Public Consultation Toolkit - Civil Service College

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Public Consultation Toolkit 67 68 Public Consultation Toolkit 3. Public forums 4. Surveys Public forums/dialogues are large-scale gatherings which can be used to obtain general feedback. The target audience of public forums include general public or large stakeholder groups who are impacted or interested in a particular issue. Before conducting public forums, agencies should determine: • Date and time – consider who the target audience is and the other obligations they may have, to determine the most convenient date/time to hold the forum. Bear in mind other events that could clash with the meeting. • Venue – choose a venue that is familiar to your target audience and the special needs they may have (e.g. elderly or disabled individuals). • Speaker(s) – choose a speaker or panel of speakers with sufficient seniority and experience to engage the audience effectively. Ensure that the speakers are thoroughly briefed about the purpose and details of the forum. When is it most useful? Public forums are useful for policy issues that affect a large proportion of the public. The forums can be used to educate stakeholders about the policy and obtain general feedback. Public forums are typically less useful for gathering in-depth feedback from specific stakeholders. Considerations Public forums carry the risk that the agenda may be dominated by interest groups or vocal individuals. This is particularly the case if the policy or initiative being consulted is sensitive or emotive. Its is equally important to appoint an effective facilitator to moderate the meetings and keep it from going off track. TIPS FOR EFFECTIVENESS • Publicise the meetings through engaging the media (e.g., broadcast or print), and if appropriate, make the material available online. A survey or questionnaire is essentially a series of questions used to solicit information from individuals. The questions can be open-ended (i.e., where participants can provide qualitative feedback), closed (i.e., where questions have pre-defined answers that respondents can select from), or a combination of both. It can be conducted through various modes, including inperson, telephone postal and internet. The resources required to conduct the surveys will depend on the modes of survey selected. The target audience of surveys are typically randomly selected individuals who represent the larger target population for a policy/initiative. Before using surveys, agencies must determine: • Content – agencies must have clear objectives and understand why they are surveying the general public. The survey should ideally contain no more than 10 to 15 questions. Questions should be direct, brief and simple. Long, multipart questions should be avoided. • Type – all surveys should be tested with a pilot audience prior to mass use in order to procure feedback about how the survey can be improved. Agencies need to decide the amount of time and resources they have available before choosing a survey method. Different modes of survey a) In-person survey: This can be conducted through door-todoor interviews, or street-intercept interviews. • When is it useful? Surveys conducted in person are useful for obtaining immediate feedback and information from respondents. Questions can be asked and clarified as they arise. This mode of survey typically has a higher rate of response. • Considerations This method requires an on-site officer at all times and can be labour-intensive. Officers need to be aware of the issues of privacy and space for participants. The presence TIPS FOR EFFECTIVENESS • Be as specific as possible. Instead of subjective questions like ‘do you use this facility often’, change this to specify conditions, such as ‘never, once a week, more than three times a week’. • Break a topic down into distinct elements with a question on each. • Ask relevant questions – do not waste respondents’ time by asking questions unrelated to the topic. • Keep the survey brief, it should ideally take 5-10 minutes to complete. • Provide incentives (e.g. cash vouchers, discount coupons) to increase the response rate. • Try not to appear judgmental or impose personal views when conducting surveys, so as not to influence participants.
Public Consultation Toolkit 69 70 Public Consultation Toolkit of the surveyor and the public setting may compel the participants to respond in a certain manner and bias the survey results. b) Telephone survey • When is it useful? Telephone surveys are useful for general attitudinal surveys. Agencies can explore options with participants and assist them with unfamiliar words or questions. This method yields fast results, and has a higher response rate than mailed-in surveys. • Considerations Although to a lesser extent than in-person survey, the tele-surveyor may still compel the participants to respond in a certain manner and bias the survey results. For this method to work successfully, officers must be trained to handle questions and different personalities over the phone sensitively and objectively. Depending on the profile of the target audience, surveyors may need to be proficient in different languages. c) Mailed survey: Surveys can be mailed to the home or organisation addresses of the target audience. • When is it useful? Mailed surveys can reach a large geographical location and are less labour-intensive than in-person or telephone surveys conducted. Participants can complete the surveys at their convenience and in private; hence it is suitable for sensitive issues. • Considerations It is harder for participants to seek clarification for mailed surveys. This method is limited to literate members of the public and requires an up-to-date address list. There also tends to be a lower response rate for mailed survey because it requires participants to take the additional step of returning the surveys to the agencies. d) Internet survey: E-mail and online surveys (distributed through a website link) are the key forms of internet surveys. Links explaining different terms or concepts can also be provided online to provide more comprehensive information. Data is automatically entered into a database and can be automatically analysed or exported to other software programmes. When is it most useful? Public forums are useful for policy issues that affect a large proportion of the public. The forums can be used to educate stakeholders about the policy and obtain general feedback. Public forums are typically less useful for gathering in-depth feedback from specific stakeholders. Considerations Public forums carry the risk that the agenda may be dominated by interest groups or vocal individuals. This is particularly the case if the policy or initiative being consulted is sensitive or emotive. 5. Blogs A blog (a contraction of the term ‘web log’) is a website that usually contains informal commentaries or personal opinions about a subject. Feedback functions in the blogs allow the public to provide comments and responses to the information posted. Agencies also have the option of embedding their blog on the agency’s website. The blog page can then be easily updated either through the website or through applications on mobile devices. Through this medium, agencies or public figures such as Ministers can ask the opinions of blog readers on a specific subject or test the reaction of blog readers towards a certain topic. This can allow the government to conduct informal or “soft” consultation with the public. In addition, the contributor(s) can also provide an insider’s perspective on various policies (e.g. tax) and events (e.g. National Day). Such posts allow the public to relate to the government on a more personal and informal level. The main distinction between the government’s website and blog posts is that the website provides comprehensive information, while blog posts provide snippets of information – summaries, opinions, circumstances and reasons surrounding various policies and principles. Typically, blogs present the contributors’ personal perspectives. The target audience of blogs are technologically-savvy individuals. How it works A typical blog combines text, images, video and links to other blogs or websites. An account is first created at a blog website (e.g. blogspot.com). The blog page can be personalised, or selected from a template, and finally, the contributor can begin sharing content online. TIPS FOR EFFECTIVENESS • Keep blog posts interesting – readers are keen to explore issues on a personal level. • Short posts are fine if timeconstraints are present. The key is to be consistent between time spans of blog posts. • ‘Tag’ entries according to different categories, so that readers may be able to search for similar topics on the blog.
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Public Consultation Toolkit - Civil Service College

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