Many public sector organizations focus a great deal of effort on choosing the ‘right’ approach
to public participation. In practice, however, there is rarely one correct method. Some of
the approaches described above, for example, public meetings, citizens’ juries and focus
groups, offer high levels of interaction but reach only a small proportion of the population.
They are also relatively costly, time-consuming and require skilled facilitation. Other methods,
such as citizens’ and users’ panels and resident’s surveys, offer breadth of coverage and
are relatively cheap, but they provide less in-depth interaction.
Most organizations therefore need to have a balanced portfolio of approaches that are
tailored to the:
■ objectives of engaging with users and citizens;
■ resources available to those managing the process;
■ timescale;
■ capacity of respondents.