Managing hundreds of consultations from foster carer training to waste recycling policy
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The challenge
East Sussex County Council had a well-established internal process for consultation – but the team were frustrated with the unwieldy software required to take their activity online. The Council had established a comprehensive and effective 8 step process for running consultations. This was tried, tested and popular with staff who operated it.
However, the Council's tools for online consultation were proving frustrating and inefficient. They set out to find a more up-to-date, user-friendly platform that was geared towards online public consultation.
The approach
After carefully considering several options, East Sussex switched to Citizen Space, citing its ease of use and flexibility as key reasons behind the decision. The platform was adopted quickly and seamlessly across the council, complementing existing consultation processes whilst enabling effective collaboration.
The council made extensive use of features like the ability to clone surveys, allowing them to quickly roll out large numbers of high quality consultations. They integrated Citizen Space with their existing processes, ensuring a seamless publishing workflow between colleagues across different service areas.
The results
Since switching to Citizen Space, the council has noted a marked decrease in the number of help requests from colleagues setting up consultations. The platform's usability and integration with existing processes has saved considerable time and effort.
East Sussex runs a diverse programme of engagement through Citizen Space, demonstrating the platform's flexibility across different scales and types of consultation:
Major infrastructure and policy consultations including the household waste recycling sites booking system (5,992 responses), the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (addressing strategy, infrastructure delivery and safety concerns), and the Exceat Replacement Bridge Project (over 1,000 responses, with 79% in favour of replacing the bridge).
Health and social care engagement such as the health-related behaviour change service consultation, the LGBTQ+ joint strategic needs assessment, specialist sexual health services consultation, and the SEND survey, all informing service design and commissioning priorities.
Targeted service user surveys including the foster carer training survey (64 responses) which led to concrete changes like increased online training, more evening and weekend options, and monthly responsive webinars, plus changes to how experienced carers are supported.
Community and local consultations covering everything from play park improvements (with the Langlee consultation receiving 138 responses that directly shaped equipment installed in July 2024) to school admission arrangements and town centre pedestrian improvements.
Smaller, focused consultations on specific local issues like tree removal decisions and facility changes, ensuring even decisions affecting small numbers of people receive proper consultation.
The council's consistent "We asked, you said, we did" approach demonstrates how they close the loop with residents, showing clear outcomes from each consultation. For example, annual safer schools surveys receive over 10,000 responses, all managed efficiently through the platform.
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Citizen Space has complemented and worked seamlessly within existing processes and helps ensure a seamless publishing process between colleagues.
Delib is a govtech leader specialising in consultation and engagement, trusted by over 600 government organisations worldwide, including major planning projects. Since 2004, we've been building secure, accessible digital platforms to make participation simpler, fairer, and more inclusive. Our flagship product, Citizen Space, was built in collaboration with the UK government and has supported more than 11 million responses across over 110,000 democratic activities.