Community OSDocs

DocsConsultations

Run a community consultation

Publish a question to the community, collect responses, group them by theme, and share what you learned.

GuideConsultationsAdminCoordinator

Purpose

A consultation asks the community what it thinks about an issue before a decision is made. This guide shows you how to run a consultation from start to finish: publish the question, collect responses, group the answers into themes, and share the outcome.

Who this is for

This guide is for administrators and coordinators who need to gather the community's views on a topic.

What you need

  • A clear question or set of questions for the community.
  • A sponsoring organisation.
  • A closing date for responses.
  • Access to the Consultations menu.

What you will do

  1. Create the consultation.
  2. Add the questions.
  3. Publish it so people can respond.
  4. Collect responses.
  5. Group responses into themes.
  6. Share the outcome.

Instructions

  1. Open the Consultations menu from the main navigation.
  2. Select New consultation.
  3. Enter the topic in the Title field.
  4. Select the sponsoring organisation in the Sponsor field.
  5. Set the Closing date so people know when to respond.
  6. Add your questions in the Questions field.
  7. Select Save.

To collect responses:

  1. Share the consultation link with the community.
  2. People open the public response form and answer the questions.
  3. A person can choose to respond anonymously.
  4. Responses appear in the consultation record as they arrive.

To group responses into themes:

  1. Open the consultation record.
  2. Review the responses.
  3. Group similar answers under a theme, such as "Transport" or "Accessibility".
  4. The theme summary shows how many responses support each theme.
  5. Add key quotes to illustrate each theme.

To share the outcome:

  1. Open the consultation record.
  2. Select Edit.
  3. Write a plain-language summary in the Outcome field.
  4. Select Save.
  5. Tell the community the outcome is published.

What happens next

The consultation shows a closing date, the themes that emerged, and the outcome. People can see that their views were heard and what the community decided. The outcome can feed into reports and future planning.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting
ProblemWhat to do
Nobody has responded yetCheck the closing date has not passed and share the link again.
Responses look duplicatedCheck the response list for the same person answering twice and keep the most complete one.
The closing date passedOpen the consultation and decide whether to extend the date or close it.
You need to correct the outcomeOpen the consultation, select Edit, update the Outcome field, and select Save.