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Part 2.1 Key Areas of Skills, Knowledge and Practice

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  1. Introduction
  2. How to use this section
  3. Areas of Knowledge, Skills and practice

Part 2.1 of the PEP Capabilities Framework looks at the knowledge, skills and practices that underpin effective public engagement professional practice.

updated on 08 Sep 2026
4 minutes read

Introduction

This section describes the knowledge, skills and practices that underpin effective public engagement professional practice. Organised across six capability areas, it provides an overview of the breadth of expertise required to support, enable and embed high-quality public engagement.

Rather than assessing performance, this section is designed to help you explore the capabilities of the profession and consider how they relate to your own role, experience and aspirations.

 

How to use this section

As you work through each capability area, identify and note down:

  • The knowledge, skills and practices that you or your team can demonstrate with confidence
  • Specific examples that illustrate how these capabilities are applied in practice, drawing on your day-to-day work, projects, partnerships and achievements.
  • Areas where your experience is limited or where further development would be beneficial.

By the end of this section, you should have a clear picture of your/your team’s current capability profile, including key strengths and potential areas for growth. 

Keep your notes and examples, as you will use them in part 2.2 to assess the maturity of these capabilities and identify opportunities to further develop your practice.

Areas of Knowledge, Skills and practice

Engagement Design, Facilitation & Co creation

Craft of public engagement

Knowledge
  • Participatory and deliberative methods; co design/ co creation
  • Group dynamics; psychological safety; trauma informed facilitation
  • Inclusive communication and accessible design.   

 

Skills
  • Designs to purpose and audience; tests assumptions with users/partners
  • Facilitates diverse groups; manages challenge; keeps focus on purpose
  • Adapts in the moment (pace, method, media); practices equitable participation
  • Co creates plans, artefacts and decisions with publics and researchers.    

 

Practices
  • Begins with shared agreements; rotates voice; names and handles bias in real time
  • Uses plain language; visualises ideas; captures and plays back the group’s thinking
  • Plans closure: ‘what happens next, who owns it, and how is value shared’
     

Related Personas: Facilitator, Partnership Builder, Tactician

Ethics, Inclusion, Duty of Care & Quality

Doing engagement well, safely and ethically

Knowledge
  • EDI frameworks; accessibility standards; safeguarding; risk; data governance (GDPR/FOI)
  • Ethical co production; consent; moral rights; attribution; fair benefit sharing
  • Quality assurance in engagement services and events    

 

Skills
  • Designs inclusive, proportionate, ethical engagement (methods, materials, venues)
  • Runs ethical checks; mitigates risk; escalates concerns; records decisions
    Applies accessibility from first principles (communication, venue, digital, process)
  • Builds simple QA loops (pre mortems, checklists, debriefs)    

 

Practices
  • Names power dynamics; invites critique; adjusts plans when equity is impacted
  • Documents consent and data practices clearly; maintains auditable trails
  • Foregrounds participant safety, dignity and care in all logistics
     

Related Personas: Ethics guardian, Partnership builder, facilitator

Evidence, Evaluation, Learning

Learning and evidence to improve engagement and demonstrate value

 

Knowledge
  • Evaluation designs (logic models, contribution/Outcome Harvesting, qualitative/quantitative basics)
  • Indicators for engagement quality, reach, outcomes and impact

  • Knowledge sharing: synthesis, translation, products, routes to uptake.

     

Skills  
  • Co defines success criteria; designs proportionate evaluation
  • Collects, analyses and synthesises data ethically; visualises findings
  • Builds learning loops (after action reviews, retrospectives, learning briefs)

  • Produces usable outputs (cases, playbooks, data stories); shares insights to change practice.

     

Practices 
  • Tests what matters, not just what’s measurable; is explicit about uncertainty
  • Shares ‘warts and all’ learning; credits contributors; stores artefacts accessibly
  • Uses insight to stop/scale/shift decisions, not just for reporting.
     

Related personas: Evidence translator, systems enabler, tactician

Strategic Insight, Governance & Culture Change

Setting direction and influencing culture

Knowledge
  • Strategy and governance
  • External drivers
  • Strategy tools

  • Change models    

     

Skills
  • Aligns PE to institutional mission
  • Conducts horizon scanning; interprets signals; triages/prioritises opportunities
  • Frames compelling narratives for PE; advocates with evidence
  • Designs and leads culture change interventions; builds coalitions; ‘manages up’

  • Translates strategy into roadmaps, KPIs and resourcing asks.

     

Practices
  • Surfaces trade offs transparently; names risks early; keeps stakeholders informed
  • Creates psychological safety for honest discussion and course correction
  • Contributes to organisational policy design and change
  • Centres public value when choices compete; documents decisions and learning
     

Related Personas: Strategist, systems enabler, evidence translator

Operational Delivery, Comms & Service Design

Enabling professional practice

 

Knowledge
  • Project/programme management; risk; budgeting; procurement; event logistics
  • User centred service design; process improvement; service standards
    Digital and print communications theory; narrative; channel strategy; digital accessibility
  • Communicating the value and impact of public engagement through evidence, stories and case studies

  • Adult learning; training design; communities of practice.

     

Skills
  • Plans and delivers programmes/events safely; manages suppliers and budgets
  • Designs/iterates services and workflows; sets SLAs; monitors quality
  • Crafts communication plans; creates inclusive content; analyses engagement data
  • Develops compelling narratives that communicate the value of public engagement to different audiences
  • Creates clear digital pathways that enable participation, feedback, learning and ongoing engagement
  • Builds capability (training, mentoring); convenes communities of practice.   

 

Practices
  • Uses checklists and risk logs; anticipates pinch points; escalates early
  • Communicates with consistency; briefs spokespeople; closes projects with a documented handover
  • Shares assets and learning; invites the community to improve services
  • Uses evidence and stories to make public engagement visible and valued
  • Creates opportunities for dialogue, feedback and learning through communications and digital channels
  • Publishes clear routes into engagement and encourages ongoing participation.
     

Related Personas: Systems enabler, ethics guardian, research translator

Continue exploring the framework

Go back to the main page or move onto part 2.2.