Dialogue: Setting the standards

A report by deliberative democracy organisation, America Speaks, has recommended that the US Federal Government should provide more robust frameworks for what constitutes good public engagement. It suggests that standards should cover timing, staffing, outreach and more. America Speaks also contends that the Government should issue guidelines for measuring success and publish these so that public bodies running engagement programmes can be evaluated effectively.

Sciencewise-ERC has long promoted the use of guidelines and the importance of evaluation in dialogue.  Appropriate guidance has been shown to ensure accountability to funders and the public, to boost the quality of dialogue and, most importantly, to ensure lessons are learnt and shared across the dialogue and engagement communities.

However, the recommendation by America Speaks of centrally imposed standards by Government is controversial. In a move away from such top-down regulations, the UK Government has recently repealed the Duty to Involve, a set of guidelines for local government on how to inform, consult and involve the public, and replaced it with a much shorter document repealing a number of statutory duties. This has created a wide debate about the pros and cons of the Duty. How can Government support devolved, bottom-up participation, while ensuring quality and accountability? Can local government embed a culture of self-evaluation without clear steers from above?

Join the debate on the Sciencewise-ERC Forum.