From consultations to coalitions: The Participation Team of 2030
In 2030, participation isn’t something you “do” to communities. It’s how change happens. It’s messy, joyful, political, creative. It doesn’t start with a survey or a sign-up form. It starts with what people are already doing — in WhatsApp groups, on doorsteps, in front rooms, food co-ops, repair cafés, youth jams.
The role of Participation isn’t to manage that energy. It’s to notice it, nourish it, and help it grow.
So let’s imagine what a corporate participation team could become if it fully embraced the energy at the edges.
And to say we are already experimenting with this ourselves!
👥 Participation in 2030: messy, magnetic, and deeply human
1. People shape the questions, not just answer them
In one health care authority, the Participation Team stopped writing pre-packaged engagement plans. Instead, they worked with local organisers to run “Question Clubs” — where residents shaped the questions they wanted answered about regeneration, transport, and public services.
The result? Better data, but more importantly, shared direction.
🔎 What changed?
Participation became a space for shared sense-making, not just extractive input.
2. Consultations start on the high street, not online
In 2030, a town centre is home to a “Pop-Up Civic Studio” — a playful, welcoming space where people can drop in, meet council staff, contribute to live projects, or design their own. There are prototypes on the walls, marker pens on the tables, and tea on tap.
🔎 What changed?
Participation became physical and relational, not just digital and formal.
3. Young people set the agenda
In one council, the Participation Team gave up writing “youth engagement strategies.” Instead, they set up a creative commissioning pot. Young people pitch and lead their own participation projects — from Minecraft-based urban planning to TikTok Q&As with decision-makers.
🔎 What changed?
Youth voice stopped being invited to the table — and started building their own.
4. People are paid to participate
In a combined authority, the Participation Team runs a People’s Practice Fund. Local residents are resourced and supported to host listening circles, co-design projects, and convene lived experience networks. Participation is treated as care work — and paid accordingly.
🔎 What changed?
Participation became valued labour, not volunteerism.
5. Insight becomes infrastructure
Instead of collecting feedback and filing it away, the Participation Team curates a living “Insight Commons” — a shared space where community insights, qualitative data, and lived experience are openly shared, connected and built on.
🔎 What changed?
Insight moved from PDFs to public platforms — co-owned and reused.
6. Radical listening is built into the system
Once a quarter, the Participation Team organises a “Civic Listening Day.” Council staff shadow community organisers, attend mutual aid meetings, and listen to those furthest from power. No facilitation. Just presence, reflection, and follow-up.
🔎 What changed?
Participation became a habit, not a project.
7. People know what changed — and how
At the end of every project, a “You Said, We Did, We Didn’t” week is held. The Participation Team works with local creatives to turn consultation results and decisions into posters, audio, zines, videos — and celebrates the wins and the tensions. It’s honest. It’s generous. It builds trust.
🔎 What changed?
Participation became an ongoing relationship, not a one-time transaction.
🧠 So what does a Participation Team do in 2030?
It doesn’t just run consultations. It builds:
- 🕸 Community-led infrastructures for dialogue
- 🔥 Coalitions for place-based change
- 🎨 Creative ways for people to share their lived experience
- 🤝 Spaces for trust to grow between institutions and people
- 📡 Channels to bring edge energy into centre-stage decision-making
- 📚 Shared insight that everyone can use
Participation isn’t the work of one team anymore. But the team still plays a vital role: holding the space, building the culture, and modelling the practice.
✨ Want to move toward this now?
Try one of these five edge-led experiments:
- 🎤 Start a Listening Log: Get your team to log 3 things they’ve heard from residents or staff each week. Share them with others.
- 🧪 Run a Participation Microfund: Offer £250–500 to residents or staff with an idea for better engagement. Support, don’t steer.
- 📣 Give people the mic: Instead of summarising what residents told you, give them space to speak directly via blogs, events, or social media takeovers.
- 🧭 Host a Strategy Jam: Co-create your team’s participation goals with people you’ve worked with — and ask where your blind spots are.
- 🧰 Build an Insight Commons: Collect and curate community feedback across projects in one place, then help others use it.
Final thought
Participation in 2030 doesn’t look like 100-page engagement reports and unread dashboards.
It looks like zines. WhatsApp groups. Walking workshops. Community-run podcasts. Cuppas in civic studios. Commissioning networks led by those closest to the challenge.
And behind it all? A Participation Team that’s not running everything — but gently weaving the threads together, amplifying what’s already happening, and holding space for a fairer, more collective future.
The edges are alive. Let’s go meet them there.
