Participation payments are given to members of the public as ‘thank yous’ for their participation in a particular project or piece of work. Participation payments are not wages but a thank you payment for a public contributor’s time, skills and expertise.

Organisations often complain that when speaking to members of the public, they cannot ‘reach’ the people they need most to learn from (usually, those with less access to systemic power).

If we want to shift power balances in our organisations, and learn from a broader range of people, we need to remove the barriers that prevent people from engaging in participation activities.

Offering participation payments is just one way of helping to ensure that people with less money can still attend. Others can include:

• Covering travel and subsistence

• Training and buddying systems

• Providing or paying for childcare

• Taking accessibility needs seriously

Agora pays members of the public thirty pounds per hour. Whenever we are running participation activities on behalf of a client, we will cost this into our quotes. Participation payments are a non-negotiable for us when working with members of the public.

We understand. Participation payments can feel uncomfortable and, in some instances, like you are paying people to say what you want to hear.

There is often internal influencing that needs to take place, before participation payments are adopted as the norm within an organisation. We have been there. We can help you with that.

If it’s one-off projects, we can make the participation payments on your behalf. Payments could be as vouchers or bank transfer.

If you’re wanting to embed participation participation practices within your organisation, we can help you design the necessary policies and processes so that you can manage these yourselves, long-term.

Collaborative, honest, and straightforward. We're here to guide the process, bring ideas to the table, and keep things moving.