Amplifying your message: content and channel strategy
As you deliver your projects, you will have messages you need to communicate. A ‘content and channel strategy’ will ensure your messaging resonates with your audience’s needs and priorities.
This animation explores how to shape your content around your audiences, and the channels you can use to reach them.
Animation: the virtuous circle of good engagement
In this guide, we will provide you with a framework to carry out effective and comprehensive engagement at any stage in the project lifecycle.
Town Deal Board: Stakeholder engagement activity deck
Over the course of the Place Leadership Programme we have shared a number of resources and activities to help towns thinking about engaging local stakeholders in their work.
The TFDP have created a wide range of resources on Communications & Engagement available on the TFDP website.
This activity deck brings together a selection of practical activities for Town Deal Board Chairs and members. You may wish to revisit them at important moments in your project, or to use as you move onto the next thing as a town:
Mapping your stakeholders: this activity is about getting to grips with who is important to your project and establishing what you know/or assume about them.
Matching stakeholders with engagement methods: this activity is about recognising the different styles of engagement that are appropriate to your different audiences, and planning activities to do so.
Creating a long-term engagement plan: this activity is about focusing not just on the here and now, but who you want to be engaged over the longer term and why.
Engagement in the Post-COVID World
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses, community groups, councillors and MPs (and more) have had to learn how to engage in new ways. As we enter into a post-COVID environment, it is important to implement blended engagement techniques, applying the digital skills developed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This guidance outlines the steps to follow to help ensure engagement remains consistent, accessible and far-reaching.
Media Relations
Whether you’re already starting to deliver your projects or are still working on your Business Cases, this guidance will take you through the key ingredients you need to deliver effective, compelling communications through the press.
This document will provide you with the necessary guidance to plan, prepare, and deliver proactive engagement with journalists, and the steps to follow if negative press is published about a project.
Communicating and Engaging During Delivery
Whether you’re already starting to deliver your projects or are still working on your Business Cases, it is key that you continue to put communications and engagement at the heart of your respective projects’ strategies and visions.
This guidance has been developed to help you maintain and progress your communications and engagement from Business Case to project delivery.
Project Delivery: Stakeholder and Community Engagement Q&A
Description:
This recorded Q&A session was an opportunity for all Towns to ask their questions on engagement, communications and consultation for project delivery.
About the speakers:
Charlotte Jordan
Charlotte is a motivated and collaborative strategist with extensive experience in communications, engagement and project management across a number of sectors. She designs and implements grass-routes engagement strategies and innovative communication approaches from Local Authorities to international institutions.
Charlotte was the Service Lead for Communications and Engagement during Stages 1 and 2 of the TFDP, delivering tailored and targeted support to 101 towns.
Laura Cunliffe-Hall
Laura specialises in strategic advice, stakeholder management and copywriting, adding value to projects with her sound understanding of public affairs and policy.
Laura has advised Towns on engagement, led engagement workshops and designed written guides, infographics and visual resources targeted to help Towns improve their communication with key stakeholders. These guides include how to engage with younger audiences, incorporate stakeholder engagement into a business case and how to best engage with seldom heard groups.
Towns Fund Communications and Engagement playbook
This communications and engagement playbook provides a comprehensive overview of the resources available to you on communications, consultation, community and stakeholder engagement through the Towns Fund Programme. These resources can help you develop your Business Cases and enhance project delivery to support you in this next stage of the programme.
As you finalise your Business Case and look ahead to delivery, we know that you will need to engage communities about your plans and keep them informed as your project progresses. This resource guide provides you with links to a range of documents to help you do just that.
Engaging with hard to reach groups
Hard to reach or seldom heard groups are defined as people that are typically under-represented in the planning or development process, or in wider public life.
This could include ethnic or language minorities, people with disabilities, young people, the elderly, people with low literacy levels and people who simply don’t think their participation will make a difference as their voice will not be heard. These groups may be difficult to engage with because they do not feel empowered to do so, or due to barriers which can be overcome.
This guide seeks to help Towns in engaging with such groups.
Building a strong brand for your Town Deal
This guidance considers how Towns can take the contents of their TIP and turn it into a narrative and brand identity under which component projects become more than just the sum of their parts.
A Town Investment Plan (TIP) is more than just a bid document to unlock investment in selected projects. Good TIPs set out a clear and compelling vision for the Town’s future which stakeholders and the public feel they have helped to shape and can buy into going forward.
This guidance considers how Towns can take the contents of their TIP and turn it into a narrative and brand identity under which component projects become more than just the sum of their parts.
So don’t let your TIP sit on a shelf gathering dust. Put it to work as you move through Stage 2 and on towards project delivery.
We’ve created this interactive toolkit to help you build an action plan for your next steps. You can fill this in online or print out and brainstorm with your team.
Stakeholder Engagement Good Practice
This recorded webinar focuses on Stakeholder Engagement and Communications at Business Case stage. We will walk through a model and steps to take to keep your stakeholders engaged throughout the business case development.
This recorded webinar focuses on Stakeholder Engagement and Communications at Business Case stage. The presenters walk through a model and steps to take to keep your stakeholders engaged throughout the business case development. This webinar aims to equip you with best practice tools to maintain engagement and communication throughout this next phase of the Towns Fund deal.
Stakeholder Engagement to support Business Cases
This guide provides information to help support you when developing your Business Cases. It outlines the process in more detail, the key role of engagement and include examples of what a strong Business Case should look like.
This guide provides information to help support you when developing your Business Cases. It outlines the process in more detail, the key role of engagement and includes examples of what a strong Business Case should look like.
The guidance is summarised by the image below, showing the Eight Simple Steps to building stakeholder engagement into the development of your Stage 2 Business Case.
Engagement Evidence
A community and stakeholder engagement plan is a key requirement to building a strong Business Case and it is critical in demonstrating how you manage stakeholders during project delivery.
A community and stakeholder engagement plan is key to building a strong Business Case and it is critical in demonstrating how you manage stakeholders during project delivery.
It needs to show how you have engaged with people and how you will continue to engage as you work up business cases, and project delivery.
But you only have limited space, so what evidence should you include? This guide gives you some tips on what to include, and how to present it.
Engaging with Businesses
This guidance note provides nine practical ideas for Towns on how they can engage better with businesses, whether drafting TIPs, developing business cases or delivering projects and beyond.
From sole traders to multinationals, businesses are the lifeblood of a community. While some may have a long history in your town, others may be relative newcomers to the area. They can be contributors to the Towns Fund, or beneficiaries, as it seeks to galvanise local economies. Businesses should be at the heart of shaping and delivering Town Investment Plans (TIPs).
This guidance note provides nine practical ideas for Towns on how they can engage better with businesses, whether drafting TIPs, developing business cases or delivering projects and beyond.
How to Engage in a Digital World
Description:
Digital technology has changed the way we communicate. Embracing this change can open up engaging ways to reach new audiences - but the prospect can be daunting for presenters and participants more used to face-to-face interaction.
This recorded webinar provides some guiding principles for those taking their first steps in digital engagement, an overview of the tools available, and some practical tips on running your own online engagement activity.
About the speakers:
Diana Deans of Copper Consultancy teamed up with Claire Hazelgrove of Futuregov to present this webinar.
Copper is a strategic communications and stakeholder engagement consultancy specialising in the development of economic and social infrastructure. Diana has delivered community and stakeholder engagement programmes in the energy, aviation and rail industries.
FutureGov is a change agency supporting 21st-century public institutions being catalysts for change in the internet and climate era. Claire has 13 years’ experience of organising, mobilising and campaigning for change within the political and non-profit worlds, supporting organisations and communities to affect the change they believe in.