Dudley Strategy for Tackling Health Inequalities 2010-15

different versions to support practitioners, managers, elected members andrepresentatives;A Community Engagement guide and toolkit (Pendry, Roberts and Walker,2009) which takes people through each step in undertaking an engagementactivity. This work has been led by DMBC.A consultation database which seeks to coordinate community engagementactivity, avoid duplication and share learning. This has been developed byDMBC and is now being rolled out to partners.Three levels of training –o Level 1: Understanding Engagement is core training which supportspeople to understand Dudley‟s empowering approach to engagingcommunities.o Level 2: Practising Engagement offers a range of modules includingfacilitation skills, cultural awareness and community consultation tools.o Level 3: Supporting others to engage will be developed over time tooffer support for people to develop their own and others communityengagement practice, through for example, mentoring, buddying orAction Learning Sets.A Community Engagement Network which supports people to understand,practice and develop their engagement practice.The strong partnership approach which underpins „In it together‟ has enabled thesharing of key information and resources across agencies, including corporatetraining, previously only available to staff from the employing organisation.The „In it together‟ work programme is coordinated and progressed by a multiagencyCommunity Engagement Working Group, which reports into the StrongerCommunities Thematic Partnership group of the Local Strategic Partnership - DudleyCommunity Partnership.Further information on the „In it together‟ work programme and supportingdocuments are available to download from the dosti websitewww.dosti.org.uk/downloads.Shared principles and valuesTo achieve an empowering approach to engaging communities, agencies need towork in line with shared principles and values. „In it together‟ (Dudley CommunityPartnership, 2010) promotes a common language and understanding in relation tocommunity engagement, which links the principles in the Community Strategy, thevalues in the Local Compact and is reflected in the PCT‟s Communications andEngagement Strategy (NHS Dudley, 2009) and DMBC‟s Corporate EngagementPrinciples (Dudley MBC, 2009)Shared principles and values will support closer collaborative work betweenorganisations, of which there are already several existing and emerging examples,such as:57