3.2 Where should you engage with policy-makers?

Politicians, civil servants and lobbyists are busy people, and there will be others competing for their attention. Make sure that engagement activities are convenient for your policy audience, and build funding for this into your project budget. Videoconferencing might be an appropriate solution if your policy audience’s place of work is a long distance from yours – the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions have shown just how valuable and versatile this form of engagement can be.

If you set up engagement exercises such as policy workshops or community events, it is important to make sure that it is easy for policy-makers to attend. Not all policy-makers can devote a whole day to a meeting, and they may not be used to academic workshop formats with Post-it notes and presentations (Rose and Jarvis, 2020). You could consider what the relative advantage of engagement is for policy-makers and cover costs.

Engaging with local rather than national governments could mean that it becomes easier to establish links with a variety of local stakeholders and organisations, simply by virtue of proximity. Local engagement can also allow you to see how policies are implemented on the ground, providing links with the people affected (IfG, 2020).

Trust is key to influencing policy. Having a strong presence on relevant social media channels and capitalising on opportunities as they emerge can help to build trust and reputation. Policy events are sometimes live-streamed and can have dedicated Twitter hashtags, allowing you to follow and engage with the debate regardless of your location. They can also be recorded, with the videos later released on social media. So even if you are unable to attend, you can still follow the meeting (although not engage in the initial debate within the meeting).