The ladder of participation

Since INOVEM was founded back in 2001, we have been working closely with local authorities, strategic partnerships and other public sector agencies to evolve and fine-tune our Inclusionware solutions with their needs in mind. An important part of this evolution has included the refinement of our own version of ‘The Ladder of Participation’.

It was Sherry Arnstein who first described planning processes in the United States using the term ‘ladder of participation’, back in 1969. You can read more about Arnstein’s ladder for yourself, but the eight levels she fixed in place were: Manipulation, Therapy, Informing, Consultation, Placation, Partnership, Delegated Power and Citizen Control.

At INOVEM we have built our own ladder, which we boiled down to three sturdy rungs: Inform, Consult and Collaborate.

It borrows a number of values outlined by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). In its publication ‘Citizens as Partners: OECD Handbook on Information, Consultation and Pubic Participation in Policy-Making’ it states: “From information to consultation and active participation, the influence citizens can exert on policy-making rises.” These levels of participation are also an integral part of the statutory ‘Duty to Involve’ as outlined in the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) 2008 white paper ‘Communities in Control: Real People, Real Power’: “The ‘duty to involve’, which came into effect in April 2009… …requires named bodies to take appropriate steps to involve people in decisions, policies and services that may affect them or be of interest to them.”

As a consequence, INOVEM’s Inclusionware suite has been consciously developed to scale to meet any requirements to provide varied mechanisms to engage with stakeholders.

Inform – Our Stakeholder & Community Portals help councils to canvass opinion via citizens’ juries and panels. They provide tailored information about services, policies and decisions of interest to stakeholders, and enable them to have their say and get involved in authority functions where appropriate.

Consult – Our eConsultation Systems help authorities and government departments around the UK to run formal consultations and satisfaction surveys, so residents and key stakeholders can have their say about decisions and services. These systems also help our clients ensure that they capture, coordinate and publish all consultation and engagement activities.

Involve – With the accelerating environmental and cost factors related to travel and meetings, our easy-to-implement Team Collaboration Systems allow select stakeholders to work together, online, in the design and shaping of policies and services.

Together, it is these pillars that are trusted by our customers in central and local government, planning authorities, consulting firms, corporates and representative organisations around the UK and US, to empower people to work together better.

Tags: collaboration, engagement, involve, participation

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 11:05 pm and is filed under Collaborate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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