Thanks to the 59 staff members who completed the Year 3 survey to help us understand our community engagement practice.

As next steps, we'll make sense of what you told us, see if there's been any change since the Year 2 survey in 2023, and share the findings back with you.

To stay up-to-date with this project and hear about the things we'll do to respond to what you told us, click '+ Follow' at the top of the page.

You've probably noticed some things we've done over the past few years to respond to what you told us. Take a look at the Action Status Report (May 2025), or check out these highlights:

The Year 2 survey established a second data point to compare Year 1 findings and assess if there was any change in the organisation's practice over the previous 12 months. 49 staff across all directorates completed the survey.

Thanks to your participation we gained greater insight into how the CE Team can support the organisation and developed this list of actions to further strengthen our practice.

A findings snapshot can be seen below, or you can check out the full report.

In April 2022, 48 staff participated in the Year 1 community engagement (CE) staff survey. Take a look at the findings snapshot below or check out the full findings report.

You might remember that we asked you to self-assess your level of community engagement (CE) knowledge and experience. The responses tell us that while there are different levels across the organisation, there is a solid base to draw from.

You also responded to a questions about participation in CE training.

While the low level of formal CE training suggests that existing knowledge and experience comes from learning on the job, you also told us that you think training opportunities would improve your CE knowledge, confidence and capability.

The first organisation-wide survey to assess our Community Engagement (CE) knowledge, confidence and capability took place in April 2022 . The same survey was repeated in April 2023 to see if there was any change in the 12 months since the Year 1 survey.

The CE Team uses the data collected to identify gaps in our practice and build our collective knowledge, confidence and capability. This supports implementation of our CE Policy, which is a requirement under the Local Government Act 2020.

The CE Policy guides delivery of our CE activities and embeds the following engagement principles:

• communication of clear objectives and scope
• provision of information that leads to community members' informed participation
• representation of community members in matters that affect them
• provision of reasonable support so that community members can participate in engagement activities
• clear indication of how people's participation will influence decision-making.
• These principles reinforce the importance of community participation in designing, delivering and evaluating projects to make sure they reflect local needs, are safe and embed local knowledge in project thinking.