CSP CIC’s Notes, Tips and
Tools for community
groups in developing
their Neighbourhood
Development Plans
CommunitySpiritPartnership CIC
PAPER 1 of 3 Basics
An 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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
Foreword
Beginning at the End!
Statutory requirements for public engagement in NDP
Public engagement notes
Engagement to-do list and timescale
Risk Management
Public engagement strategy
Audience
Ways to engage
Afterword
Resources
More about Copyright/ copyleft
Appendices
Appendix 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-planningroadmap-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 CIC
The 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.
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2
Planning Magazine17 May 2013
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.pdf
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/637/contents/made.
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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.
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6. Risk Management
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:
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



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 strategy
Before 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 groups
People 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
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your widest community to be able to identify their hopes, issues, themes
and potential solutions. See Locality Roadmap Guide worksheet 4. Quite
often exclusion occurs because of lack of knowledge rather than by a
specific intention.
8.3 Use of Equality and Diversity Data
Here, 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
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 Gender reassignment – people who have changed from one gender to
another
 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-equalityact-guidance/protected-characteristics-definitions/
8.4 Finding information
Demographics from existing data sources
Before 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 area
At 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 socioeconomic 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 engage
Not 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 offputting, so it needs to be simple, direct and relevant to the audience.
8.8 What method or mix of methods? See Roadmap Worksheet 4
Learning styles
Consider 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 objects
Auditory learners- prefer learning by hearing. They enjoy discussion,
radio programmes, lectures and debates
Kinaesthetic learners - prefer learning by doing. They draw from
experience, movement and modelling
Inspiring 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 market
For 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 CIC
123 Marlborough Road, Gillingham, Kent, ME7 5HD
t: +44 (0)1634 321 745 and 07855 350864
e: [email protected]
http://communityspiritpartnershipcic.org/
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11. Resources
Help is available from: http://locality.org.uk/projects/buildingcommunity/.
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.php
Planning Aid England support for Neighbourhood Plans:
http://www.rtpi.org.uk/planning-aid/neighbourhood-planning/
Bibliography
The 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-planning
Planning 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=1089058
Locality’s Roadmap - http://locality.org.uk/resources/neighbourhoodplanning-roadmap-guide/
The first two Neighbourhood plans and Examiner Reports:
Thame - http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/services-and-advice/planning-andbuilding/planning-policy/neighbourhood-plans/thame-neighbourhood-pl
Upper Eden - http://uecp.org.uk/upper-eden-neighbourhood-developmentplan/uendp-referedum-version/ and also Upper Eden - http://uecp.org.uk/uppereden-neighbourhood-development-plan/upper-eden-development-plan-examinationproposal_examiners-final-report-2/
Use this link to find more: http://www.communityplanning.net/pubfilm/pubfilm.php#the%20guide%20to%20effective%20participation
The 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
Materials
The 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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