Consultations and Engagement Activities

About Consultation Surveys

Lots of organisations that influence our lives gather feedback from people before they make big decisions. Sometimes they are required to do this by law.

Consultation Surveys are often used by organisations to gather people’s views. Consultation surveys are a set of questions about a topic of interest. There is usually some information on the topic given before the questions are asked, and sometimes there is an additional document, or set of documents, that you can read before you answer the questions.

Your Voice

The local authority, Buckinghamshire Council, have lots of consultation surveys open to be answered at any one time.
There is a website called Your Voice which is shared between the Council and other organisations. This is where the Council hosts its Consultation Surveys. There are also surveys on Your Voice that come from other organisations.

Go to the Your Voice Consultation Survey Portal

Young people over the age of 13 are welcome to answer any survey on Your Voice. Young people aged 12 and under should answer the questions with a parent/carer. This is due to laws on collecting and processing people’s data.

Consultation Surveys on the Your Voice Portal

At the moment, the following Consultation Surveys are live on the Your Voice portal, and Buckinghamshire Council would particularly like young people to answer them.

Community Safety Consultation

Community safety survey 2022: How can we make Buckinghamshire safer?
Closes 30 October 2022

Community Safety Consultation

Money Matters Consultation

Money Matters: Have your say on Buckinghamshire Council’s spending priorities for 2023/24
Closes 20 November 2022

Money Matters Consultation

Other Consultation Surveys

Chiltern and South Bucks (CSB) Policing Issues Forum

The Chiltern & South Bucks Policing Issues Forum encourages all residents to have a say in creating a resilient, safe community.
The Chiltern and South Bucks Policing Issues consultation webpage highlights consultations from Thames Valley Police, Buckinghamshire Council and others.
The Forum is currently running a Survey of Residents’ Concerns

Survey of Residents’ Concerns

Closes 30 October 2022

CSB Policing Issues Forum – poster

The poster says:

Your opportunity to shape neighbourhood policing! Please tell us what you think via the Survey of Residents’ Concerns.

Survey of Residents’ Concerns

Survey currently open. Sunday 30th October – Survey Closes. Thursday 3rd November 6.30pm – Forum meeting, all welcome. Chesham Town Hall, Chesham, HP5 1DS, and via Zoom. Neighbourhood Policing focus areas and survey comments communicated to Thames Valley Police.

#NotJustAnotherSurvey

Tips for answering Consultation Surveys

Take your time

You will have plenty of time to answer the survey, so don’t feel you have to rush. If you add your email address, you can even save your answers and come back to them on another day. (If you do this, just make sure you return to the survey and submit it before the survey’s closing date.)

If you don’t understand something, ask

If a question doesn’t make sense or you don’t understand the information, ask somebody.
Each survey includes a contact email address at the top of the page. You can email them to ask a question. If you are struggling, feel free to contact us at YouthVoiceBucks@Buckinghamshire.gov.uk, and we will make sure you get the help you need.
You could also ask for help from a parent/carer, or a teacher.
It is the job of the person who made the survey to make the questions as accessible as possible. It’s not your fault if you don’t understand something.

Write things in the text boxes

If you feel passionately about something, write about it in the text boxes provided. You can explain why you chose a certain option, give an example of why the topic is important to you, or even give feedback on the survey questions.

Search for activities near you

The Your Voice portal has an option to search for consultation and engagement activities near you. Just click “Find Activities” at the top of the page, and type your postcode or area name into the box.

Hearing back

You can usually provide your email address when you fill in a consultation survey so that you can be emailed an update on the outcome of the consultation.

Please be mindful that it often takes a long time for survey responses to be fully analysed, for decisions to be made, and for a survey outcome to be sent out, so you might not hear back for a while. It is also important to remember that surveys are often answered by lots of people, so the outcome may not reflect the views you provide.

If you have any trouble hearing back or understanding a consultation outcome, please feel free to get in touch with Youth Voice Bucks.

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