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Section
E:
Involving Socially Excluded or Harder to Reach Groups
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Involving Socially Excluded or Harder to Reach Groups.
Why consult with “hard to reach” groups?
There is an increasing requirement to ensure that all residents have the opportunity to participate in consultation exercises. It is therefore good practice to ensure that everyone is enabled to participate. Although “hard to reach” is a convenient way of describing those that we struggle to consult with, it is in some ways misleading. By labeling some people “hard to reach” implies that the problem lies with them when, in reality, it is the Authority’s job to make sure that its consultation exercises are inclusive. It may be harder work and a bit more expensive to locate, interview and interpret the views of these groups, but they are not fundamentally any harder to reach.
Making consultation inclusive is important because:
- consultation exercises often need to find out the views of an accurate cross-section of the population as a whole; and
- different sections of the community may have needs or views that are different from those of the majority and, if they are not consulted effectively, these needs or views may remain invisible.
Flow-chart for deciding whether to consult with hard-to-reach groups
Example scenario: Consultation on New Traffic Scheme
| Section D | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 | Section A |
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Introduction and Framework Section A Section B Section C Section D Section E |
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