Maximising the benefits of participation for all

Although one-off participation activities aimed at dealing with a single issue or development (e.g., a consultation on a new drop-in, or a survey aimed at finding out why local refugees are not accessing a service) are absolutely fine, you will normally want to develop more sustainable refugee participation activities. There are several reasons for that:

• Refugee and asylum policy is a fast-changing environment due to new international events and UK responses
• Changing needs of the refugee population in the UK, including the arrival of new refugee groups
• Changes to services and organisations, often driven by new policies, budgets or funds
• To establish relationships and develop expectations
• To be able to measure the success of participation activities over time, through continuing engagement with participants

The effective monitoring and evaluation of participation are key factors in the success of activities, and it should be part of your Participation Plan. Monitoring will typically cover issues like:

• Are activities achieving their aims and objectives? Is participation on track?
• Are participants and other stakeholders satisfied with the way participation is being delivered?
• Do you need to make any adjustments to practice?
• Are activities inadvertently creating new barriers to participation?
• What lessons can we learn for the future?

You should also include engagement and wellbeing issues to ensure that all participants are supported throughout the process. You may use attendance data, surveys, check-ins before and after larger events, in person meetings, or other feedback mechanisms to obtain information and views about the participation process itself, including information about recruitment and training. If sensitive issues are raised by individual participants, you will want to provide a safe and confidential space for these to be discussed. Make sure that you involve participants in the monitoring and evaluation of activities, including at the (re)design and implementation stages, where possible, encouraging more participant ownership of the process. 

By continuous learning and development, you will be able to sustain participation processes over the longer term9. On a practical level, this may also mean embedding participating in budget forecasts to ensure that long-term funding is allocated to it. Sustainable participation also helps develop expertise in refugee communities and in your organisation. And it can save costs in the long term. And enable you to plan for structured participation activities.

Suggested actions

• Produce a monitoring mechanism for refugee participation in your service or organisation. It could be a form, a feedback questionnaire, or a evaluation meeting, for instance. Make sure that you include all the information that you will need to assess whether participation is fulfilling its aims, etc.