The toolkit has been made as a living document so it can grow over time. This flexible guide emphasises the fact that professional approaches need to be able to change to the needs of communities they are working with.

This current version of the Toolkit, written in 2022-2023, is based on Roots and Futures’ recent practical examples of project co-design, delivery and evaluation. It aims to give examples of best practise and things that practitioners should think about when developing community-facing history and heritage consultations, especially when working with under-served communities. 

While there is a focus on heritage within this Toolkit due to the nature of Roots and Futures, many of the ideas can be applied to other types of consultation with under-served communities.

The Toolkit will go through a series of tests after this initial release. Roots and Futures will be working with organisations during 2023-2024 to support them using this Toolkit to make sure that it is easy to understand and use by professionals. These tests will then feedback into an updated version.