Originally published 5 February 2019. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
The part consultation plays in mitigation strategies
We have all learnt to be a bit careful believing what we read on the side of a bus! But what struck us about the local bus as it passed the Institute Headquarters this week was the advertisement for a cheaper fare to the hospital.
Who was responsible? The local NHS has been centralising services at Bedford’s South Wing hospital for a while, and maybe it wants to ease the difficulties of reaching the South Wing site. The local authority has been loud in opposing some of these changes and is strongly defending its local hospital. Perhaps it has chosen to subsidise the service? A third possibility is that the enterprising family firm that now has the contract for local routes wants to show its community credentials – or it’s just a marketing campaign.
In a sense, it does not matter who can claim the credit – it’s still welcome and illustrates the small-scale practical responses, that are possible when creative minds apply themselves to the consequences of change in public services.
We need more emphasis on mitigation – the search for actions that can help members of the public use services or find alternatives to traditional practices. In principle, it should not be difficult, but is too often just an afterthought.
One of the most common changes in recent years has been the wholesale migration of some services from face-to-face to online. It’s not always driven by the supply side. Consider the widespread worries about the future of our High Streets – as consumers migrate to online shopping. Or think about the changes to employment patterns as the ‘gig economy’ replaces traditional nine-to-five permanent jobs. Then there are changes to welfare provisions, youth services, the erosion of social care services and even paying for University education. All involve behaviour change by benefit recipients, carers, students etcetera. Many will embrace the changes – but not everyone. They are possibly what is meant by those ‘left behind’.
Examine many of the more spectacular administrative failures of recent years. It is now some years old, but The Blunders of our Government remains the best account of mistakes made by politicians and civil servants. Its conclusion remains valid that there was a ‘deficit of deliberation’. In other words, it needed to have consulted better. Many proposals out to consultation create ‘winners’ and ‘losers’. What tended to happen is that policies were sold successfully to the winners, and the losers were left to fend for themselves.
Too many proposals seek to bank all the savings from a potential service change without investing in mitigation measures Best practice consultation therefore needs to place a special emphasis on finding ways to mitigate the disadvantages of various options.
The key to it all therefore lies in Impact Assessment. If that is inadequate, what chance is there of figuring out ways to reduce the adverse effects of what is proposed? We need to see more along the lines of “If this option was adopted, we would need to invest in alternative provisions along the lines of …” and therefore “What do you think?” There are times when this would be a useful change in the mood music of a consultation. Instead of a clear-cut Yes/No to controversial proposals, where opponents are usually much more in evidence than supporters, it becomes possible to have a more nuanced debate about “What if we did this …”
Hearing the voices of those most impacted during such a consultation can be a most valuable output from the exercise.
Back to the Bedford to Biggleswade bus. The idea is fine, (though in this case, it would have been useful to specify which Bus Station they had in mind …). That extra mile to the hospital matters for, like other hospitals, the car parking problem there is horrendous, so maybe they can solve two problems at once. And that is the beauty of mitigation. You can think outside the box containing the specific consultation you are planning. Co-producing mitigation measures can be a creative process; let’s do more of it.
TRIGGER POINTS
- How prominently do mitigation measures feature in your consultations?
- Are your Impact Assessments undertaken early enough to influence the consultation proposals and invite comments on potential mitigation measures ...?
- … and are the Impact Assessments good enough anyway …?
- [The Blunders of our Government](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18485664-the-blunders-of-our-governments) (2013) by Anthony King.
- Online training is now available through the Institute. Which of the following modules might be relevant to you?
- The Consultation Charter: A foundation course in consultation
- Stakeholder Mapping for Public Consultation
- Focus Groups
- Collecting information, data, and sampling
- Surveys and Questionnaires
- Data Analysis and Report Writing
This is the 345th 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.