The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy March 2014

The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______

Introduction

Our eight Royal Parks are among important habitats for wildlife, the most visited attractions in the listed monuments and buildings and UK. These world-class landscapes lakes and ponds. This includes the attract around 40m visitors per eight Royal Parks (, The annum. For some, particularly those , , Hyde from outside and the UK, it Park, , The is their first visit to a Royal Park. Regent’s Park and , Others may visit regularly during the and St James’s Park). week, whether as part of their daily We also manage Victoria Tower commute, to enjoy the fresh air and Gardens, , natural beauty on their own or with Grosvenor Square Garden and the their families, or as a meeting place gardens of 10, 11 and 12 Downing for friends. Many enjoy our parks’ Street. Whatever their reason for recreational facilities, from boating coming, all visitors have an interest on the Serpentine to the Diana in the parks. Because of our prime Memorial Playground, from a simple locations, our guardianship of these jog in Bushy Park to organised historic parks, our governance and sports at the Hub in The Regent’s funding arrangements and the Park, London’s largest outdoor central role we play in London and sports facility. And others enjoy the British life, there are many other range of events we host, from organisations, groups and summer concerts in the open air to individuals that have an interest in Winter Wonderland. the Royal Parks.

The Royal Parks is responsible for Managing the Royal Parks is all managing and conserving over about balancing our responsibility 5,000 acres of historic parkland to protect and conserve the parks across London, including valuable and their unique habitats, with conservation areas, 170,000 trees, creative policies and activities to

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______encourage wider access and feedback and continue to welcome enjoyment, and ensuring we can this at any time. In this final Strategy secure sufficient funding to enable we are updating progress on the us to continue to maintain the parks five key commitments. to high standards against the backdrop of declining Government This Strategy sets out our vision for funding. stakeholder engagement and provides a framework to enable us We recognise that with the range of to better plan, deliver and monitor challenges we face, the continued the effectiveness of our support and contribution of our engagement. It has the support of stakeholders is essential. In The Royal Parks Board, which has a December 2013, we published our specific remit around the Interim Stakeholder Strategy. We involvement of stakeholders. are grateful for stakeholder

Vision and Objectives for the Strategy

Our vision for stakeholder Government funding has been engagement is: significantly reduced, limiting our resources. As a result, we cannot “To maintain and enhance the trust simply do more engagement, but and confidence of the public, and to need to engage more effectively, build understanding and support for better coordinating and targeting the delivery of our objectives.” our activity. And as more people experience our parks every year, we This Strategy sets the direction for want to engage with a wider, more how we will engage, not simply as a diverse stakeholder audience, process, but by continuing to including through new and different embed stakeholder engagement channels. The Strategy commits us into our culture and activities. As to being more transparent, with other public sector bodies, our publishing an annual summary of

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______our stakeholder engagement. 4. To be a centre of professional Finally, it helps us to communicate a excellence where people want to more consistent message, raising work. awareness about the role of The Royal Parks and building support for Objective two is a specific corporate the delivery of our objectives. objective around stakeholder engagement. The Key Performance We have four corporate objectives, Target against which that objective which shape our strategic direction will be measured for 2013/14 is: and operations over the period of the current Comprehensive “Publish an interim stakeholder Spending Review through to strategy by October 2013, tested 2015/16: against market research by March 2014.” 1. To conserve and enhance sustainably, for the enjoyment of Delivery of the commitments in this this and future generations, our Strategy is enshrined as a Key world class natural and built historic Performance Target for 2014/15: environment and our biodiversity. “Implement, monitor and evaluate 2. To engage with our visitors, The Royal Parks Stakeholder stakeholders and partner Engagement Strategy by March organisations, and understand their 2015.” views. We have developed some key 3. To manage the parks efficiently principles of stakeholder and secure investment in the parks' engagement to underpin our vision assets and services through an appropriate combination of Government funding, commercial income and philanthropy.

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______

Key principles of Stakeholder Engagement

To seek, listen to and consider a To carry out fair, open and diverse range of stakeholder meaningful consultation on views, knowledge and significant issues affecting park experience. users.

