A good deliberative public engagement process makes a difference – to participants, to decisions, to policy, and to projects and work programmes. Engagement can be seen to have made a difference when:
- policy-makers listen to and take account of participants’ views;
- there is clear evidence of how decisions or policy developments have been influenced by it;
- participants learn about wider political and decision-making processes, as well as about the subject being discussed; and
- participants are engaged in a meaningful way, and are therefore more are enthusiastic about getting involved in the future.
Engagement can only be effective if it takes place at the right point in the decision-making process. This may mean that organisational processes need to change, to incorporate results from public deliberations into decision-making.