Where to from here?

Future direction for the public sector

Queensland Government is at the forefront of developing and implementing new mechanisms for connecting with citizens and communities. The challenge for government agencies now is to establish systems across government that support and foster community involvement in government planning and decision making, and to ensure the results of engagement activities genuinely feed into government processes.

Support for current government and agency planning and policy development models is required to achieve a shift towards more participatory and inclusive processes.

It is imperative that there is increased understanding and support of the government's commitment to community engagement at the Parliament, executive government and agency management levels. This will provide a foundation for the organisational development and cultural change necessary to support improved community engagement practices.

The review of the Community Engagement Improvement Strategy, undertaken in 2005, identifies benefits in pursuing:

• a systems approach that continues to embed community engagement across the public sector
• growing and broadening a network of community engagement practitioners and forming partnerships with local government, the tertiary sector, business and nongovernment sectors
• building the capacity of the broader community.