How do I engage?
There are five basic principles that we believe are necessary for effective engagement. Keep these in mind when developing your engagement work programme!
| 1. Clarity | - be clear on the aims and what’s ‘up for grabs’ |
| 2. Integration | - join up the process so it feeds into the policy decision |
| 3. Independence | - leads to trust in results and unbiased approach |
| 4. Tailored | - use different methods together appropriately |
| 5. Follow Through | - evaluate and demonstrate how results were used |
You can find more about the principles in our Position on Engagement.
Tools
The following tools will help you meet these principles and structure your engagement programme appropriately:
 | SDC Engagement Complete Guide – includes an overview and all 4 stages to fully plan your engagement | | Stage 1 of Guide – assessment at the beginning of a project on how much engagement to do |
| Stage 2 of Guide – why do you need to work with others? (stakeholder/public) | | Stage 3 of Guide – Who should you engage with? (stakeholder analysis) |
| Stage 4 of Guide – Practically planning your engagement process | | Typology of engagement – explains the different types of engagement and what methods can achieve what outcomes |
| Engagement and the policy making cycle – shows how and where engagement should fit within the policy-making process |
Further Guidance
 | People & Participation – An interactive website that helps you choose the most appropriate engagement method. Also has case studies, news, events and ask an expert feature |  | Evaluation Guide – guidance produced by Involve, Shared Practice and MoJ to guide you through every stage of the evaluation process |
| Digital Dialogues 2 – The Hansard Society’s study into how to effectively engage online | ||
| Nice Guidelines – to support those working with and involving communities in decisions on health improvement |
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