School Consultations
Face to face consultation events
While in-person consultation events can sometimes feel challenging, particularly for sensitive or contentious proposals, they remain one of the most valuable ways to build trust, answer questions, and hear views directly.
The key is in the planning.
- Choose a date in the middle of your consultation period: far enough in for people to review information, but not so late that there's no time to respond.
- You may want to consider selecting a venue that's accessible, neutral, and large enough for your anticipated turnout, this might mean that sometimes an off-site location works best.
- Think about room layout so people feel welcome, not crowded.
- You may want to arrange for someone to attend to keep notes of the questions asked and the responses given, as well as the number of attendees.
- It is useful to be able to reflect the questions raised in the consultation report.
Have a clear start and finish time, a simple structure, and enough knowledgeable people on hand to answer questions.
