Planning actions

Identify ‘champions’ for the community and voluntary sector within your agency. The role of the champion is to ensure the interests of sector organisations are represented in:

• policy planning and service delivery
• any agency activities in common areas of interest
• any reports provided on the quality of the agency’s community-government relationships.

An agency may consider setting up a stakeholder engagement unit to provide support to staff dealing with NGOs.

Considering the following key questions may help government agencies determine the extent to which their relationships with community and voluntary sector organisations have been incorporated in planning processes.

• How does a relationship with community and voluntary sector organisations contribute to your agency’s ‘vital few’ outcomes?
• What is the logic chain in your agency’s planning process that supports the need for a relationship with sector organisations?
• How has your agency assessed its capability and responsiveness to working with sector organisations?
• How does your agency know whether or not its relationship with community and voluntary sector stakeholders has been improved/strengthened?

You also need to ask:

• What joint initiatives has your agency undertaken with other government agencies to establish shared targets, such as more flexible use of funding for community and voluntary sector and Māori organisations?
• Has your agency addressed the need to share outcomes with other government agencies? If so, what difference did that make to working with community and voluntary and Māori organisations in your sphere of interest?
• What action plans have been developed by your agency to ensure you have department-wide access to good information about organisations in your sphere of interest?

Information in this section has come from the Managing for Outcomes guidance:

Resources and manuals, such as policy handbooks, should be reviewed to ensure they cover effective participatory processes, taking into account the guidelines provided on this site.

If your agency's guidelines for developing quality policy advice do not explicitly encourage the development of active relationships, consider revising them.  But don't duplicate guidance already available - the Policy Development Toolkit on the Public Sector Intranet, the NZ Cabinet Manual and the CabGuide offer a wealth of advice and instruction.

Some departments have developed their own policy development guidelines (eg: the Ministry of Social Development) or stakeholder engagement toolkits (eg: Ministry for the Environment), so it can be useful to liaise with other agencies to benefit from their experience and resources - and save duplicating effort.

Volunteering by staff builds goodwill between government and community, and strengthens communities. Staff also benefit, gaining experience that is valuable in their paid work. The Government Policy on Volunteering includes an expectation that:

"All government agencies will have policies in place that support the private volunteering activities of staff while ensuring that public servants continue to fulfil their professional obligations."

Your agency may have a volunteering policy as part of a wider policy on work/life balance. Collective or individual employment agreements may include relevant provisions.

Keep in mind that potential conflicts of interest or compromising situations will need to be managed. (See your agency's conflict of interest policy or refer to the State Services Commission's resource kit, Walking the Line.)

Consider basing policy staff within the community, as opposed to centralised agency offices. This may be a way to improve communication with community, voluntary, iwi and Māori organisations.

For example, consider:

• placing policy staff in a regional office (short- or long-term) where they can work effectively with community groups
• secondments or short-term placements with community organisations
• allocating staff some time each week to work with a community organisation.

The Levels of participation section,  Working with specific groups and Techniques sections on this site may be helpful to you in deciding the way forward for a particular project or policy development process, but if you are completely unsure where to start, try the interactive People and Participation Process Planner online.  Developed by Involve UK, it will help you get to grips with all the factors you need to consider when planning your approach to engaging with your communities.