Engagement
Our community development and engagement services are rooted in practical experience developed over the last 20 years working across the UK, both nationally and locally.
We bring experience of participatory action research and learning, drawing on approaches rooted in international development. We support resident-led neighbourhood planning, campaigning and awareness-raising. We help local authorities and health organisations to work in genuine partnership with the communities they serve, and to connect with other stakeholders.
Community engagement and consultation
Our work focuses on making sure what is heard genuinely influences policy and strategy. We can work with you to plan an effective consultation, identifying the cross section of people who need to be involved, working out how best to engage them and organising effective outreach approaches or events. Recently, we have worked in partnership with national organisations such as Ipsos and Engage Britain, bringing a relational approach to community engagement.
Covid-19 Inquiry Listening Exercise with Ipsos
In partnership with Ipsos and WSA Community, Just Ideas is contributing to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry by leading compassionate, trauma-informed listening work with people from communities often excluded from public consultation.
Our role, from 2023 to 2025, was to ensure their stories were heard—gathering honest reflections and holding space for support and learning, through a combination of interviews, focus groups and listening events. Through our diverse, skilled team of associates, we reached out to young mums, unpaid carers, people with disabilities, those digitally excluded, and communities facing multiple disadvantages across the UK.
Participants described feeling heard, valued, and even empowered to move forward. We saw practical impacts too—like a school in Falkirk adjusting its policies after realising the pandemic’s unseen impact on their students. Insights from our fieldwork featured in the first ‘Every Story Matters’ record. The work showed the power of facilitation grounded in empathy and connection, and confirmed our capacity to deliver thoughtful, large-scale projects that make a real difference.
Working with the Just Ideas and WSA Community partnership on Every Story Matters allows us to broaden the reach of the important research we are conducting together for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. The Inquiry wants to understand the impact of the pandemic across UK society, and the partnership adds value by helping ensure we include lived experience through a community engagement and outreach approach.
Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy Community and Stakeholder Engagement
We partnered with the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to co-deliver Berkshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy, part of a national initiative from DEFRA and Natural England to restore and enhance local biodiversity. Our role was to ensure the strategy genuinely reflected community priorities through inclusive, creative and collaborative engagement.
We designed and facilitated a county-wide programme of nine workshops—engaging over 375 participants including residents, farmers, landowners and stakeholders—plus an interactive survey with 400 responses. Our facilitation created meaningful space for different voices and expertise to come together, shaping a shared vision for nature recovery. To support the process, our associate Natalie created bespoke illustrations and a striking visual summary, helping to make complex ecological ideas accessible and engaging for all participants.
Our approach got positive feedback from Natural England and local authorities, who praised the depth of community involvement and the quality of our facilitation. The results of this work were taken to public consultation in 2025. We’re proud of this collaborative, community-led process and its influence on the future of nature in Berkshire.
Just Ideas have been a fantastic support for us. Drafting and leading excellent workshops, putting inclusivity at the forefront and always going the extra mile under tight deadlines. Plus, they are really fun to work alongside during the project. Definitely recommend.
Engage Britain: 101 Community Conversations!
In partnership with WSA Community, we collaborated with Engage Britain on their nationwide Community Conversations initiative, aimed at involving people directly in shaping solutions to the UK’s pressing challenges. Engage Britain, now part of the think tank Demos, focuses on participatory policy-making by bringing diverse voices into the heart of decision-making processes.
Just Ideas and WSA Community were the Engagement Partners in the project with the aim of recruiting, training, and supporting local hosts to facilitate inclusive conversations within their communities. Hosts facilitated 101 community conversations despite the onset of Covid-19 requiring a rapid switch to online engagement only. Discussions spanned topics related to health and social care, allowing participants to share personal experiences and insights. Our role ensured that these conversations were conducted thoughtfully, capturing a wide range of perspectives to inform policy development.
Insights gathered were analysed to identify common themes and inform a Deliberative Dialogue process that identified practical solutions that reflect the lived experiences of people across the UK, demonstrating the importance of community engagement in policy-making and exemplifying our commitment to fostering meaningful participation.
“I want to thank Just Ideas for working alongside us and being such a key part of the team helping to deliver our Community Conversations. What you bring is so valued – your experience, calmness, your brilliant support and focus on detail.” Miriam Levin, CEO, Engage Britain
Community and resident led development
We support residents in communities to take control and be at the centre of decision-making on local services and priorities. In our work on the Big Local programme over the last ten years, we worked alongside resident-led partnerships in areas across England, supporting them to engage the community and invest £1 million in transforming their communities. We develop specific support for community development, responding to the changing context of the last five years, including the immediate responses to Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis.
Big Local Learning Clusters: Mental Health and Digital Inclusion
For Local Trust, we facilitated the Big Local Mental Health Learning Cluster in a series of seven workshops across 2021, with a final session hosted by Stoke North Big Local. Participants from 19 Big Locals increased their confidence talking about and exploring initiatives that will support mental health within their communities. A further Just Ideas team facilitated seven sessions with Big Local participants from 20 Big Locals building understanding of community approaches to engaging and supporting people in relation to digital inclusion.
At the beginning of the Cluster I realised we all had similar issues around digital inclusion and we were all sharing ideas and knowledge to make change. It’s been really good!
Community engagement events
With a wide range of consultation and engagement activities and approaches at our fingertips, we support organisations to put people at the centre of decision-making about their communities. We plan and deliver engagement events that enable people to participate creatively, with consideration for the different needs and strengths they may have. We are confident in facilitating engagement events online, in person and in a hybrid format.
Reading Climate Strategy workshop
Supporting the development of Reading Climate Action Network’s future strategy, we worked with our associates to plan and facilitated an energetic successful launch event with 160 participants from community, business and education across Reading. It engaged and inspired them to work with members of RCCP’s Board to define action plans for the development of Reading’s 3rd Climate Change Strategy. It was a great example of the strength of the Associate model – drawing in a number of facilitators to support the event, and local artists and activists.
It was an excellent event. I’m really pleased that we brought you in. You did a great job on the day… and all the prep before. I couldn’t have hoped for more: there was a great buzz and the groups started binding nicely.
Developing patient and public voice in health
Over the last ten years, we have developed and delivered training nationally and internationally to make sure that the voices of patients and people are at the heart of health service delivery. In partnership with WSA Community Consultants, we have worked with NHS England to develop and deliver Patient and Public Voice (PPV) partner training, and training for NHS staff to work effectively with people and communities.
NHS Patient and Public Voice Partner – Influence and Impact training
Working with our long term partner organisation – WSA Associates – we were commissioned by NHS England to deliver training which supports Patient and Public Voice (PPV) partners to grow their influence and impact in their role. PPV partners work within all parts of the NHS to aid the development and delivery of services across the healthcare system. Alongside this training we delivered ‘10 Steps to Working with People and Communities’ to support NHS staff working with communities wherever they were located.
The training that Just Ideas and WSA delivered evolved over time, including moving online in 2020. It was consistently well evaluated and enabled participants to connect with others in the role, as well as with NHS staff.
The PPV training has empowered me – made me realise I am not the only one. I put my armour on – I am unstoppable!