To be open about where To communicate information stakeholder views have been clearly and through different taken into account. channels to maximise accessibility and understanding. To engage with stakeholders at the earliest opportunity about To continue to embed issues relevant to or affecting stakeholder engagement into them. our culture and our activities. Background

The Royal Parks is an executive access and to increase opportunities agency of the Department for for enjoyment, education, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS). entertainment and healthy recreation.” Our purpose is: The Royal Parks faces multiple “To manage The Royal Parks challenges: effectively and efficiently, balancing the responsibility to conserve and a declining Government grant; enhance the unique environments the lack of end-of-year financial with creative policies to encourage flexibility;

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______

a small team with limited partnering with third parties to resource capacity; support delivery; the impact of climate change on increasing efficiency in the park environment, including procuring our goods and extreme weather conditions and services; an evolving array of pests and generating better value for diseases, and costs associated money from our contracts; with this; reviewing our core activities and balancing the needs of our how we maximise efficiency in different park users and our resource; stakeholders; and understanding the different encouraging new visitors to needs and views of discover what the parks have to stakeholders; and offer. understanding why people do not currently visit our parks. We are responding to these challenges in a number of ways: Successful stakeholder engagement is at the heart of how we address increasing sustainable self- these challenges. generated income; continuing to drive operational savings, some of which require investment; Delivery

Our approach to stakeholder much core parks activity contracted engagement has the full support of out or licensed. Everyone, whether our Executive Committee, which will employed directly or indirectly, has monitor progress of the final a role to play in delivering successful strategy. The Royal Parks directly stakeholder engagement. employs around 115 staff, with

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______

Like much of the public sector, The be more emphasis on social and Royal Parks is operating with limited digital media channels in the years resources; this Strategy is realistic in ahead. its scope and deliverable within the resources available. Along with most other organisations, there will Scope

Stakeholders can be defined in category. The lists below are not many different ways. For the exhaustive, but examples of purpose of this Strategy we are stakeholders with whom we defining a stakeholder as: regularly engage.

“Anyone who visits, uses or has an interest in our parks or is affected 1. Local park stakeholders by activities in, or policies of, our Individuals or groups who have an parks.” interest in their local park, including Friends Groups, local residents, local To ensure that our stakeholder businesses and elected local activity is targeted, useful and representatives such as local structured, we have identified three councillors and MPs. categories of stakeholder. These categories are not designed to rank 2. Partner organisations stakeholders, but to recognise that This group includes organisations different groups interact with the with a role in the governance of The parks in different ways, with varying Royal Parks or who contribute to frequency and on a range of issues. our annual funding, namely, DCMS, We recognise that some of which The Royal Parks is an stakeholders may fit more than one , and the Greater category, or move from category to London Authority, with the Mayor

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______of London appointing The Royal young or old, able or disabled, Parks Board. visiting alone or in groups, and they will come from varied cultural It includes organisations with which backgrounds. The Royal Parks partners to deliver key objectives or activities and/or This Strategy is aimed at who provide funding for key stakeholders external to the parks projects, including the Royal Parks and therefore does not include our Foundation, Transport for London, small but highly committed team of The Royal Household, the staff responsible for managing our Metropolitan Police Service, Local eight parks. There are three further Authorities, Heritage Lottery Fund, stakeholder groups outside the , English scope of this Strategy, without Heritage, Forestry Commission, whom our parks would not be London Marathon Trust, maintained, conserved and enjoyed Environment Agency, Natural by millions of visitors each year: England, the Military, The Crown Estate, the Crown Estate Paving our contractor teams, who Commission and The Royal Parks maintain our parklands, our paths, Guild. our buildings and our roads;

3. Park visitors or users our 1,800 volunteers who This group includes the tens of give their time, experience and millions of visitors to our parks each knowledge to the organisation; and year, whether for recreation, relaxation or entertainment. It our partners with whom we includes park users who commute contract or license to deliver key on foot, by bike or by car. It includes park activities or services, including people visiting our parks and events, catering and sports enjoying lunch, a boat trip on the activities. Serpentine, or an organised sports activity. These visitors may be

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______

These stakeholder groups are perceptions. We need to work more critical to the delivery of successful closely with them to ensure that stakeholder engagement. They they are informed and consistent in engage regularly with visitors and their responses, and to coordinate other stakeholders, directly and consider the feedback they influencing the experiences people receive about our parks. have of our parks, and gaining valuable feedback and insight into

