Community Engagement Strategy
Council adopts Community Engagement Strategy
To make decisions that truly reflect our community’s needs, it’s vital to have open, genuine, and ongoing dialogue between Council and our residents and ratepayers.
At the Ordinary Council Meeting on 25 March 2025, Council officially adopted the Community Engagement Strategy, marking a significant step toward strengthening communication between Council and our community.
The strategy sets out clear principles and guidelines on how we engage with you and informs you of your opportunities and rights to be involved in Council’s decision-making process.
How we developed the strategy
In 2024, the strategy was placed on public exhibition for eight weeks, providing multiple opportunities for community feedback:
- It was presented to the community on over 20,000 occasions.
- 234 responses were received via our online survey.
- 402 residents undertook a 14-minute market research phone interview.
Workshops with Councillors then helped to refine the strategy even further to ensure it accurately reflects the community’s opinions.
What you told us
You said you want:
- more transparency and accessibility in development planning
- more inclusive spaces for youth
- stronger focus on accessibility for those with disabilities
- diverse representation in decision making
- more place-based engagement, ensuring local voices shape local decisions.
Each neighbourhood, town and community within the Central Coast has its own unique characters, challenges and aspirations. You want us to create opportunities for residents to learn and provide input on a wide range of plans and projects at the same time in one place – whether its parks, road projects or environmental initiatives. You also want multiple Council teams to come together to listen and collaborate with you in a meaningful way.
What you can expect from us
We’re committed to:
- utilising short, concise surveys whenever possible
- increasing face-to-face engagement activities
- promoting our engagement activities wider
- developing a First Nations Engagement Strategy
- making our communication clear, relevant and easy to understand
- ensuring engagement opportunities are accessible to everyone
- where possible and appropriate, undertaking place-based engagement.
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Having an engagement strategy is legislatively required for councils in NSW. The draft Strategy is guided by NSW Government legislation which requires each NSW council to develop and implement a four-year engagement strategy under the Local Government Act 1993. Now more than ever, our community is seeking better access to information and greater transparency in decision-making. To meet these needs, we are updating our understanding of how various groups across our diverse population prefer to engage with Council matters.
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Community engagement refers to how we engage with our community. The process commences with providing information to our customers and community, with the aim to seek and incorporate informed feedback to ensure we reach the best possible outcomes that benefit all stakeholders. Education is key to effective community engagement and decision-making. It also allows our community to make informed choices that maximise the services we deliver.
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Council’s previous Engagement Framework was developed using community feedback, best practices from other councils and levels of government and insights from the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2).
In 2017 and 2018, we held five ward-based community workshops, conducted surveys and gathered input from the Community Strategic Plan engagement. This extensive feedback provided a clear understanding of community preferences for engagement and consultation. After reviewing the feedback from the public exhibition, we finalised the strategy and presented a report for Council's consideration at the 26 March 2018 Council Meeting. Council received the report and implemented improvements to the Engagement Framework.
Since its adoption, the Framework has been supported by an Internal Engagement Improvement Plan to drive improvement and capability. The Improvement Plan has been continuously reviewed in 2019, 2021 and 2022 to adjust to changing community and organisational needs. The Improvement Plan and our community’s ongoing feedback have driven improvements to the Framework, resulting in the development of the draft Community Engagement Strategy.
The methods used for external consultation and feedback have included:
• 2018: Five workshops and an online survey; results reported to Council in March 2018
• 2020: Customer satisfaction survey
• Ongoing: Evaluations from the “Let’s Talk” initiative
• 2024: Community wellbeing survey, including questions on engagement
• July/August 2024: Public exhibition, market research, and targeted stakeholder
engagement.