Programmes

Run structured deliberation campaigns — group multiple discussions under one project with shared themes, phases, and access controls.

What is a Programme?

A Programme is a structured campaign or project that contains one or more related discussions. It gives you a single home for everything belonging to a deliberation initiative — whether that is a national policy consultation, an academic research project, a community engagement campaign, or an organisation's internal strategy process.

Instead of managing each discussion in isolation, a Programme lets you:

Group discussions by shared themes (e.g. Housing, Education, Health)
Organise discussions into sequential phases (e.g. Phase 1 — Listening, Phase 2 — Deliberation)
Divide participants into cohorts so you can compare views across groups
Control who can see and participate via visibility settings
Export all discussion data in one go for analysis
Track aggregate participant counts across all discussions at a glance

Who is it for?

Organisations & institutions

Local councils, NGOs, think tanks, and companies running public or internal consultations across multiple topics or departments.

Researchers & academics

Teams running structured deliberative polls or citizen assemblies, needing controlled access and per-cohort data exports.

Media & journalism

Publishers running reader engagement campaigns around a news series, with discussions linked to specific articles or themes.

Community groups

Neighbourhood associations, campaign groups, or online communities wanting a shared deliberation space with optional public visibility.

Visibility modes

Choose who can discover and access your programme. This setting also applies to all discussions inside it — a restricted programme keeps its discussions restricted, even if someone finds a direct link.

Public

Your programme appears in the public catalogue. Anyone can browse and participate — no account required to read, an account is needed to vote or submit statements.

Best for: open public consultations, transparent policy debates.

Unlisted

Your programme does not appear in the public catalogue but is accessible to anyone who has the direct URL. Useful for sharing with a defined audience without advertising it publicly.

Best for: partner organisations, soft launches, sharing with a specific mailing list.

Invite-only

Only users you explicitly invite can access the programme. Outsiders and unauthenticated visitors see a 404 — no information is revealed. You manage the participant list in Programme Settings.

Best for: citizen assemblies, closed research cohorts, internal team consultations.

Private

Only the programme owner and its stewards can access it. No one else — even with a direct link — can see the programme or its discussions.

Best for: draft programmes being prepared before launch, internal reviews.

Roles & permissions

Owner / Editor

Creates and manages the programme. Can edit settings, invite or remove stewards and participants, archive the programme, and export all data. If the programme belongs to an organisation, any editor of that organisation shares these permissions.

Steward

Can view and export programme data (including restricted and invite-only programmes). Useful for researchers, co-facilitators, or oversight bodies who need read access and export rights but should not change programme settings.

Invited participant

Can access an invite-only programme and participate in its discussions. Access is granted by the owner by email address (the user must already have a Society Speaks account). Access can be revoked at any time — once revoked, the user immediately loses access.

Creating a programme

1
Go to Programmes → New programme from the navigation menu, or visit /programmes/new.
2
Name and describe it. Give it a clear name that participants will recognise. The description appears on the public programme page.
3
Set visibility. Choose Public, Unlisted, Invite-only, or Private depending on your audience and privacy needs.
4
Add themes and phases (optional). These become selectable tags when creating discussions inside the programme, letting you filter and group discussions later.
5
Add discussions. Create new discussions and assign them to this programme via the discussion's edit page. Each discussion inherits the programme's access restrictions.

Managing access

Inviting participants (Invite-only programmes)

In Programme Settings, enter the email address of a registered Society Speaks user and click Grant access. Access is granted immediately; if email delivery succeeds, they will also receive an invite notification.

The invited user must already have a Society Speaks account. If they do not, ask them to register first, then invite them.

Revoking access

In Programme Settings, find the user in the participant list and click Revoke. Their access is removed immediately — they will see a 404 if they try to visit the programme.

Inviting stewards

Stewards are invited by email and must accept via a link sent to them. They can access private/invite-only programmes regardless of visibility, and can export all data but cannot change programme settings.

Themes, phases & cohorts

These three optional structures let you organise and analyse your programme's data more precisely.

Themes

Topic categories for discussions within the programme — e.g. Housing, Transport, Environment. Participants and owners can filter the programme page by theme.

Phases

Sequential stages of a deliberation — e.g. Phase 1: Listening, Phase 2: Deliberation, Phase 3: Recommendations. Helps structure a multi-round engagement.

Cohorts

Named participant groups — e.g. Pilot group, Regional A. Cohort labels are included in vote data exports so you can compare results between groups.

Exporting your data

Owners and stewards can export all voting and statement data for a programme as a CSV file (default download format). Exports include:

All statements and their vote counts (agree / disagree / unsure)
Individual votes with participant identifiers (anonymised where applicable)
Cohort labels, discussion themes and phases
Timestamps for analysis over time

You can also filter exports by cohort — useful when you want to compare results between sub-groups without exporting the entire dataset. For technical workflows, JSON export is also available via the ?format=json query parameter.

Frequently asked questions

Can I add an existing discussion to a programme after creating it?

Yes. Open the discussion, click Edit discussion, and select the programme from the Programme field. The discussion will immediately inherit the programme's access restrictions.

What happens to discussions when I archive a programme?

Archiving marks the programme as inactive and removes it from the public catalogue, but the discussions and all data are preserved. Owners and stewards can still access archived programmes from their workspace.

Do I need an organisation account to create a programme?

No. Any registered user can create a programme under their personal account. Assigning a programme to an organisation is optional — it lets other editors in that organisation share management access.

Can an invited participant see other participants' names?

No. Participants see discussions and statements but not who else has been invited to the programme. Only owners and stewards can see the participant list in Programme Settings.

Can anonymous users participate in a programme discussion?

For Public and Unlisted programmes, yes — anonymous voting is allowed on discussions that permit it. For Invite-only and Private programmes, participants must be logged in so their access grant can be verified.