“Everything we do is driven by our communities”: Inside Test Valley’s ground-breaking approach to community engagement
From giving residents a blank sheet to determine the council’s priorities, to making statutory consultation processes interactive and fun, Test Valley Borough Council is pushing the envelope on community engagement.
And it’s paying off. Councillors are braver and more effective. Senior managers are better leaders. There’s more consensus among residents. And the community’s voice now sits at the heart of everything the council does.
Adam Lent visited leader Phil North, chief executive Andy Ferrier, deputy chief executive Salena Mulhere and community engagement officer Imogen Colley to ask how – and why – they’re becoming a community-powered council.
Listen to their interview below or jump to interview highlights.
Interview highlights
On the shifting role of the councillor:
Andy: “Having worked in different councils across the country. If I’m reborn as a councillor, I’d really want to come to Test Valley because I know how frustrating it can be in other places for councillors who have got a democratic mandate, but they’re not on the executive. They can’t get anything done. I’ve seen some great young councillors come and go because they come in with great aspirations and they’re stymied by the bureaucracy, the administration. We lose great people to local government, and potentially great leaders in the future.
“Rather than saying come and join the old boys club, we’re saying to people, come and be a community activist. And by the way, it’s called being a councillor.
Andy Ferrier, chief executive, Test Valley Borough Council
“Rather than saying come and join the old boys club and sit on the committee, we’re saying to people, maybe much younger people, come and be a community activist. Change things in your community. And by the way, it’s called being a councillor. We’re putting the role of a councillor into a very different prism.”
Phil: “We all know the stats in terms of councillors – they’re usually older and male if you look across the country. I’m not saying that we completely buck that trend, but I think the work that we’ve done and this model has helped us recruit councillors from different backgrounds.”
On making place-based working business as usual:
Salena: “It’s not just the community’s team’s job or the councillor’s job. How we work is to ask ourselves what local people want and need and to engage with them. At every point, in everything we’re doing, we’re checking in with ourselves and saying, well actually, how do we know that that’s what that community needs? Are we engaging with them? It’s something that all of the management team and officers come together and do. People who work as diversely as HR to asset management and planning are understanding that everything we do comes from those conversations with the community.”
“It’s not just the community’s team’s job or the councillor’s job…People who work as diversely as HR to asset management and planning are understanding that everything we do comes from those conversations with the community.”
Salena Mulhere, deputy chief executive, Test Valley Borough Council
Andy: “We want to create a very modern form of leadership within the organisation – a sort of systems leadership where people are not relying upon hierarchical power. They’re relying upon their ability to collaborate and bring people together, facilitate knowledge exchange and bring the best out of their people. And we’ve not just bolted this onto the side of the organisation. Senior colleagues from across the organisation are involved in place-based working, leading project teams in various areas, because that’s the best way for them to learn about modern leadership.
“I often hear other authorities say we haven’t got the resources to be able to do what you’re doing in Test Valley. And I say it’s not about extra resources, it’s about the way you work, it’s a mindset and an approach.
“An officer led council might be something that politicians talk about a lot and recognise. I think we’ve moved to a more community led council.”
On the masterplanning process:
Phil: “People didn’t want another 1990s style, identikit town centre where we’re just trying to attract more chain businesses to come and invest because that’s never going to work. We have to do something fundamentally different. And that’s what people were telling us. They were telling us that they wanted to make the best use of the natural and built assets that we already have in our town.”
We’re bureaucrats of the council, politicians of the council, private developers. We don’t live the lives of people in our towns.”
Andy Ferrier, chief executive, Test Valley Borough Council
Andy: “If we hadn’t had the level of community engagement that we did, we would have ended up with a very safe plan. It wouldn’t have been something that would have delivered on the aspirations of our communities because we don’t live people’s lives – we’re bureaucrats of the council, politicians of the council, private developers. We don’t live the lives of people in our towns.”
Salena: “It comes from a position of asking people what their ambitions are for the town, as opposed to telling them what needs to happen to the town. From previous experiences, you quickly then get into ‘them and us’, ‘gentrification’, ‘old and new’. If you come in with a solution that you put on the table and say “what do you think?”, you’re asking people to take a view on something they weren’t involved in shaping. I defy anybody to not think about really engaging properly and meaningfully.”
On building consensus and getting beyond the usual voices:
Andy: “If somebody rings you up and says what’s your most important priority you haven’t got much time to really think it through. You come with an instant response. And it’s a flat response, there’s no dialogue or engagement. Whereas deliberative democracy takes it to the other end. You’ve got space, you’ve got time, you’ve got a chance to understand the data for that area. And then you’ve got an opportunity to hear from other people as well, that lived experience that others will bring to the table. And then you can come to a conclusion. It’s a really heartening process.
“I remember a story that one of our local parish councils told us about affordable housing. A lot of the people in that community were against the idea of an affordable housing scheme. One young, brave woman stood up in a in a very public meeting and said, actually I’m a member of this community and I’m in housing need. It flipped the audience. But you have to be very brave to stand up in a public meeting and do that. What we’re trying to create are the conditions where everybody can have a voice in this.”
There will be some people who have the confidence to go and stand up and give their views. But they’re often the ones that will shout the loudest.
Phil North, leader, Test Valley Borough Council
Phil: “If you organise a public meeting then there will be some people who have the confidence to go and stand up and give their views. But they’re often the ones that will shout the loudest. You’ve got to do things in a different way to understand the real aspirations of the community.”
On the nuts and bolts of the approach:
Imogen: “We had a pop up shop right in the middle of the town centre. It was a really blank slate to have a conversation right where people are as they’re going about their normal lives. It wasn’t just someone sat in a room with a clipboard. It’s been about actively being visible in that conversation and going out to those communities and saying, Hey, look, we’re here to talk to you and your voice is really important.
It wasn’t just someone sat in a room with a clipboard. It’s been about actively being visible in that conversation and going out to those communities.
Imogen Colley, community engagement officer, Test Valley Borough Council
“We had washing lines up on the walls where people could hang t-shirts in different colours to identify their priorities. We had houses that people put stick men into. We’re trying to make it as interactive as possible so people get the sense of actively contributing towards this, and it channelled a lot of cynicism that was coming into the room.”
On engaging with people in deprived communities:
Salena: “There’s an assumption that people from deprivation don’t want to be involved. It can be quite an easy and a lazy one to make. People that are working in, living in deprived circumstances have just as much aspiration for themselves, their kids and their community as anyone else. They don’t necessarily have the time or the loudest voice to get that across. The channels that are in place for them to be involved don’t work.
“That’s exactly why this is important because we are thinking about opportunities for people to engage where it suits them. It’s not come along to the council’s event, it’s meeting people at the local playground, when they’re going to church. It’s something that takes thought and planning, really trying to put yourself in the shoes of the people that you are looking to speak to. Because it stops that professionalisation and that assumption that we know best and we can work out what people need.”
Join our mailing list