Involve — the British public engagement think tank — is taking on a project to quantify the costs and benefits that are involved when agencies engage the public. They are looking for government agencies to volunteer to work with them to come up with a this assessment tool.

Here’s their recent message in full:

Involve are embarking on an ambitious project with Consumer Focus England, we are seeking to develop an equation for identifying costs and benefits associated with public engagement structures and processes. The proposed equation will be a practical tool, aimed at public sector workers who wish to make the case for effective engagement by exploring and quantifying the costs and benefits. It will also help authorities, civil society and the public to identify when public engagement is an effective use of public money.
We need to work with public sector organisations to test our equation, in order to ensure it is useful and that it is able to be applied in a variety of circumstances.

Do you have a recent example of a public engagement exercise? Would you like to help us with our research whilst having the opportunity to explore the costs and benefits of the exercise to your organisation? We are looking for volunteers to take part in the research. This will involve a number of depth interviews with key people related to the case study. You will gain a better understanding of the costs and benefits of your engagement, a better ability to articulate the business case internally and externally, and (if you so wish) will receive recognition for your support in developing new forms of measurement.
Specifically we are looking for case studies which:

• Can demonstrate some tangible improvements in service outcomes as a result of the engagement, for example reduced crime levels, improved health outcomes, lowered bureaucratic requirements, or more targeted spending.
• Have some understanding of the costs and benefits of the exercise
• Includes some element of engaging with members of the public
• Occurred within the last twelve months

We are also interested in looking at examples which engaged people in issues around cuts in expenditure

If you so wish we will ensure that interviewees and case studies remain anonymous, we will remove any identifying information from the reports and write‐ups.

If you think your engagement activity would make a good case study in this research, or if you would like to find out more about the project, please contact Emily Fennell e: emily@involve.org.uk t: 02079206478.