Our current stakeholder engagement

The Royal Parks’ stakeholder different reasons, and to respond engagement is necessarily complex accordingly. Currently our and multi-faceted. Some engagement broadly falls into three stakeholders engage with The Royal types: Parks organisationally, as their interest is across all of our parks. Monitor Often the engagement is part of a We monitor stakeholder feedback longer-term relationship with through direct contact with our stakeholders. Conversely, some staff, through social media and stakeholder engagement may have through media channels. There is a discrete beginning and end, for potential to consider how we get example, if it involves a project more regular feedback on or a particular issue. And each park, perceptions of our parks through with its own character and qualities, our contractors, concessions and has different stakeholders with licensees. different interests. The key point is recognising that stakeholders may Inform need to be engaged in different We aim to communicate relevant ways, at different times, and for and timely information to our

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______stakeholders. Delivery mechanisms Where a range of views can be vary depending on the situation, but raised, issues brought to our include: attention and information disseminated. We have regular proactive communications using bilateral meetings with partner print, broadcast and online organisations and attend and media; contribute to appropriate partner information on our website and fora. We actively engage with social media channels; partner organisations in support of direct contact through letters, common objectives. We consult email or phone calls; formally on major changes to park attending external meetings or business, and less formally, for events to provide updates on example through online surveys. various issues; and We also engage stakeholders in the providing information around development of our Park the parks, on notice boards and Management Plans, which inform signage. our longer-term maintenance and conservation regimes. This type of Engage engagement also includes the many We host stakeholder meetings in community engagement activities each of the parks twice a year, we carry out each year.

Community Engagement

The Royal Parks provides access to a begins on the first visit to the park, range of life long learning maybe as a child, and continues opportunities, raising awareness throughout life, supporting well- and understanding of the heritage being, knowledge and skills and natural world of the parks and development, and increasing social developing activities for interaction. participation. The life long journey

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______

Community engagement provides An example of our community access to education, community engagement is the Victoria Tower participation and volunteering Gardens playground consultation, opportunities, enabling people to where we developed a theme, ideas make a positive contribution to and concepts for refurbishing the their local park. We use a range of playground and engaged with the engagement methods and often community for over a year. The work in partnership with others, group held mudlarking sessions on allowing us to work with different the shores of the Thames, carried sections of the community based on out intergenerational activities and their particular needs and to developed mood boards with under provide platforms for informing and fives. The project engaged a wide consulting with local communities range of ages and abilities, working and promoting participatory with local residents, Friends and activities. We work with three Residents Groups and local experienced partners to deliver our community centres, Westminster environmental education service: Abbey and many more agencies. the Field Studies Council education; Phase 1 is complete, with Phase 11 The Holly Lodge Centre; and the ISIS due for completion in June 2014. Education Centre, all of whom hold the Learning Outside the Classroom quality benchmark.

Our plans for future stakeholder engagement

We want our stakeholder our current stakeholder activities, engagement to be as inclusive as whilst accommodating future possible, within our resource engagement priorities. This will constraints. As part of our enable us to engage with a wide stakeholder analysis, we will be range of stakeholders, without reviewing how we can achieve a giving disproportionate attention to better balance between continuing 10 | P a g e

The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______some, at the expense of others, is as effective as possible, we are whose views may be equally valid. carrying out a stakeholder mapping exercise. This will help us better We will continue to respond to understand who our stakeholders particular areas where stakeholders are, how and why we currently have concerns. For example, in 2013 engage with them, over what issues we established a residents group, and who leads on that engagement together with our event organiser, in The Royal Parks. to meet regularly and gather feedback ahead of our summer We have learnt some valuable concert series in Hyde Park. We lessons from our engagement then worked with the event activity in the past 12 months, organiser to address those issues. A which has not always been as key area of improvement was sound consistent or a timely as it could travelling to areas outside the park. have been. The stakeholder The Royal Parks and the event mapping exercise will be informed organiser ran a dedicated sound by the market research currently line, along with partners from being undertaken on park visitors’ Westminster City Council, to log expectations, views and sound complaints during the perceptions. This will help us to concerts. In 2013, calls and baseline our current engagement, complaints were significantly lower and to draw up a framework for than in previous years. In 2014 we improving our engagement. are building on this by meeting the same group before and after the Social and digital media BBC concert weekend. The Royal Parks currently operates on three social media platforms: Stakeholder mapping Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. The To develop a more coherent and Royal Parks has eleven Facebook consistent approach to stakeholder pages with a combined audience of management and to ensure our 185,000 friends. The Royal Parks engagement with our stakeholders works with a number of key

