In the ‘Beyond Consultation: Meaningful Engagement in our Communities’ event held in October 2025 we were joined by three speakers and discussed what meaningful engagement can and should look like in the public sector.
Our speakers were across local authorities and the VCFSE sector. We welcomed:
- Nazia Azad from the Centre for Ageing Better. Nazia came from a housing and national perspective on their work with older residents.
- Yasmin Bibi from Manchester City Council. Yasmin discussed her experience of embedding co-production with all children and young people across the city, from the most vocal to those whose voices are often overlooked.
- Our final speaker was Babz from Freshrb, a Manchester Based Social Enterprise. Babz talked about how he got to where he is now, from being diagnosed with cancer to becoming the director of a social enterprise which uses creative engagement methods with marginalised communities in the health space.
We then closed with an open discussion with the speakers as panelists. Questions to the speakers included the importance of who the engagement workers are, and the characteristics they hold, that support meaningful engagement with residents.
Speakers highlighted examples of where the engagement workers sharing similar characteristics to the target audience, e.g. religion or having health issues, they are able to relate to the participants and engage with them in a deeper way.
We also discussed that in projects such as large scale, long term redevelopment projects residents may feel engagement fatigue. The speakers commented on the importance of revisiting previously engaged people (if they wish) and involving participants in different parts of the project, with the participants getting to choose how they want to be involved.
If you want to be further involved in the events run by the Transforming and Innovating Public Services (TIPS) programme please reach out to sarah.day@tameside.gov.uk