The weekend press has just enjoyed itself pointing out that the Prime Minister’s widely-advertised NHS Reform Summit on Monday managed to exclude many critics of the Government’s plans. And it is easy to find such situations a soft target. Are consultations not meant to hear all sides of the argument? How can one take account […]
Predicting the future is a hazardous occupation. Back in 2005, the Institute ran a series of Seminars on the impact of the recently-implemented Freedom of Information Act on the world of consultation. “Watch out” we said “from now on, you will have to keep a meticulous audit trail of how you analyse consultation data and
Right now there are hundreds of hard-pressed Managers in the public sector who are sweating over expenditure cuts that oblige them to re-structure services, some of which have scarcely changed for decades. How do they view the requirement to consult all the different stakeholders that emerge whenever change is threatened? Do they groan at the
Change Agent – Is consultation a help or a hindrance to service change? Read More »
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
Inside information – When some consultees know more than others Read More »
In recent years, it has been fashionable in some places to complain about formal consultation and place the emphasis firmly on concepts of public ‘engagement’. Consultation, it is claimed, is too hidebound by rules and formalities; the idea of engagement is much looser and can be used for more constructive purposes.
At first glance, there does not appear to be any direct comparison between major public policy consultations and the fiasco that led to the Department of Transport having to abandon its decision to award the West Coast inter-city rail franchise to the First Group. Look further, however, and many of the failures found by Sam
We have to report that Tiny Tim and his friends have won their judicial review against Santa Claus Inc, with many implications for consultations. The sad story began earlier this year with a realisation that the Company’s Eurozone-based operations faced a major financial problem and needed to reduce its expenditure. Management decided it had no
High Court drama at Christmas – The judicial review none of us noticed! Read More »
For several years the cynical anecdote has been that, when the Irish electorate voted the ‘wrong’ way in a Referendum, the EU merely asked its Government to hold another one in the hope of getting a different result. From this, people joke that reluctant citizens can be repeatedly ‘consulted’ until they provide the answer preferred
Back to the beginning…? – When a consultation has to start all over again … Or does it? Read More »
Ask any group of public engagement and consultation professionals about standards and the chances are that the one rule they will identify as being applicable will be the years-old convention that consultations should extend for a minimum of twelve weeks.
Time out for Twelve weeks? – Is the ‘Twelve-week rule’ past its sell-by date? Read More »
The first Tuesday Topic was written on November 26th, 2003. It was entitled Consultation – or just another survey? and began an uninterrupted series of short, 600-800 word, briefs covering virtually every aspect of public engagement and consultation we found interesting, and possibly quite a few that weren’t! Looking back at the complete archive (available
Credible consultations! – WANTED – a few more whistle-blowers! Read More »
Update coming soon
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