Consultation is an invitation to influence us. We are effectively saying to whoever is interested:- Please give us your views, so that we can take an informed decision. So how well do we frame this invitation?
A convincing narrative – Is there a special skill to writing a good consultation paper? Read More »
Last week’s Key Issue Workshop was about Wind Farms! But it could equally have been about a range of other infrastructure developments which local residents would, in the ideal world, prefer to reject. The issues go to the heart of the contemporary consultation dilemma. How to convince the public that their views will be genuinely
In July 2011 the Coalition Government published its long-awaited Open Public Services White Paper which sets out their agenda to give better access to public services for more people. The Government set out their vision for public service reform with five guiding principles: Choice and control
Open Public Services 2012 Read More »
Introduction Budget Statements are increasingly used to bring together policy announcements that involve public or stakeholder consultation. In this years Budget 60+** consultations were announced. ** it is not clear yet if some may overlap. To assist Institute members and others and to ensure that they are aware of consultations that may
The Budget 2012: Consultation Announcements Read More »
Last week’s high profile consultation was on gay marriage – or, technically, on equal civil marriage. It sparked a furious controversy with predictable cries of ‘sham consultation’ from opponents, and the Institute itself concluded that aspects of this particular exercise will be a recipe for confusion. But there was another feature of the consultation that
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.
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