Originally published 11 December 2007. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
Any analysis of the 99 Topics published by the Institute over the last four years would reveal problems and opportunities in roughly equal measure.
The problems are well known, though solutions are more elusive. Too many consultations are ill-thought-through; under-resourced, use the wrong methods, fail to feed back and struggle to have the intended beneficial influence on the decisions they were meant to inform. In the ideal world, we’d consult formally rather less frequently, but do it better when the need arises.
On the other hand, and despite considerable media scepticism, there are some remarkably effective and meaningful exercises. In part these are responsible for encouraging politicians and academics to champion the cause of wider public involvement and engagement. Consultation today, therefore, sits firmly in a broader portfolio of public participation tools and techniques, and forward-looking civic leaders need little persuasion that this is an important aspect of modern governance. But what about the customer? Are stakeholder organisations really convinced that they are listened to appropriately? And how does the general public respond to growing exhortations to become involved? In the light of Hazel Blears’ recent Empowerment agenda, who exactly feels more empowered? And about what?
By analogy, let’s consider this as a marketing problem. We’re trying to “sell” this new product, which for the sake of argument we will call “Improved Citizen involvement”. We know there is latent demand for this product, but it has been blighted by inconsistencies in the supply-side. Products in the past have failed the trade descriptions test; some have arrived late; after-sales service has been non-existent in some cases; in others people have had to go to court to demand a better product!
One fix is regulation; another is a market solution. The former looks unlikely and undesirable in this fragmented environment. Improved Codes of Practice may drive up standards, but essentially consultation does not lend itself to precise regulation. But the market solution is already producing benefits. Citizens and stakeholders have limited time and resources and will not bother to participate in consultations they believe to be a waste of time. If they think an organisation is just going through the motions, they will vote with their feet and walk away from tokenistic involvement.
Conversely however, they will readily support those exercises that are genuine, and promise to make a difference. These will usually emanate from organisations that have taken public engagement seriously, who have trained their staff, secured the support of elected members or Senior management, and established processes that minimise the risks of being embarrassed by well-meaning but untrained people making mistakes in what is increasingly a professional task.
Public bodies now have a major and growing consultation agenda. They also face the challenge of co-ordinating their public engagement activities, so that NHS Trusts, Police, local authorities and Government agencies work together. Rather than rely on two or three key individuals, no matter how gifted, they should pool their resources and create visible centres of excellence where knowledge of best practice can be accumulated and deployed. If shared services work for IT or HR, why not for public engagement?
It even goes for Central Government. New Codes of Practice won’t help much unless it can leverage existing know-how. Only one Government department has a dedicated unit specialising in organising consultations – the Department of Children, Schools & Families. (DCSF) Might this be the moment for the Government to practice what it preaches and develop it into a much-needed Centre of Excellence? Otherwise our money is on go-ahead local authorities or LSP’s to get there first and demonstrate that citizens will respond positively to more consistent and demonstrably excellent consultation.
Trigger points
- Talk to partner organisations and explore the scope for centres of excellence in your area
- The Local Government & Public Involvement in Health Act has huge implications for public involvement at local level. Be clued-up; attend the Institute course on Comprehensive Engagement Strategies
- Institute members have electronic access to all Tuesday Topics. The first 100 will shortly be published in one volume.
This is the 100th Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement