Page 30 - WCEN Dr Rochelle Burgess evaluation report\ Baloon

Previous government agendas and policies have often required statutory agencies to engage with the
community, however at times this has been carried out in tokenistic ways, usually only requiring nominal
or instrumental participation from community members. The relationship between the statutory agencies
and community groups in the context of WCEN has historically been characterized by viewing the
community as targets or ‘objects’ as opposed to assets; as a result, engagement with communities
has included tick-box exercises or consultative forums. In the interviews and focus group with the
statutory agencies, it was evident that some key stakeholders had shifted the ways in which they viewed
the community, its assets and the possibilities and benefits of engagement and involvement.

A shift in ideas was evident in relation to the valuing of communities views and how these can best
inform the way services are designed and delivered, as opposed to decisions being made by
professionals for them.

‘…I mean I’ve had meetings with the Somali women’s association and a lot of the issues that I
talked about with the Somalis came up there and understanding of, that they are, what they
want, what they need, whether it’s people at the temple or the mosque or wherever… - statutory
agencies interview- male

A member of the Public Health team, who identified that it was not beneficial to ‘push’ an agenda onto
a community but instead to develop relations of trust and ‘vibrancy’ in order to identify and reach shared
goals, echoed this view.

Generally, there was recognition that the community have assets that the statutory services do not, it
was expressed that the community have various forms of knowledge and skills that are crucial for health
care decision-making:

‘That’s why it’s really important that we work with community groups so that you can break down
the barriers, because the community group knows the people that they work with.' - Statutory
agencies interview- female

Reframing the community in this way allows the community to be considered as active as opposed to
passive recipients of imposed decisions and agendas.

There was a common view amongst interviewees that working with community has multiple benefits.
In one interview, with a strategic manager, it was expressed that engaging with the community enabled
them to think differently about service design and delivery.

‘so the network’s really important in helping us think differently and also how we then change
and deliver our services differently, so different types of people still get the same benefits, it’s
that recognition, you can’t do it the same way for everybody, yes, so I think that’s where it’s really
really powerful and helpful, yes.‘ - Statutory agencies interview- female

A senior manager from the statutory agencies also discussed the benefits of working with the community
and how they can deliver aspects of health care that the statutory agencies do not have the skills or
social-capital to do.

‘I think they’ve done more than we could ever do as a statutory agency, because they’re able
to talk and just, you see people giving, you go into the church there and there’s people
standing saying this is good for your mental health, people listen. If I say it well, yeah you
would say that because you’re from that lot over there, so I think that’s a really big thing.’ -
Statutory agencies interview- male

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