A substantial number of people you want to engage may experience barriers to getting involved. Some of these barriers are:-
Age related - children, young people and some older people will require innovative ways of engagement
Lack of understanding - of a different culture or religious custom
Jargon - all communications to the public should be in Plain English!
Rural remoteness - go out to them
IT - remember some people have no skills or access to a computer
Try doing a basic Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) to help you think about who might be affected by the issue for engagement, as well as if the method you intend using is appropriate. Identify what barriers might be experienced by people with the Protected Characteristics identified by the Equality Act 2010.
Check that what you are planning to do appropriately addresses the removal of barriers to involvement. Other barriers to public engagement are harder to overcome - such as cynicism and apathy of the public as well as contentedness with the current situation.
The original authors of this site were Essex County Council, Rochford District Council and Uttlesford District Council, and is now supported by the Essex Community Engagement Network. You are free to share, copy or adapt this work but you must attribute it to Essex Engagement Toolkit.
Images: Mass Ascension by a4gpa (Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons Licence), Pink Penstemons by aussiegall (Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons Licence), Tools In The Garage (1) by Viewoftheworld (Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons Licence.)