BBC Trust

Following a public consultation, the Trust has published Our Promise To You which sets out how we will engage with audiences:

How we arrived at Our Promise To You

The Trust conducted a public consultation between 14 May and 3 August 2007 to find the best ways to engage with licence fee payers.

The consultation included:

• A questionnaire on the BBC Trust website
• A questionnaire leaflet distributed to public libraries, BBC buildings, universities and other educational institutions, and at BBC events and programmes
• Quantitative research amongst 2,060 adults
• Qualitative research
• Meetings with a number of interest groups.

Response to the consultation

Three hundred and forty-six people responded to the consultation and a summary of their responses is provided below.

Also below are the responses of the BBC Trust's Audience Councils and of the Central Religious Advisory Committee (CRAC), the results of quantitative research commissioned by the Trust, qualitative research from a number of workshops, and reports of discussions with a number of interest groups.

Key findings

There were a number of key findings from the consultation and the commissioned research which have helped to shape Our Promise to You.

Overall, people expressed a low level of personal participation and interaction, both with the BBC and with other organisations. Fifteen per cent of people in the quantitative survey said they regularly shared their opinions, views and feedback with organisations. Only 8% have ever given feedback to the BBC. What participation there was tended to be at a local level on issues which affected everyday life such as local council services, schools, hospitals or utilities. When asked about specific Trust activities or decisions, only 6 to 14% of people surveyed said they would want to be personally involved in giving their views on each type of activity. However, in spite of this, most respondents felt that the BBC Trust, because of its role in representing the views of audiences, should provide as many opportunities as possible to encourage licence fee payers to get involved with the work of the Trust. They were largely supportive of the plans as outlined in the consultation document and 73% in the quantitative research agreed that it was important that people should have a say in the running of the BBC.

There was low awareness of the BBC Trust and its work: only 2% said they knew a lot about what the Trust did. Thirty-eight per cent of respondents had heard of the Trust. Respondents stated that they wanted to have a greater understanding of the Trust. This in turn would encourage participation in engagement. As a result one of the principles of engagement is to ensure "greater visibility for the work of the BBC Trust and, therefore, encourage the public to participate."

Respondents to the open consultation stated that taking part in engagement and consultations should require a minimum of effort on the part of the public, and therefore one of the principles of engagement is to ensure that methods of engagement "are practical, convenient and easy for those taking part."

People were clear that one of the key factors which would encourage them to engage with the Trust was that the Trust should be very open in all it does. This was particularly important when reporting back to the public. Therefore, one of the principles of engagement is to be "open and transparent, including reporting the outcomes of our engagement."

In terms of formal consultations the key issues raised were that all documents should be easy to read and, where possible, avoid jargon. Our Promise to You now states that:

"The consultation document will be written using plain language. We will use technical terms only where necessary."

Respondents also stressed that there should not be an over reliance on online methods as a means of responding to consultations. This was a view expressed particularly by those responding to the open consultation. In the quantitative research it was clear that different methods appealed to different people, supporting the use of a wide range of methods. This was a view echoed by the interest groups. Our Promise to You now says that hard copy consultation documents will be supplied to those requesting them.

There was a strong feeling in the qualitative research and the open consultation that there needed to be greater awareness of the BBC Trust's consultations. Most respondents said they were not aware of anyone they knew ever having been consulted. Our Promise to You now states:

"We will ensure that the consultation is well publicised so that people know when and how they can take part."

Respondents said that they only wanted to take part in a consultation if it was clear what might change as a result. Our Promise to You now states that "we will make the exact scope of the project clear at the start of the consultation".

There was a great deal of support in the qualitative research for the idea of Audience Councils. However, very few of those who took part in any element of the consultation knew about the councils and their work. The Trust will look at ways of raising awareness of the Audience Councils.

There was strong support for the Trust conducting research projects in order to hear from those who might not take part in open consultations. Respondents in the qualitative research recognised that research was a valuable way to reach people who might not otherwise make their voices heard. However, the findings of such projects should always be published. This is reflected in Our Promise to You.

In terms of other ways of letting people have their say, in both the research and the open consultations it was stressed that there should be many avenues, and the Trust should not simply rely on online methods. Our Promise to You now states:

"The BBC Trust aims to provide as many opportunities as possible for the pubic to have their say and to feed comments to the Trust. This will include using traditional methods as well as newer, interactive ways."

There was a degree of support for using interest groups to hear from a wider range of people. However, there was some suspicion that this might lead to a very small minority of the public being over represented. In the quantitative research, on balance respondents thought that the Trust should consult interest groups on an ad hoc basis where it is relevant, rather than having standing committees. Fifty-one per cent favoured an ad hoc solution, compared to 40% who favoured standing committees and 9% who did not know. This is reflected in Our Promise to You which states:

"We must ensure that we do not allow any single groups to dominate discussions about issues. And we will consider the views of these interest groups alongside that which we have learned from open consultation and research."

Next steps

The Trust will develop a series of measures to assess the effectiveness of its engagement work. It will report annually an assessment of its engagement work.

It will also review Our Promise to You regularly to ensure that it reflects new methods of engagement, and lessons learned in carrying out its engagement work

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