Ealing Council's innovative approach to community engagement, known as Your Voice Your Town (YVYT), has exceeded initial expectations, according to a value for money report presented on Tuesday, 22 July 2025.

The Public Reports Pack detailed the success of the YVYT consultancy, which aimed to establish town forums across the borough's seven towns, empowering local communities to set spending priorities. New Local was selected as the consultant partner, and the results have surpassed the targets outlined in the Request for Quotation (RFQ). These targets included producing methodologies to engage with councillors, stakeholders and local people to shape a vision for a Town Forum for each of Ealing's seven towns. The actual output saw engagement from over 1,500 residents who shared their views on local improvement needs, achieved through holding 32 in person events across all 7 towns (pop ups, workshops, cultural activities, working with local schools etc), bespoke Your Voice Your Town conversation cafés and running digital surveys.

The report highlighted that the engagement methodology fostered deep and extensive conversations, leading to the Communities in the Lead model. During engagement events, residents were asked about desired local improvements and how they could be achieved. They then voted on a shortlist of top priorities generated through the 'Your Voice, Your Town' engagement events.

Key achievements include:

  • Collating nearly 500 responses from a digital survey.
  • Conducting interviews with councillors, community organisations, and officers.
  • Facilitating community workshops across seven towns, resulting in 600 interactions across 32 events.
  • Holding six YVYT conversation cafés over four weeks, engaging with over 200 people.
  • Producing case studies and video content focused on lessons from local democratic innovation from across the UK and internationally.
  • Delivering training to members, officers, and VCSF organisations. Workshops were also delivered to members on the Communities in the lead model- 1) Journey of Listening, 2) ladder of engagement, power and privilege. Bespoke one to one sessions were held with VCFS organisations.

A significant outcome was the engagement of many residents who had not previously participated in council initiatives through ward forums.

The YVYT VFM Scrutiny Report also noted that the Equalities and Engagement team is now equipped to deliver Phase 3 of YVYT, focusing on setting up Town Teams and establishing governance structures to deliver projects aligned with resident priorities. Over 100 individuals have registered to join one of the Town Teams as part of our Your Voice, Your Role strategy.