Spatial Development Strategy Engagement, LCRCA

Our successful completed projects

THE CLIENT

Liverpool City Region Combined Authorities (LCRCA) Engagement Team

February, 2024

The Project Background & Objective

The Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) Spatial Development Strategy (SDS) outlines a 15-year plan for land development in six local authorities of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens, and Wirral. GraceHola Ltd was commissioned by LCRCA in January 2024 to gather feedback on the SDS from up to 100 Citizens from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, Citizens without specialist knowledge of or particular interest in the theme of planning, and Citizens from less affluent communities.

Between 20th January and 11th February 2024, Citizens were successfully engaged by GraceHola Ltd. The findings from the engagement aims to positively contribute to the next development of the SDS, ensuring alignment with the needs of the local populations.

The key Project Challenges that We Overcome

Community engagement plays a crucial role in ensuring that the SDS aligns with the aspirations and requirements of the local population, ultimately contributing to more inclusive, responsive, and successful land development in the LCRCA. The engagement of the targeted citizens was very important on the development of the SDS for the next 15 years in the region. This is to help overcome key challenges including:

Inclusivity of citizens from diverse backgrounds to ensures that the SDS reflects the needs and perspectives of all community members, including those from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, individuals without specialised knowledge in planning, and those from less affluent communities.
Representativeness of voices and ensuring that the voices from various demographics are heard and considered in the development of the SDS.
Community buy-in for a sense of ownership and to help support active participation in the implementation of the strategy.
Addressing regional specific needs, priorities, and challenges faced by different segments of the population

We encountered and overcame the following challenges:

Adhering to a stringent timeline, necessitating efficient time management and coordination;
Pinpointing and effectively engaging the target audience, ensuring inclusivity and representation; and
Presenting the SDS to the audience in an engaging and interactive manner, and capturing their feedback.

The Project Activities & Outcomes

The actions we took to ensure that we performed to an exceptional standard are as follows:

Project Management Support:

We worked positively with the LCRCA Engagement team to agree on project objectives, scope, budget, timeline, expected outcomes, and evaluation criteria;
We worked collaboratively with and leverage our existing community links working with the target audience;
Maintained effective communication and transparency.
We positively managed all identified risks and issues to ensure successful outcomes; and
We developed and submitted engagement report to LCRCA Engagement team inline with agreed timeline.

Event Planning & Organisation:

We worked to identify existing events with target audience in attendance for engagement sessions;
We planned and organised online sessions where face-to-face sessions were not possible;
We worked collaboratively with the LCRCA Engagement team to create online survey for capturing the feedback from the target audience.

Stakeholders Engagement:

We identified key stakeholders and partners for the project, and we engaged them positively throughout;
We worked to identify and implement engagement methodology that suit each stakeholder to ensure participation. This includes face-to-face, focus groups, surveys, and online platforms e.g. Zoom & Teams; and
14 organisations and groups as listed below were successfully engaged with positive outcomes:
- Overseas fellowship of Nigerian Christian (OFNC), Liverpool, Inspiring Women Network Wirral, Voluntary, Community, & Faith Collaboration Wirral, Liverpool Commonwealth Association, Pentecost Baptist Church Liverpool, Energise Cycles, Birkenhead Wirral, Jubilee Church Wirral, Wirral Islamic Cultural Centre & Shahjalal Mosque, Lucky’s Café Plus Birkenhead Wirral, The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Love Assembly Liverpool, RCCG Dominion Parish Liverpool, Merseyside Yoruba Community Association (MYCA), Wirral Multicultural Organisation (WMO) and Winners Chapel International Liverpool.

We recorded positive outcomes and project objectives were achieved.

Project delivered on time and within budget;
Over 600 of the targeted citizens across 14 organisations and groups were actively informed and engaged with 100% of them not previously aware of the strategy;
Feedback was gathered from 174 participants regarding eight (8) out of the twenty six (26) policies;
More than 50% of the 174 participants actively participated in focused group discussions; and
14 organisations and groups were positively engaged, achieving better outcomes.

TESTIMONIALS

What our client says about us

…it really is a considerable piece of work you’ve provided us with lots of insight we would have struggled to obtain ourselves. Thank you for all you have done with this commission!