Accountability and accessibility: prioritising stakeholder input

Our approach

The General Optical Council already had a Consultation Framework in place, which outlines how they consult, and the standards to which they hold themselves when they do so. They pride themselves on being open and accountable, and were looking for a tool that would help them uphold these principles in the best way.

They chose Citizen Space as the best platform for their online consultation activity. It has plenty of features that encourage openness and transparency - like response publishing, where responses from contributors who have consented to having their comments published can be displayed publicly for anyone to read; and the ‘We Asked, You Said, We Did’ page, where the consulting organisation posts a summary of the responses received and what actions were taken as a direct result of respondents’ views.

They also needed a tool that had in-built accessibility features. It was important that respondents who were visually impaired, or otherwise disabled, were able to access consultations as well. Citizen Space is fully integrated for use with screen readers, so that nobody is blocked from sharing their opinions.

The General Optical Council made use of these features in its largest consultation to date, ‘Fit for the Future’. They wanted stakeholder views on their Continuing Education and Training (CET) scheme. The CET scheme ensures that registrants have access to continued training and development, and also continue to be fit to practise.