There are many different approaches to consulting with your beneficiaries. This page looks at why consultation is so important and how you can make sure the people who use your services are involved at all levels of decision-making. 

Why consultation is important 

If you don’t listen to your beneficiaries you are more likely to be doing things ineffectively or just downright wrong. This can lead to people being unhappy with your service and expressing this by not being involved with your organisation any more. It’s particularly bad where you are their only option – for example if you are the only community centre serving an area but you just aren’t providing what local people need and they have no way of making this known to you. 

By not consulting you will also be missing out on a wealth of knowledge and experience that can strengthen your organisation and its activities. 

How to consult 

There are lots of different ways to check in with your service users, and how you do this will depend on the following: 

• The specific needs of the people you want to hear from. For example, people who don’t have English as their first language may not want to fill in a form, and may prefer to chat to someone. 

• The sort of activities you run. For example, how you consult with the people attending a one-off Family Fun Day will be very different from consultation with members of a regular, long-term club. 

• Your resources, including time and people who can undertake this job. 

• A clear understanding of what you want to know. 

• A way of storing the information you gain safely and anonymously 

• A system for transmitting the results to your Trustees or Directors 

• A way of communicating the results to your beneficiaries – what changes have been made as a result of the consultation. 

Who to consult with 

The difference between an effective and an ineffective consultation often comes down to knowing your community and understanding how to reach them. 

Do you have a clear picture of who your community are? 

This doesn’t necessarily mean a geographical community but could be people brought together by common needs or ideas.  

It’s important to be clear about who you want to hear from – all your community members or a subset – young people, disabled people for example. 

Much of the time you’ll be consulting with people who are already using your services, but you should bear in mind the need to reach out to others, particularly those who are under-represented in your service users at the moment. Why aren’t they coming to you? Are there blocks you can remove or other changes you can make? 

Some standard ways to consult 

• Questionnaires 

• Volunteers chatting to beneficiaries 

• Advisory committee/group 

Disclaimer

We make every effort to ensure that our information is correct at the time of publication. 

This is only intended as a brief summary of relevant issues and information. Legal advice should be sought where appropriate. The inclusion of other organisations in this information does not imply any endorsement of independent bodies, they are just for signposting purposes.

Voscur is unable to accept liability for any loss or damage or inconvenience arising as a consequence of the use of this information.