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______stakeholders to promote and share 2. Visitor feedback from our content on our social media partners. We contract or license a channels, for example to promote range of partners to deliver key park deer safety advice during rutting activities or services, including season. events, catering, sports activities and the maintenance and Engaging with wider conservation of our parklands, stakeholder views paths, buildings and roads. These In our Interim Strategy, we referred partners engage regularly with to five specific actions we are visitors and other stakeholders, undertaking in 2014 to encourage directly influencing the experiences wider and more diverse stakeholder people have of our parks, and engagement. This Strategy updates gaining valuable feedback and on progress: insight into perceptions. Feedback comes from a range of sources, 1. Meet the Park Team. From including face-to-face contact, spring 2014, The Royal Parks will be comment cards, online and hosting a programme of informal, commissioning independent two-hour drop-in sessions in each of feedback. We are working with our parks. Hosted by the Park these partners to understand what Manager and their team, the events visitors are saying about their are aimed at visitors who do not experiences in our parks, how currently engage with the parks, partners are responding to this, and and will provide an opportunity for are tracking trends. Together with them to express their views, ask other activities outlined in this questions and find out more about Strategy, this will give us more and what we do. A summary of key better informed feedback to help us points will be published on the continue to improve the experience website and participants will be people have of our parks. asked for feedback, so we can ensure the sessions are useful. 3. Market Research. We have engaged a Market Research partner

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______to undertake quantitative and globe who use the channel to qualitative research to understand communicate their experiences and who is visiting our parks, how often memories of the Royal Parks. This and to better understand their provides a digital platform which views. This research will continue allows us to communicate key through to the autumn and will messages instantly, such as road measure visitor satisfaction in areas closures and restoration work. such as catering provision, cleanliness, amenities and News stories can be shared and re- enjoyment. We are also tweeted by followers and partner commissioning research to organisations. understand the views of those who do not currently visit our parks, to 5. The Royal Parks website. Our help us understand why and how website is used to communicate a we might encourage them to do so. variety of information, from visitor We are particularly interested to information and event details to hear from groups traditionally park regulations and consultations. harder to reach or who are less The redevelopment of the website likely to engage with us currently. will improve users’ experience when visiting our site and make the 4. Social Media. We are website more accessible. We are exploring the feasibility of engaging making the website easier to view if with a wider stakeholder base by you have a mobile or tablet device. expanding our social media reach through launching on Twitter. A We will be complying with the web presence on Twitter will enable us content accessibility guidelines to more widely engage with (WCAG 2.0) to ensure that we followers, be part of conversations provide the best experience for relevant to our parks and use those people of all abilities and conversations to provide better disabilities. We are also improving services. Our Facebook audience how you navigate and find captures followers from around the information on our website. We are

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______publishing additional content about services, to help visitors interact our parks and their features. Finally, and do business with us more we are publishing new online efficiently.

Responsibility

Responsibility for delivering this our staff and our stakeholders need Strategy sits with The Royal Parks to know how, when and who to Executive Committee, which has engage. Following the stakeholder delegated responsibility for each of mapping exercise, we will be the Key Performance Targets to clarifying contact points between individual Directors. For The Royal Parks and our partner objective/KPT two, “Implement, organisations, to increase the monitor and evaluate The Royal consistency and effectiveness of Parks Stakeholder Engagement engagement, so key stakeholders Strategy by March 2015,” this know who to contact, and so our responsibility sits with the staff are clear about their Communications and Commercial responsibilities. Director.

Stakeholder engagement is so integral to our purpose and the delivery of our Corporate Objectives, that it must become a core business activity for all staff, embedded into our culture. Both Evaluating stakeholder engagement

We are considering how we stakeholder engagement. This will measure the effectiveness of our become the responsibility of the

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The Royal Parks Stakeholder Engagement Strategy ______

Head of Media and Public Affairs, we will publish as part of our Annual who will report regularly to our Report, from 2014/15. We will Executive Committee, identifying evaluate our engagement against key activity undertaken, any lessons the key principles set out in this learnt and key activity planned. This strategy, and provide an overview will feed into the annual summary of our “monitor”, “inform” and of stakeholder engagement which “engage” activities.

Continuing engagement

We continue to welcome views on key principles set out in this how we engage with our Strategy. Please contact us at: stakeholders, including, going [email protected]. forward, how we are meeting the

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The Royal Parks The Old Police House Hyde Park London W2 2UH

T: 0300 061 2000 E: [email protected]

March 2014