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Community engagement in Australian local government: A closer look and strategic implications
Helen E ChristensenPhD Candidate, IPPG Associate & Board Member, IAP2 Australasia
#localgovtrends@IPPGatUTS
Emerging Trends in Local Government ForumPostgraduate Research Showcase
University of Technology Sydney19 March 2019
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LG Community Engagement Census: A snapshot of practice
Helen ChristensenPhD CandidateCentre for Local Government:Institute for Public Policy and GovernanceUniversity of Technology Sydney
#localgovtrends@IPPGatUTS
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Outline Research Overview
LG CE Census
Methodology and responses
Findings 1. How often are councils engaging?2. What methods are councils using?3. Who is responsible for community engagement inside councils
(and how is it positioned)?4. What’s driving community engagement in local government and
what’s making it difficult?
Conclusion and Discussion
Very very preliminary findings from the follow on research#localgovtrends
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Methodology
Online survey – 352 Local governments – Eastern Seaboard States
New South Wales (128)
Queensland (77)
South Australia (68)
Victoria (79)
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69.6
77.3
70.0
41.7
63.3
56.3
63.4
48.3
39.8
49.7
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Capitals & Metro Urban Regional Urban Fringe Rural & Remote All council types
Response Rate % by council Type and State (Pop = 352, n= 175)
NSW Qld SA Vic All states #localgovtrends@IPPGatUTS
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KEY FINDINGS
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Mean estimated number of community engagement processes per council type per annum (n=164)
44.1
34.1
29.8
15.3
29.4
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Capitals & Metro Urban Regional Urban Fringe Rural & Remote All council types
How often are councils engaging?
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How are councils engaging?
• Traditional methods – public meetings, public submissions, advisory/community reference groups
• Contemporary methods – community summit/workshop (< 30 participants), community summit/workshop (>30 participants), drop in/open house/staffed display, focus groups
• Online methods – online discussion forums and online surveys
• Deliberative methods – citizen’s jury/deliberative panel/forum
• Emerging methods – open space/unconference, and participatory budgeting.
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0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Public Meetings
Advisory/Community Reference Groups
Public Submissions
Percent
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Workshop/Summit Lrg
Focus Groups
Workshop/Summit Sml
Drop In/Open house
Percent
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Online Discussion
Online Survey
PercentPast Present Future
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10
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Open Space/Unconference
Co-Design
Deliberative Group methods
Participatory Budgeting
PercentPast Present Future
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Who is designing and delivering local government community engagement processes?Internal responsibility for planning and delivery of community engagement (n=175)
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Relevant plusspecialist staff
(Hybrid)
All relevant staff(Distributed)
Case by case (Adhoc)
Specialist Staff(Centralised)
Relevant staff plusexecutive staff
Other
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Estimated number of dedicated community engagement staff per local government (n=175)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
0.0 0.3 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.2 4.0 5.0 6.0 20.0 Unsure
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Organisational position of community engagement (n=175)
26.9%
25.1%
14.3%
9.1%
8.6%
5.1%
3.4%
2.9%
2.3%
1.7%
0.6%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
No specific work area for CE
Communications/ media/ public relationscombined with CE
Community/ social planning combined with CE
Governance/ corporate performance combinedwith CE
There is a dedicated community engagementwork area
Two or more work areas combined with CE
Community development combined with CE
Other
Research combined with CE
Planning/ placemaking/ urban projectscombined with CE
Unsure
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What are the challenges in delivering community engagement for councils?Highest ranked difficulties in delivering community engagement (n=167)
37.1%
23.4%
14.4%
9.0%
8.4%
5.4%
2.4%
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40%
Time
Public interest
Budget
Lack of leadership commitment at executive level
Knowledge and skills of staff
Councillor support
Statutory requirements
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What’s driving community engagement by councils?Highest ranked driver for community engagement practice in local government (n=174)
27.6%
21.8%
18.4%
14.9%
10.3%
6.9%
0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% 30.0%
Known effectivness in assisting councilwith tis decisions
Meet statutory requirements
Enthusiasm/demand from public
Deliver on corproate strategies andpolicies
Enthusaism/demand of council staff
Enthusiasm/demand from Councillors
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Summary• Number of processes vary by council type
• Traditional, contemporary and online methods dominate
• Strong intent to use deliberative and emerging methods in the future
• The number one driver for use is ‘known effectiveness for assisting in decisions”
• The number one challenge is the time required.
• Understanding and profile of community engagement within councils varies widely – there is significant coupling of the community engagement function with communications, media and/or public relations
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Next Phase- Exploration
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Methodology
20 Semi-structured interviews
8 Victorian councils - (2 each of Metro, Fringe, Regional, Rural)
Mix of staff – Executive, Management, Middle Management, Staff
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Very very very very very preliminary findings
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How LGs conceptualise engagement
Haus and Sweeting (2006) – Local Democracy – 4 types
1. Representative
2. Network – partnering, PPPs
3. User/Market > private sector values - “customer”
MEETING INDIVIDUAL NEEDS AND/OR MANAGING RISK
4. Participatory > collaborative, deliberative, participatory – “citizen”
DEMOCRACY#localgovtrends
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Other themes
Leadership – Councillors, Executive, Managers, Staff
Consistency – “If it’s done well…”
Resourcing and capabilities
Increasing prevalence of online platforms
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