Toolkits

The NCCPE are currently developing two toolkits to support people to engage the public in their work. We have appointed Involve to help us to develop these resources, and manage an effective consultation process to help ensure that the toolkits have relevance to the sector.

We are planning to launch these toolkits at our National Conference in December. However, we anticipate that the toolkits will continue to grow over time - as others contribute their content. How this will be managed is part of our consultation exercise. 

Senior Managers' Toolkit

The Senior Managers Toolkit is for university staff who have responsibility for managing and supporting staff. It is based on the Public Engagement Framework. The toolkit will be offered as an online tool that will inspire and support senior managers to explore how engagement is currently supported in their institution and explore ways of integrating it more fully.

The tool will be based around nine focal points for embedding engagement: Mission, Leadership, Communication, Staff, Students, Public, Support, Reward and Learning. These areas will be illustrated with case studies, and examples of how other insititutions have worked in these areas to embedd a culture of engagement.

Practitioners' Toolkit

Our practitioners' toolkit will replace our current resources section. It will be an online database of content designed to support university staff who want to develop their own public engagement work. Content will include:

• Methods: Short introductions to different public engagement techniques
• Guides: Introductions to generic skills and knowledge for public engagement
• Case studies: Examples of public engagement projects written by practitioners
• Profiles of People: describing individuals at a range of stages of the their engagement career, and the ways that they have engaged the public in their work
• Resources: Links to funding opportunties and training

There will be multiple entry points to this content - and where possible we will signpost people to existing resources.

Consultation

We ran an extensive consultation on the two toolkits which have helped us refine our thinking. We have published the first consultation report and will publish the final one in the next few weeks. We are now developing the resources which will be launched at our conference on 7/8 December 2010.

Content

The toolkits will only be as good as the content we have within them. We are currently looking for case studies in the following areas:

• Organisational change stories around embedding engagement in a university or research institute
• Public engagement case studies showcasing different types of engagement activity
• People Profiles highlighting individual stories of people at different stages in their engagement career.

If you would like to contribute a content please contact Sophie Duncan.