Participation toolkit

Our toolkit provides tools and methods to help you plan, deliver and evaluate engagement.

It includes well-established and common approaches alongside adaptable techniques. Usable in both digital and face-to-face settings, they support inclusive, meaningful engagement.

The toolkit will grow over time, giving you more practical tools to use whenever you need them.

Whether you’re new to engagement or looking to refresh your approach, the toolkit is a valuable resource. It can help you choose the right methods for your goals and feel confident applying them in practice.

Explore the participation toolkit

Planning engagement

Accessibility checklist

Make sure your engagement activities are inclusive and accessible to all.

Ethical checklist

Find out how to plan engagement that respects rights, values, and ethical standards.

Stakeholder map

Identify and connect people who have a stake in your issue.

Engaging to understand

Experience discovery conversations

Support people to share their lived experiences to uncover insights and opportunities for improvement.

Journey mapping

Help to understand the experience of a person using your service in a visual way.

Process mapping

A picture of a person’s ‘journey’ through a particular health or social care service which can help to understand the experience of care from a user perspective.

Voice: Community Engagement Planning Tool

Free online planning and recording tool that helps plan, monitor, and evaluate community engagement in a clear and structured way.

What Matters To You?

Help to start conversations to understand what truly matters to individuals in their care or community.

Engaging to inform change

Citizen's jury

Using group work to explore the evidence around a health or care issue.

Comments cards

Quick way for people to share feedback or ideas in writing.

Displays and exhibitions

Visual presentations that invite public interaction and feedback.

Dot voting

Participants use dots to vote on preferred options or ideas.

Electronic voting

Digital tools used to gather opinions or decisions from participants.

Emotional touchpoints

Captures feelings at key moments in a person’s experience.

Ethical engagement cards

Prompts reflection on values and ethics during engagement planning.

Experienced based co-design

People and staff work together to improve services based on shared experiences.

Facebook groups

Online communities within Facebook’s platform which users can join and where participation is encouraged. Groups are built around common interests or goals and may be closed or open.

Focus groups

Small group discussions to explore views and experiences in depth.

Graphic facilitation

Using images to support and capture group discussions and ideas.

Head, heart, bag and bin

An informal way to explore thoughts, feelings, useful ideas and things to discard as part of feedback and evaluation.

Ketso

A hands-on tool for collaborative planning and idea generation.

One to one interviews

Individual conversations to gather detailed personal insights.

Online meetings

Virtual sessions for engaging people remotely.

Patient diaries

Written records of personal experiences.

Presentations

Structured sharing of information to inform or engage an audience. .

Public meetings

Open forums for community members to hear, discuss, and contribute.

Speed networking

Short, timed conversations to quickly share ideas and build connections.

Talking mats

A visual tool to help people express views, especially those with communication needs.

User panels

Groups of service users who regularly provide feedback and advice.

Video Feedback

Video feedback allows organisations to gather information, comments and experiences directly from participants in video format.

World cafe

Small group discussions to gain insights.

Written Information

High-quality, trustworthy and accessible information underpins effective community
engagement.

Evaluating engagement

After-action reviews

Reflects on what happened during engagement, why, and how to improve next time.

Evaluating participation

Assesses how well people were involved and what impact it had.

Producing an engagement report

Summarises findings and outcomes of engagement for sharing and learning.

Service change engagement

Service change resources

Help for NHS boards and integration authorities to meet statutory duties to engage with people and communities about service change.