Stakeholder Relationship Audit

The overall objectives of the project are:

• Gain an in-depth understanding of our existing relationships with key stakeholders - Defra, EA, DWI, Welsh Government, Natural Resources Wales, Water UK, CCW, water companies, water retailers, environmental NGOs, customer NGOs and parliamentarians - and how we can improve those relationships.
• Have an insight into how our stakeholders perceive us as a regulator and the work that we do.
• Build a big-picture understanding of the sentiment and tone of stakeholders towards the sector and towards Ofwat.
• Understand the gaps and areas for improvement amongst our 14 stakeholder groups, which includes water companies, other regulators, UK and Welsh Government, among others.
• Look for and discover gaps in our stakeholder relationships that we aren't currently aware of.

Produce a report with an analysed set of data and recommendations that can be used to shift approach in stakeholder relationships across Ofwat.

Approach:

We expect the research to include:

The scope of the project includes:

The questionnaire for both the telephone and online survey is likely to include questions on:

• Knowledge and engagement
• Perceptions and trust
• Awareness of the work we do and our future goals
• How stakeholders feel about engagement with Ofwat
• How can we improve our engagement and relationships

What is needed:

• Collaborating with the Ofwat stakeholder lead
• Agree a delivery timetable once contract is agreed
• Work to Ofwat templates and guidelines
• Work to GDPR guidelines
• A swift turnaround and for start of delivery and completed reports from contract award. Project start within two weeks, final report and recommendations before 31 March 2022
• Full project management and delivery of the project
• A final product with data analysis, reporting and recommendations
• Anything not identified above that will help the project achieve its objectives, with prior agreement.

Out of scope:

• The Ofwat communications function will provide all appropriate internal data and information held about stakeholders