Community engagement and the policy/planning cycle
The Queensland Government has identified a number of policy-making, strategic planning or service planning frameworks.
To ensure effective community engagement, it is vital that managers locate their proposed community engagement activity within the relevant framework.
The document Engaging Queenslanders: Community engagement in the business of government describes this alignment process in more detail. This section summarises some of the key points from this document under the following topics:
- Engagement in the policy cycle
- Engagement in the strategic planning cycle
- Engagement in the service planning cycle
Note: Community engagement takes place at the project level, for example, when a one-off community engagement process is conducted. It also takes place at the program level, when a sequence of community engagement activities contributes to the development or delivery of policies, programs or services. In this online learning material, both project- and program-level community engagement activities are referred to as community engagement activities.
Engagement in the policy cycle
Deciding when to engage citizens and communities in policy development requires an understanding of the policy process, the nature of the political environment and the nature of the issue being considered. An effective engagement strategy should be linked with decision-making points throughout the policy cycle to ensure engagement outcomes feed into decision-making processes.
The Queensland Government’s approach to the policy cycle is presented in The Queensland Policy Handbook. Building on the Bridgman and David (2000) model, the handbook presents the policy cycle with the following components:
- Issue identification
- Option identification and analysis
- Policy instruments
- Community engagement
- Coordination
- Decision
- Implementation
- Evaluation
The factors critical to the success of community engagement in the policy cycle include:
- good judgment about whom to engage, when and how the engagement will be undertaken
- managing expectations
- the level of community interest in an issue
- the knowledge and skills of those involved.
Engagement in the strategic planning cycle
Strategic planning processes generally include:
- an environmental scan
- engagement with key agency stakeholders
- examination of agency data
- development of key agency outputs, priority areas and performance indicators
- development of an agency strategic plan
- evaluation.
Effective identification of communities will help to ensure that all key interests are involved in agency strategic planning and provide opportunities for communities to influence the agency’s strategic planning process and associated programs.
Engagement in the service planning cycle
Embedding community engagement in government program and service planning is central to:
- developing a practical vision at both regional and statewide levels
- ensuring a local and regional focus to planning
- achieving stronger and more productive community partnerships
- providing the opportunity to identify and address location solutions
- improving effectiveness and sustainability.
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