or Papworth Trust on accessibility issues for disabled service users; consulting with partially sighted service users on the design of one piece mailers for postal voting etc.

Increasingly, the Council consults on and delivers services jointly with local partners. To support this work and improve efficiency, the Council is a member of the Cambridgeshire Consultation Partnership. Working jointly with other authorities means that consultation is more co-ordinated and efficient.

Community Engagement Strategy