Establish a collaborative working approach

Breaking down and working across the traditional silos within a local authority can be challenging at first, but with perseverance it can be done. The experience from the Pathfinder programme shows that the collaborative process is regarded as constructive and satisfying for participants. It was also thought to improve the quality and effectiveness of the code.

As the example of Mansfield District Council shows, it is particularly important to find an effective way to engage with corporate leadership and elected members. Indeed, this should be the first stage in any wider engagement. To do so, the Mansfield team spent time analysing both management and committee structures to identify the most appropriate directorates and service delivery teams to connect with. This will vary from authority to authority but could include senior managers in housing, regeneration, communications and community infrastructure, environment and neighbourhood services, public health and wellbeing, cultural services, adult social care and children’s services.

Collaboration requires everyone involved to keep the big picture in mind. When the Medway Council team first consulted across internal departments, they found it difficult to establish a collective vision. Although everyone had their say early on, they were only looking at the code from a siloed mentality, i.e. from the point of view of their particular division’s priorities. To be effective, the lead team realised they needed to instil what they described as a ‘a place mentality’ by focussing on the different area types.

On the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council Pathfinder project, the lead team quickly identified their most important targets for collaboration which included development management officers, the local plan team, highways and other departments like public health. The highways team were particularly important, contributing not only to the streetscape and public realm elements of the code but also helping to align the code to the sustainable transport initiatives that were being developed at the same time. The Bradford team also set up a technical group consisting of people from highways, transport planning, drainage, biodiversity, landscape and maintenance, to “drill down into the technicalities”.

Develop a stakeholder consultation strategy

You get better results when you draw on a wide local knowledge base within and outside the council. An important first step is to identify which internal departments and external stakeholders to involve and when you can do so, which you can programme into your overall project plan.

At every step, you should make the most effective and efficient use of participants’ time, which means tailoring how you engage with them. For example, you might consult external interest groups separately or in mixed workshops depending on your objectives.

Even before you ask for participants’ input, be sure to explain and promote the objectives of the code. When asking for input, give participants a clear brief about what you aim to achieve from the exercise.

At the start of the project, this is likely to be to gather information and ideas that will help you to establish the scope and main objectives of the code.

Once you’ve agreed the scope and are ready to develop technical content, a useful technique is to run thematic workshops, probably with a mix of representatives across different stakeholder groups.

Collaboration at the later stages should be used to test the effectiveness of the code with development management teams along with other select groups, such as local architects and developers.