Inside information – When some consultees know more than others

One of the undoubted challenges facing those who organise consultations is that the target audience is very seldom homogeneous.

The nearest we may get to this convenient state is when a trade body consults its members; when the General Medical Council consults doctors, for example, or when the Arts Council consults Theatre Managers. Even then there are, of course, differences. A newly-qualified junior doctor’s perspective will clearly differ from one with forty years experience of general practice. In our Arts example there is, presumably, quite a difference between the Manager of Stratford’s new Royal Shakespeare Company showcase and the part-timers struggling to keep a local Rep theatre in one of our market towns.