Team introduction / Ground rules: BULLET VERSION

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules 
Introductions: WITPI team members & RTPI
Pleased / hope there’ll be interesting dialogue
Purpose: 
•	explore how local government planning activity is changing and the role that private sector is playing in this. 
•	how you, as professionals, define, enact and understand the public interest purpose of planning activity, 
•	generate debate about how planning professionals can best realise the public interest in the future.   
•	contribute to a State of the Nations report that will attempt to set out what is going on currently and begin to reflect on this.  

Reassurance: 
•	interested in hearing about what is going on in your organization but
•	our interest is very much academic and conceptual 
•	All the audio-recorded data generated today will be anonymized 
•	exception: best practice in your organization: we may seek your and your organisation’s permission to use without anonymisation.   
•	Should have filled out a consent form – if not, please do so at the end. 

Shared understanding: 
•	here in professional capacity 
•	personal or sensitive unlikely but respect / agree to disagree where necessary.
•	please no other recording, kindly switch off or silence any mobile devices 

Health and safety:
•	fire escapes/toilets
•	fine to leave during the discussion  (structure: quick introductions, about an hour on changing service delivery/provision, then reflection on public interest, professionalism and what future holds) 

Team introduction / Ground rules: LONG VERSION

Welcome, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedules to meet/join with us today. 
Introductions: I am X of the project research team. This is …. And this is X of the RTPI who are our partners on this part of the project and will be working with us to write up a report on the focus group findings.
We are very pleased to have in the room a great deal of knowledge and experience from the public and private sector – and we hope there’ll be some interesting dialogue and discussion. 
As you have seen on the information sheet, we are here to explore how local government planning activity is changing and the role that private sector is playing in this. We hope to determine how the respective roles of the public and private sectors in delivering planning in the ‘public interest’ have changed and how these roles operate today. We are interested in how you, as professionals, define, enact and understand the public interest purpose of planning activity, and we hope to generate debate about how planning professionals can best realise the public interest in the future.   This will contribute to a State of the Nations report that will attempt to set out what is going on currently and begin to reflect on this.  

We are very interested in hearing about what is going on in your organization but in asking for that, we want to reassure you that our interest is very much academic and conceptual, rather than journalistic. In other words, our aim is to capture emerging themes as well as fine-grained conceptual understanding of contemporary planning processes, rather than finger-pointing and so forth. 
As such, all the audio-recorded data generated today will be anonymized before it is used in any outputs such as academic journal articles or reports. In some cases, for example, if you are talking about a celebrated best practice in your organization, we may seek your and your organisation’s permission to use that specific information without anonymisation.   
You should by now have filled out an informed consent form. If not, please make sure you do so before you leave. We have some spare copies…
Our shared understanding is that we are here in a professional capacity and we would of course request that no other recording of the discussion today goes on.  It is unlikely that we will be discussing anything personal or sensitive but I would ask for everyone’s cooperation in ensuring that we respect each other and agree to disagree where necessary.
We’d also ask if you would kindly switch off or silence any mobile devices so that they don’t interfere with the discussion. 

Health and safety info – give any pertinent info about fire escapes/toilets. If you need to leave during the discussion, that is of course absolutely fine. 
Structure: We’ll start with some quick introductions, spend about an hour on changing service delivery/provision, then reflect on public interest, professionalism and what future holds) 

Questions:

Ground rules [5 minutes]:
	See text on previous page
Introductions [10 minutes]:
We will start with some very brief introductions. As we go around, please state your name, professional position, organization and what you do there (one sentence), and how long you’ve been there for. If you have worked somewhere else recently, you may want to mention that as well. Please also indicate whether you have worked in either/both public or private sector.

Changing service delivery/provision [60 minutes]:
Key question 1: How is your organisation providing ‘public sector services’ in planning? Is this uniform or do you adopt different provision for different aspects of the work?
Follow-up question: What type of work is undertaken; what type of work is off the table (not seen as commissionable)? Why not?

Follow-up question: How is private sector input to LA planning currently structured? What models are there?
Probes: 
Outsourcing (are local authorities outsourcing their own services?), insourcing/keeping work in -house 
Scale and volume of work
Business advisory/management review work done by private sector for LAs
Joint work/partnership working (with whom?)
Evidence: privatized, rejected, recut?

 Key question 2: What does the private sector do in terms of bidding for, winning, and undertaking work in LAs? What do LAs do in terms of engaging with private sector? What challenges/opportunities are there?
Follow-up question:  Are there any LA planning organisations that are trying not to include the private sector in their delivery of service (if so, why?) [either themselves or that they know of]
Follow-up question:  Are there any private sector organisations try not to provide LA planning provision (if so, why?) [either themselves or that they know of]

Key question 3: Can you explain why your organization – whether public or private has chosen to provide these services in the way that they have? (public and private sectors) - what are the drivers behind these decisions? 
Follow-up question:  For consultancy planners not participating in public sector planning, why have you chosen not to engage in providing public sector services? 
Probe: 
round rationales such as lack of technical skills, time constraints, political insulation, quality, confidence
Key question 4: How do you feel these arrangements are working? Why is that, do you think? 
Follow-up question: Do you have any qualms (or not) about the provision that is being  provided?
Probe: 
Most significant challenges and opportunities
Key Question 5: Are you aware of any other interesting models/examples of public sector service provision in your locality/further afield? What are they? Why are they interesting? 
Follow-up question: Do you feel that this focus group has captured what is happening in your region/locality in terms of the relationship between public private provision of public services so far as you are aware? What have we missed? 

Public interest [20 minutes]

Key question 6: What is your understanding of ‘public interest’? How do you think this relates to public service provision? To substantive issues such as deploying of public interest claims to justify development outcomes?
Follow-up question: Do you find the notion of public interest a difficult or an easy one? If so, how so and why? 
Follow-up question: In your view, does working in private/public sector affect how you view the public interest? If so - how so, if not - why not?

Professionalism  [15 minutes]
Key question 7: What makes planning work professional work? 
Follow-up question: How does what we’ve talked about today impact how you feel about planning as a profession?
Probe: 
Do you think planning is a profession? If so, why?
What is different about planning now as compared to 10 or 20 years ago?

Wrap-up and Future [10 minutes]
Key question 8: What does the future hold for public/private sector work in planning? 
Follow-up question: What haven’t we asked that you would like to comment on?
Thanks for time and interest, next steps:
•	Great discussion.
•	We will analyse data, may be in touch if any details we need to clarify.
•	Coming up: interim report on the focus group, followed by State of the Nations report, will announce via our website http://witpi.group.shef.ac.uk/. 
•	Please ensure that you have completed an informed consent form. 
Don’t hesitate to get in touch if any questions/concerns.