It has long been asserted that a public consultation is fault-intolerant. By this we mean that one can be successful at almost everything required but fail on one relatively small aspect yet bring the entire consultation crashing down. Or so it seems. Many a consultor has felt this way when brought to the Courts. However […]
The whole is greater … … – than the sum of the parts … Read More »
From time to time, democracies provide the spectacle of a tussle between ideologies – or at least, philosophies American politics, in 2013 for example, has been a historic battle between the Purists of the Republican tea-party movement and the more pragmatic elements on Capitol Hill. Thirty years ago the British Labour party found itself in
It is quite easy sometimes to imagine that all public or stakeholder consultations are dialogues between the usual bureaucracies and local communities. And it is equally easy to characterise these as an unequal contest between well-resourced organisations and enthusiastic amateurs; it is one of the reasons why some academics dismiss consultation as largely tokenistic, and
Consulting the powerful – Are the rules different? Read More »
When the Institute began in 2003, there was quite a lot of public and stakeholder consultation. Some of it was excellent; rather too much of it was classic tick-in-box and the occasional exercise hit the headlines, usually for the wrong reasons. The Government was prone to grand consultative gestures and spent freely on some
Considering the sheer number of judicial reviews sought on issues of consultation and engagement in recent years, it may surprise many that there has been no Court case on the 1999 Local Government Act – and the Best Value regime it introduced for Councils in England.
An experienced consultation officer in the NHS recently could scarcely conceal her delight. The consultation had resulted in a 1% participation rate, regarded by her bosses and many others as being a creditable achievement. In the cool light of another day, of course it may look differently. Not only does the arithmetic mean 1% is
Self-selected samples – When consultation respondents might be unrepresentative Read More »
A public body we know has spent two years – on and off – examining a wholesale reorganisation of its service. In many ways it has been a textbook exercise. Key stakeholders were identified early; there was open-minded, inclusive engagement, based on truthful data and honest analysis. As time wore on, several possible scenarios emerged,
Birth of a consultation option. – Once an option …always an option? Or maybe not…! Read More »
It is not very often that a Government Minister has to come to Parliament to explain that a high-profile consultation “did not have the confidence of the public”. Yet after years of indecision, £6m of taxpayers’ money, two High Court cases and a terrific media campaign by parents of very sick children, we still appear
Lessons from the Safe & Sustainable saga Read More »
Not so long ago, a public consultation was a reasonably predictable process. We prepared a suitable document, outlining the problem and maybe a series of possible solutions. It was published and supported by a range of data gathering methods ranging from questionnaires through to public meetings or an online discussion. Not every exercise lasted 12
These are torrid times for those organising public consultations in the National Health Service. And the fallout from their experience will ripple through a wide range of other services where change is the order of the day. Faced with almost daily allegations that corrode people’s confidence in Managers and Inspectors alike, a hapless Secretary of
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