THE UK CONSULT | Episode 17: Curly Fries, Friendship, & Rapid Online Deliberation

UK Consult

Special Guest Appearance from our friends Traverse Jonno and Elt are reunited after 2 weeks of fabulous and positively chirpy deputising by Bang the Table UK colleague Charly Amos, but they're not alone! Making a special debut guest appearance on the UK Consult, they are joined by Anna McKeon, Head of Engagement & Associate Director at Traverse. Traverse and Bang the Table have worked together on a number of really exciting projects with other partners over the last 6 months, so this was a fantastic opportunity to reflect on those projects, discuss emerging trends and themes in online engagement in an ever-changing world, and of course presented Elt with the perfect opportunity to ask Anna that all important question, "what are your favourite types of fries?" Emerging Trends & Themes in Online Public Consultation and Community Engagement Anna describes Traverse's work spanning research, engagement, consultation and evaluation, underpinned by a focus on: - Rigour: high quality evidence based on rigorous methods. - Inclusive practice: to involve the widest range of voices in their work they are continually developing practice to reflect the diversity of society. - Lived experience: belief that the people affected by a decision should have a role in it that goes beyond being informed. - Capacity building: as an employee owned business they know the value of collaboration, and help clients to develop the skills and capability to make good decisions. The Rapid, Online Deliberation on COVID-19 Technologies Project Traverse and Bang the Table teamed up with the Ada Lovelace Institute & Involve to run a project over a 3 week period. Anna describes the collaborative approach, intended outcomes and describes how the project took shape. The quality of the deliberation was really aided by the ability for participants to engage online and offline, yielding great results, feedback and findings. The full report is here(https://traverse.ltd/application/files/6715/9290/3370/Lockdown_Debate_methodology.pdf) for you to read through in more detail. Meldrew Moments Anna is always "glass half full", super perky and chirpy, but did manage to get grumpy about video conference meetings over running. Jonno has the Isle of Wight council in his 'grumpy' crosshairs this week in relation to the government's "gear change" document. Public consultation is thin on the ground.