NEWS & BLOGS

We hosted the Consultation Institute Coffee Morning on Thursday 8 October and there was a lively discussion about the correct format of consultation documents to ensure they are accessible and meet legal duties. We’ve gone away and done some extra research to produce this guidance for engagement and consultation practitioners. Let’s start with some basics, before summarising what various regulations and guidance say before giving you information that will help you make decisi

In the UK, 7.1 million adults read and write at or below the level of a nine-year-old and 43% of adults do not understand written health information – figures cited by NHS England’s Library and Knowledge Services team (PIF online). When you add stress, illness, digital barriers, and the complexity of our NHS system, even “simple” information can become unusable. Health literacy isn’t just about understanding leaflets – it’s also about whether people can navigate appointment s

Surveys may be easy to measure, but they rarely capture the depth, emotion and context that make engagement meaningful. It is important that they are supported with "boots on the ground" outreach engagement – both face to face and online. By focusing on genuine dialogue rather than response counts alone, organisations can gather richer insights, build trust, improve decision-making and deliver outcomes that better reflect the experiences of the people they serve.

I nearly missed this one. End Digital Poverty Week runs from 7 to 13 September, and it's the first time the Digital Poverty Alliance has expanded what used to be a single day into a full week. It marks their 25th anniversary too, and it brings government, industry and the third sector together to look at how digital exclusion shows up across education, employment, healthcare, finances and everyday access to services. At Open Voice Lab we talk a lot about doing digital better.

If you've ever taken part in university research, you'll probably have noticed the mountain of information provided before a single question. This is the result of scrutiny from an ethics committee, whose role is to ensure research is worthwhile, proportionate, and carried out without harming participants. While engagement professionals often work with the same methods and many of the same audiences, we rarely have an equivalent process. What could public engagement learn fro

An exploration of the complex relationship between AI and writing, considering that while AI can be a useful tool for organising ideas and improving clarity, it cannot replicate the human emotion, judgement and authenticity that make writing truly impactful. It highlights the importance of the human touch in engagement, and considers the growing need for transparency around AI use, particularly in public consultation and engagement where trust and accountability are essential

July is Disability Pride Month – a time when disabled people come together to share their experiences and start conversations. Here at Open Voice Lab, we are proud allies to people living with disabilities and want to help organisations make their engagement and communications accessible to more people. Disability Pride Month Disability Pride Month began in Boston in 1990 and has grown steadily since then into a global movement. A fun fact. The Disability Pride Flag was desi

A close up of some credit cards in a pile. A few years ago, I was sat at my NHS desk, trying to figure out how to get an important piece of engagement work in front of the right people. I knew paid social was part of the answer and I knew exactly who we needed to reach. But our finance team wouldn’t let me have a credit card. I did what any good public servant would do – and consulted Google for an answer. If you've ever found yourself searching "how do I run paid social with

The under-16s social media ban: a moment to reflect on how we reach young people. This morning the Prime Minister announced that social media platforms - including Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and X - will be off-limits to under-16s in the UK, with the ban due to come into force by spring 2027. Messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Signal, along with YouTube Kids, are not included. A mixed response to the social media ban On one level, this is a clear, decisiv

I went paddleboarding recently when the sunshine came out. I took my eye off the ball for two minutes to take some pictures, and the strong wind nearly had me in the reeds. It struck me that paddleboarding is a good metaphor for where a lot of engagement professionals are right now with AI. Getting on the board is the easy part. Everyone can do that. But without a paddle you are not really in control - you are just being pushed around by the wind, drifting sideways, watching

From the doorstep politics of Makerfield to national leadership contenders, this blog reflects on what Starmer, Streeting and Burnham’s records say about their commitment to community voice, consultation and meaningful engagement.

Public sector budgets are tight and training is a luxury. When you invest in professional development, you need to be certain it will make an immediate impact – that people leave with skills they can apply right away, not concepts to revisit in the future. For public sector engagement and communication teams, a development area becoming increasingly urgent is around digital skills. The growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has taken us into a new realm and is changing how pe

A tour through the jargon of engagement that shows how lived experience, listening, consultation and co production all fit together — and why doing them openly, respectfully and accessibly is what really counts.

The importance of ‘making friends’ with whoever owns your digital channels Are your digital channels working for engagement or just working? There's a pattern we see regularly when reviewing digital engagement strategy for public sector organisations. Digital channels exist, usually managed by someone in the communications team, and they share numbers as a measure of success. Yet the engagement professionals – the people whose job it is to understand communities, gather insig

Another May comes around, which means that another local election cycle is here. This year has been impossible to miss. Which is quite unusual in the middle of a general election cycle. You may notice that I love chiming in on politics and what it means for engagement. Sorry about that; I just find it fascinating (enough to have taken my degree in it). So I thought I would offer some thoughts about what elections tell us about public engagement, even though we treat it as som

Last week I hosted a coffee morning for the Consultation Institute. We were talking about digital engagement and how to reach beyond the usual voices. The conversation quickly went to digital engagement with young people – something lots of organisations are keen to do. The obvious answer is that many young people are on TikTok. Perfect, that’s the plan then? Well it’s still not quite that simple. Where young people are and how they use social media Let's start with some in

We hear this a lot from public sector teams. Think about the last time you heard about a local service change, or something that had people frustrated in your community. Where did you find out? Chances are, you saw it online somewhere - a Facebook group, a comment thread, a post shared by someone in your network. That's not a coincidence. Conversations about organisations are happening continuously online, whether those organisations are present or not. Only a very small port

An exploration of the Palantir–NHS backlash, the long shadow of care.data, and why meaningful engagement is essential when handling people’s most personal health data.

If people can’t access your communication, can they really engage? A reflection on accessibility, trust, and inclusive engagement practice.

NHS reforms risk erasing community memory—the trusted relationships engagement teams have built with marginalised groups. As staff and structures disappear, these connections can’t simply be handed over, and weakened engagement will deepen health inequalities. Without deliberate planning and continuity, much of this hard‑won trust may be lost.