For the past three years SE2 has helped us deliver our Healthy Homes Initiative. Their understanding of the issues around fuel poverty, ability to communicate clearly to different stakeholders and willingness to go that extra mile has contributed massively to the initiatives success and made them an ideal partner.
Steve Shaffelburg, Inner North West London PCTs
Keeping facilitation fresh
Stakeholder facilitation – or helping people have discussions and make decisions – is something we do a lot of at SE2. But like everything else, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and trot out the same processes and ideas over and over again. We were recently given an opportunity to try something a little bit different at Hounslow Council as part of their Warm Homes Healthy People Conference and so we thought we’d share.
It wasn’t anything particularly groundbreaking, but did require our client to let us try something more interactive than normal. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea – and of course it won’t be suitable in all situations – but it worked in this case, looked great and got everyone talking!
The conference was attended by frontline and voluntary sector staff to learn about fuel poverty (and what they can do about it) and to then discuss how affordable warmth provision could be better coordinated in Hounslow. As part of this, the council needed to understand what services were available to residents in the Borough – to develop a ‘map’ of what was out there.
And that’s exactly what we did. The Council printed a huge map of the Borough (3x4m) which we stuck on the wall in the meeting room. Delegates were then encouraged to fill in slips to give information about the service they provided or knew about, including information on who provided the service, where it was provided and who it was for. These were then stuck on the map for everyone to see.
The map made a great centre piece and gave everyone something to talk about in the break times. Providing a different way to record information also meant more delegates were able to share their ideas.
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