Customer story: Scottish Borders Council, UK

A budget challenge

The Scottish Borders Council needed to make savings and wanted to open up a conversation with citizens about the budget challenge they faced. They were seeking a way of involving and consulting the public to gain insights into areas where money might be saved.

The Scottish Borders Council decided to use Dialogue

Through Dialogue, the Scottish Borders Council were able to engage citizens effectively, online, about possible budget savings. The platform provided them with a convenient way of hearing from the public, making it easy for people to submit ideas on possible savings and efficiencies.

The council are, in their own words 'still seeking [citizens'] feedback. All the ideas received will be considered as part of future budget-setting processes'. Dialogue provides a way of getting discussions started which is accessible to all.

Encouraging involvement, recurring usage

Through the use of Dialogue, people are able to get their voices heard around issues and challenges with budgets. The council covers a fairly large area and citizens from differing towns and communities could all be involved with budget consultation and have their opinions heard and recognised.

The consultations the Scottish Border Council have run so far have had good numbers of users, with many of those users submitting ideas which can be channeled directly into budget-setting by the council. Following their initial use of Dialogue, the council has gone on to run several more challenges on the platform, making it a regular part of their process for public participation.