9. Considered Judgement

So the output reflects genuine deliberation and collective conclusions that impact decision making.

Links to Principles: Well-designed Deliberation

Core

The non-negotiable minimum

Participants are supported through a structured process to weigh evidence, consider different perspectives and trade-offs, reaching a collective view or set of recommendations – one that everyone can live with. Before the process begins, participants know how they will reach that outcome: through consensus, prioritisation, voting. Minority and dissenting positions are considered alongside the majority view in decision-making, with space for them in the published report.

Desirable

Extra depth where resources allow

Participants have the opportunity to review, question, and respond to any synthesis or summary of their views before it is finalised and reported. A named mechanism exists for participants to flag if the process has not faithfully represented their views before outputs are published.

Stretch

Context-specific, deeper power sharing, sustaining and embedding

Participants are directly involved in drafting the recommendations or conclusions themselves, rather than having their views synthesised or translated by facilitators or commissioners on their behalf, so the output is in participants’ own collective voice as far as possible.