Joint Decision Making

Joint decision-making initiatives can increase wellbeing in a number of ways, when looking at interventions such as community involvement in urban renewal projects, co-production in public services and participatory budgeting.

As well as improving social and physical conditions, initiatives that involve meaningful participation from the community can improve relationships between people, connectivity, belonging, individual wellbeing, and mental health.

An initial scoping review identified some key gaps in our understanding of the relationships between power and wellbeing in a community setting.

In particular, we don’t know enough about what ‘meaningful’ involvement looks like and how any such involvement positively or negatively impacts on wellbeing outcomes.

Policy makers can remove barriers and provide assistance that enable and empower communities in decision-making, for them to initiate, design and deliver change for the benefit of community wellbeing.

Deliberate meaningful involvement can maximise the beneficial wellbeing impacts of community decisions and minimise any adverse impacts and inequalities resulting from ineffective involvement.

1. Communicate clearly and transparently

Create clear and transparent arrangements for partnership working.
Be open and realistic about what can and cannot be achieved, and about how long delivery may take.
Carry out good communication and monitoring, and provide feedback to participants on what has and has not been delivered. Share learning and examples of best practice.

2. Provide training and support

Provide training and ongoing support to community participants and staff from public agencies engaged in joint decision-making.

3. Develop organisational culture and commitment to empowering communities

Promote full commitment to partnership working at all levels of organisations and make it a responsibility for all.
Allow the community participants greater control over the ‘rules’ and processes of participation.
Trust the process of involvement and the ability of participants, and be prepared to relinquish control to communities.
Deliver the plans that communities help to develop.

4. Timing and accessibility of involvement

Involve communities from the start, so they are involved in all key decisions and to promote a sense of ownership.
Maintain involvement of both communities and public agencies throughout.
Identify and address barriers to communication and involvement for all participants (e.g. physical barriers; financial barriers; literacy, numeracy and language barriers; cultural barriers; barriers relating to caring responsibilities and time/availability to participate).
Allow community participants greater flexibility to engage.

5. Capturing learning from joint decision-making processes

There should be monitoring, measurement and evaluation of projects to include people’s experiences of the processes of joint decision making, as well as the health and wellbeing outcomes.

This will ensure that we cement learning and build a knowledge base of best practice in this area.

What’s happening?

The Community Wellbeing Evidence Programme, with the University of Liverpool, are carrying out a systematic review that is trying to locate evidence on the impacts of interventions that involve joint decision-making in communities.

What are they looking for?

The review team are interested in how interventions involving joint decision-making in communities impact on individual and community wellbeing. Interventions may include policies, plans, programmes or projects that are delivered within local communities. Impacts on wellbeing include (‘determinants’) the local physical and social conditions in which people live; and impacts on people’s health and wellbeing (‘outcomes’). Examples include effects on the provision and quality of local services, or the local built and natural environment; and people’s satisfaction with their local services, their local area, or their perceptions of their own health and wellbeing.