For the last ten years – or longer – the case for public or stakeholder engagement has been driven by external pressures. Practitioners have had their hands full just implementing the existing programmes of participation or involvement. New statutory obligations, such as those to inform, consult and involve, are not the cause of the engagement culture – they are a response to it. What the new laws do is to codify best practice and give them the force of legislation.

So one of the benefits of troubled times is that we rightly re-assess previously unquestioned assumptions. No surprise, therefore, if Managers in many public bodies ask themselves if attempts to engage with customers, patients or citizens have been really worthwhile – and, if consultation experiments have been half-hearted, or if mistakes have been made, the case for continuing may be difficult to make. Other organisations may be tempted to slash communications budgets, or to scale back plans to engage closer with key stakeholders.