1. Genuine Purpose

So participants and the public can trust what the process is for.

Links to Principles: A Clear Mandate

Core

The non-negotiable minimum

A clear question for the public to deliberate with transparency about scope, constraints, and real openness to outcomes. There is a clear articulation of how the process will lead to better decision-making, including happening at the right time in the decision-making cycle for outputs to influence decisions, built on a clear understanding of relevant decision-making processes, structures and timescales. The deliberation builds on any relevant previous engagement and the wider policy context it sits within.

Desirable

Extra depth where resources allow

People with lived experience of the issue are involved in shaping the commission itself - including the question framing and methods - before the process begins.

Stretch

Context-specific, deeper power sharing, sustaining and embedding

The public are embedded in formal structures that support decisions on question, scope and methodology for deliberative engagement. Examples include permanent or longer-term assembly structures1 where previous members of deliberation are involved in setting questions or involved in reviewing implementation and strategy development.2 Where deliberation is embedded in governance, citizens’ authority, responsibilities and relationships with other decision-making bodies are formally established, understood and protected, including arrangements for resolving disagreements.

  1. Belgium’s Ostbelgien institutionalised past participants into a regional permanent assembly to shape commissioning. ↩︎

  2. The Citizen Advisory Council is a formalised public group helping to shape ‘The Good Food Cycle’ DEFRA’s Food Strategy for England made up of participants of the Food Conversation and lived experience ambassadors. ↩︎