IDENTIFYING STAKEHOLDERS

Who will you involve?

You need to have an understanding of the different groups affected by the issue at stake before deciding who to involve and which methods to use.

It is important to think broadly about your target audience beyond the direct users of the policy you are developing, or organisations that have a known interest: your policy might impact on other sections of the population. (See Involving Diverse Groups in Policy-Making.)

A variety of factors, such as available resources, time available, and the nature of the policy issue, will influence decisions around which sections of the public are involved.

Categorising the public

Several ways of categorising people have been recommended. You might find it useful to view the ‘public’ as falling into the following categories:

The public as ‘users’ and ‘citizens.’  The public will generally offer different perspectives on policy or service delivery issues according to whether they are involved as users or citizens. Involving the public as citizens will often provide a longer term or broader view on a particular issue, whereas the views of users of particular services or those who are affected by policies are likely to be shaped by their direct experience of them.

Specific population groups.  These can include disabled people, people from black and minority ethnic groups, young people and older people. (See Involving Diverse Groups in Policy-Making.)

Civil Society Groups.  This term encompasses the full range of formal and non-formal stakeholders including different representative organisations (e.g. the CBI and TUC), pressure groups and informal temporary groupings.

Staff/Employees.  These can range from front-line staff to chief executives. More information about this can be found in the report Involving front-line staff in policy development at www.policyhub.gov.uk.