Evidence Counts: Understanding the value of public dialogue

In an era of greater enthusiasm for public engagement of all sorts but reducing budgets in all sectors, it has never been more important to demonstrate the true practical value of dialogue. Evaluations of dialogue processes have become more widespread over the past five years but there have always been two major gaps: measurement of costs and assessment of quality.

There is anecdotal evidence that dialogue can save costs in implementing policy and on conventional communications, and that it is a highly cost effective component of evidence-based policy making in science and technology with significant benefits to public policy. However, there is little recent detailed research data to support that view.

This research study examined how best to tackle these gaps, to summarise the evidence currently available, and to find some practical ways forward for collecting evidence in future about the costs and benefits, and thus demonstrating the value, of public dialogue. It concludes with a practical approach to evaluating dialogue in future, including a detailed framework for assessing costs and benefits.