Consultation is an essential part of designing services, shaping policy and making decisions that affect communities.
But simply opening a survey, holding a meeting or inviting people to share their views does not automatically make a consultation inclusive.
The key question is not: “How many responses did we receive?”
It is: “Did we hear from the people most affected by this decision?”
When we’re working with organisations who are planning an inclusive consultation, we often find their “inclusive” only represents a small portion of their workforce. The downside to this is that when important voices are missing, organisations risk making decisions based on incomplete evidence, which can lead to services that do not meet people’s needs, further disengagement and, in some cases, the need to repeat consultation or engagement activity later.
Government guidance on inclusive survey design makes a similar point: accessibility and inclusion can improve representation, reduce bias and ultimately lead to better-quality information for decision-making.
Planning for inclusion from the beginning can help avoid this.
1. Start early, before decisions have already been made
One of the most important principles of meaningful consultation is that people should have a genuine opportunity to influence the outcome.
The Gunning Principles, widely used as a foundation for lawful public consultation, state that consultation should take place when proposals are still at a formative stage, people should have enough information to respond, sufficient time should be allowed, and responses should be conscientiously considered before a decision is made.
Before designing your consultation, be clear about:
- What is still open to influence?
- What decisions have already been made?
- What do you need to learn?
- How will people’s views inform the next stage?
Being honest about these boundaries helps build trust and avoids creating the impression that consultation is simply a box-ticking exercise.
2. Identify whose voices you need to hear
Avoid treating them all as one audience. Different communities may experience a service, policy or issue in very different ways. Start by identifying who is most affected and whose experiences may be missing from existing evidence.
Ask:
- Who will this decision affect most?
- Which communities are currently underrepresented?
- Who is often missing from our data?
- Who has historically been less likely to engage with us?
Government guidance recommends identifying target populations and considering groups who may be heard less or missing from the available evidence at the beginning of the research process, not as an afterthought.
3. Design with people, not just for them
One of the strongest ways to make consultation more inclusive is to involve people in its design.
Speak to community organisations, local groups and people with relevant lived experience before finalising your questions or deciding how people will participate.
They can help you understand:
- Whether your questions make sense.
- What language and terminology to use.
- Which methods are likely to work?
- Where engagement should take place.
- What barriers you may not have considered.
This follows a simple principle of inclusive design: learn from diversity rather than assuming you already understand everyone’s needs.
4. Remove practical barriers to participation
A consultation may technically be open to everyone while still being inaccessible to many people.
Consider barriers such as:
- Language.
- Digital access or digital confidence.
- Disability and accessibility requirements.
- Travel and location.
- Timing.
- Childcare or caring responsibilities.
- Literacy levels.
- The cost of participating.
Participation specialists at Involve recommend considering support needs such as interpretation, accessible formats, childcare and personal assistance where relevant. They also emphasise using clear information and avoiding unnecessary jargon.
The goal should be to make participation as easy as reasonably possible and not to expect people to overcome barriers just to have their say.
5. Use more than one method
A single online survey is unlikely to reach everyone.
Depending on your audience, an inclusive consultation may combine:
- Online and paper surveys.
- One-to-one conversations.
- Focus groups.
- Community events.
- Workshops.
- Telephone responses.
- Outreach through existing community groups and trusted networks.
Public-sector consultation standards increasingly recommend using multiple channels, tailoring methods to the needs of affected groups and providing alternative formats where appropriate.
The best method is not necessarily the most convenient for the organisation. It is the one that gives the people you need to hear from a realistic opportunity to participate.
6. Make participation meaningful
People need to understand why they are being asked to contribute and what will happen with their views.
Be clear about:
- What you are consulting on.
- Why does it matter?
- What people can influence.
- How their information will be used.
- What will happen next.
Transparency is a core principle of effective public participation. People should be able to understand how their contributions will feed into decisions and, afterwards, what impact the engagement has had.
7. Measure who participated, not just how many
A consultation with 1,000 responses is not automatically more inclusive than one with 100. Alongside overall numbers, consider:
- Who took part?
- Who didn’t?
- Whether participants reflect the communities most affected.
- Which engagement methods worked best.
- What barriers emerged.
- What new insights were gained.
If important voices are missing, that should be treated as a finding – not ignored because overall response numbers look positive.
Close the feedback loop
Consultation should not end when the survey closes.Share what you heard and explain what will happen next. And where possible, demonstrate how feedback influenced decisions.
Even when a suggestion cannot be taken forward, being transparent about why can help maintain trust.
Good consultation is not simply about collecting responses. It is about creating the conditions for the right people to contribute, listening to what they say and showing that their voices matter.
Before launching your next consultation, ask:
If we make this decision based only on the voices we hear, whose experience might we be missing?
Need support planning a consultation or reaching communities whose voices are often missing? Get in touch to explore how we can support your research, engagement and consultation activity.