One of our specialties is helping local governments to consult and engage with their communities. We can do this very effectively with our Citizens’ Panel service. Citizens’ Panels provide local government with an efficient way to get feedback that is representative of the wider community view. A Citizens’ Panel provides many advantages over more traditional consultation methods.
We’ve put together a snapshot of our Citizens’ Panels in this post, but if you’d like to chat about anything in more detail feel free to contact us.
How does the Citizens’ Panels work?
Citizens’ Panels are a representative sample of the local community, typically involving between 500 and 5,000 people who have agreed to take part. Panel members are invited to complete surveys on a regular basis. Citizen’s Panels offer plenty of flexibility and it is possible to target specific groups such as young people or ethnic minority groups. Anything from small-scale qualitative research to large quantitative studies are possible.
PublicVoice can manage the recruitment of panel members, survey design and administration, analysis of data and reporting for our clients.
Why have a Citizens’ Panel?
There are a number of key advantages that a Citizens’ panel offers over more traditional consultation methods. These include:
- A Citizens’ Panel is a ready made community-wide sample to consult on key issues. It is a fast and cost effective way to get results that are representative of the community as a whole.
- The panel can be used to track changes in participant’s attitudes to particular issues over time. This can be really useful when assessing the impact of new service developments by Council.
- Because Citizens’ Panels can involve a large number of people, they form an important source of dialogue between local government and their stakeholders.
- There are opportunities for more focussed research among users of specific services, such as libraries.
What some of our clients have said about the PublicVoice Citizens’ Panel
“The Citizens Panel developed by PublicVoice has provided Palmerston North City Council with a very easy way to gather views on a wide range of topics.”
Andrew Boyle, Head of Community Planning, Palmerston North City Council
“The Citizen’s Panel gives us an important tool to use in our overall mix of research and consultation that guides decision making. It is a timely and cost effective way for us to reach a wider community view and we have used Citizen’s Panel to draw out the community view on a range of Council initiatives”
Lex Verhoven, Strategy Manager, Hastings District Council
Case Studies
For examples of Citizen’s Panels in action and the results that can be achieved, click here.