Engage with Haringey Council about Engagement

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on March 6, 2009 at 10:53

PS: I asked Matt the question on Twitter - (but I've also sent him a private message to alert him to the fact of this post and my tweet).

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Permalink Reply by Matt on March 6, 2009 at 18:11

Hi Hugh,

Actually there is still lots of time to engage with this and we are about to send out Haringey’s first ever draft Community Engagement Framework which has just been drawn up following a first phase of consultation.

Of course I would welcome Harringayonline member's input and comments and I would be delighted to come with my team to have a public conversation in the near future. I wonder if the tone of cynicism in your message makes it more or less likely that people will bother in the future or contribute to this (and future) consultation? Genuine question! This is an important document and of course it's important we get it right and circulate it as widely as possible. I hope that we have developed it at all (this is our first, trying to promote better working across partners all over Haringey) is a sign that we're really committed to improvement.

Here's what it's all about (and why I think your cynicism is misplaced this time!):

As a first phase, back in January, over 700 voluntary and community groups were sent a letter from the Chair of the Haringey Strategic Partnership (HSP - representative body of all the Voluntary, Charity groups in the Borough and key partners of the Council e.g. Police and NHS) explaining the purpose of the framework and its development process - groups also received a questionnaire about engagement processes and how all HSP partners might better engage communities. This was also made available online and I attach a copy with this message. The plan was also discussed at the Haringey Policy Network and the Community Link Forum. I'm not sure if anyone from harringayonline attends these but I am going to ensure that you are made aware of future meetings. I will be asking why harringayonline was not sent the initial letter. I must admit that I had assumed that you had been, for which I apologise.

Last week we took the draft to the Strategic Partnership as it's this group for which the engagement framework is designed for. They approved that it be 'released' for consultation as a draft framework - so that brings us pretty much to today/where we are now.

Now that the draft framework document - which has been drawn up after that first phase - has been to the HSP, we are in to Phase II which lasts from the 5th March 21st April. The draft framework itself is about to be sent to all community & voluntary groups in the Borough. I will post an electronic copy here when I have it and I would be very grateful if you could (maybe more positively?) encourage people to participate.

After the 21st April we will use all the feedback to draw up an action plan to accompany the framework. This will then go back to the HSP for final sign off.

When can I come and speak to a Harringay forum? Do let me know.

Best wishes and regards, as ever

Matt

P.S. you can also find the draft framework questionnaire here: http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/community_and_leisure/hsp/framewor...

Attachments:

• draft_community_engagement_framework.pdf, 94 KB

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on March 6, 2009 at 19:48

Thanks for coming online, Matt. Good response. You’re making me wonder if I’ve not been a little harsh.

My feelings apart, it's great that you're willing to take the time to outline your view on where things are at.

If I've been premature in my criticism, then I apologise. (In fact I've taken the “You Gotta Laugh” subtitle off my original posting). What I’m reacting to is a consultation posted on the Council site which was part of a process that has been going on for some while, which we only heard of through a mention in your tweet a week ago.

Does a posting on Harringay Online that is critical of the Council make it less likely that people will engage? I doubt it. The fact that we feature it makes it more likely that people will take notice.

It is my belief that people will engage if they believe their opinions are valued. How the Council conducts its consultations and what is taken on board from those consultations is what really counts.

Your taking the time to respond here and your positive response to an invitation to take a meeting here counts. I'm impressed that you've done so and I applaud it. That IS likely to have an effect. (You might therefore choose to conclude that the outcome of this particular debate is positive).

Matt, we do plenty here to encourage people to participate. So no issue on that score. Sometimes that will include being critical of the Council. And, of course on this one we’re keen to get people to participate as was clear in the original post.

So we’ll do our bit. From your side, what will the Council be doing to ensure that as broad a cross-section of people as possible will be see and be able to contribute to this key piece of policy?

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Permalink Reply by Joe on March 6, 2009 at 21:12

I am aware that in some other boroughs, a database of strategic stakeholders, potential consultees and fora, is maintained and accessed when those Councils are considering a proposal or wish to take soundings on a particular issue. Entries in such databases are referenced by an obvious range of identifiers, such as location, interest group, faith, gender, disability, age etc. etc.

It would be very surprising and perhaps even remiss, if Haringey Council and in particular those departments who frequently undertake consultation and communications excercises did not hold such a database. I wonder if Harringayonline is mentioned anywhere and if so, under what references?

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Permalink Reply by Matt on March 7, 2009 at 11:54

Good conversation, this. So thank you!

Of course Haringey has a database of community organisations, fora, groups, stakeholders etc. etc. and when I took up my new position I was very clear that I wanted to see that these were as comprehensive as possible...this debate has put this in to sharper focus and I'm going to bring forward this piece of work.

Liz mentioned on another post on here how apparently there aren't often opportunities for people to register their interest/group/personal details (on forms, website, consultation docs etc.) which then results in recieving useful information from the Council and inclusion into the database which we're discussing above. I'm also looking in to that. Communities, groups, agencies are of course in a constant state of flux and we should be making sure that we're always making at easy as possible for everyone to key into what the LA is doing and that information can flow easily in both directions.

We're getting there. Conversations like this are incredibly valuable and will mean we get there faster.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on March 7, 2009 at 20:37

Yet I try and actively keep a look out for this stuff and I missed it Ed.

That may well be my shortcoming or it may be something else.

My guess is that very very few people will have been aware of it.

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Permalink Reply by Liz on March 7, 2009 at 21:02

Ditto, Hugh.
Ed, as one of the main content generators for the site I spend a lot of time reading and scanning council info to post on HOL via RSS, Twitter, and good old fashioned reading and attending local meetings. I have an RSS feed from the news part of the Council website and have often picked up and posted links on HOL on consultations yet I missed this. Was it put out as a news item?

Admittedly, I don't check the forthcoming consultations page that much but if this page (among others) had an RSS feed, that would make it much easier to find out what's coming up. I have registered on the website on a number of pages for the 'UPDATE ME' service but I never seem to get anything from it. I also registered on the Limehouse Consultation portal but receive no feedback or info from it ever. I do read the Haringey People and take your point that it was listed but surely something like this merited a page to itself?

The point I'm making is that if it is so hard for people like me who make it my business to find out what local stuff is happening to pick up on this, how do people who actually have lives do it?

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on March 7, 2009 at 22:59

Ed, I see that you've listed your address as High Road, N22. Are you a Council officer. We won't jump on you, promise, but it's always good to get some feed-in from someone at the centre.

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on March 10, 2009 at 10:48

I hesitate to rub salt into wounds on this one. So I'm trying to be gentle here.

Last night was our area assembly. I couldn't go, but have been told that the engagement consultation issue wasn't mentioned at all. Now it's possible that there's a very good reason for that. I merely ask the question. Was there a lost opportunity?

So, what is on offer is that the responsible cabinet member would come and talk to us to get our views.

Matt, is this something your team would organise?

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Permalink Reply by John D on March 10, 2009 at 11:31

I can't read this format, whatever it is

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on March 10, 2009 at 11:33

What do you mean. You can't read the page? Please let me know. In the meantime, perhaps try a different browser. It's fine for me in Firefox for instance.

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Permalink Reply by John D on March 10, 2009 at 11:40

If I click on the link "via Google " in your first post it gives me one fairly empty page inviting me to send feedback, and post an advertisement. It says view content which just loops back to the same page.

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