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All those who are interested in civic affairs are engaged in a guessing game right now – trying to anticipate the kind of landscape we will all face after the General Election. Few of us have ever experienced a campaign with so many uncertainties, and policy-makers have to consider three or four different scenarios for […]

Listening to the media, we may be forgiven for being a little confused as to who won, and who lost the High Court case about the proposed Third Runway for Heathrow. According to the BBC, “Lord Justice Carnwath ruled the public consultation about expansion was invalid, because it was based on out-of-date figures”. Yet a

Like a sticky label that resists all attempts to be removed from a piece of luggage, we cling to some terms or phrases long after they have ceased being useful. ‘Hard-to-Reach’ is one such label. What’s wrong with it is the implication that it is somehow a group’s own ‘fault’ that it cannot be reached.

‘Nothing but the truth’ is the title of a discussion paper published by the Audit Commission just before Christmas. In it, it reveals its anxieties about the quality of information provided to the public and exposes some of what goes wrong both locally and nationally. This matters to consultation professionals for three reasons

In the world of customer service, we now know that Companies who treat their workforce badly have real problems delivering a high standard of service to their customers. Maybe staff are still loyal, are still motivated and even willing to disguise any disillusionment they feel with their employer – but somehow it shows. One can

It’s already law! Section 1 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act creates a new duty for local authorities in England and Wales to promote the opportunities for citizen involvement in a surprising range of local institutions. These include a long list of those which critics have long labelled as featuring a ‘democratic

Everyone involved with public engagement and consultation has had to respond to the allegation “You’re not listening to us”. It goes with the job. Part of the problem is that ‘listening’ has two different meanings. One is to ‘hear’ someone. Paying attention to what is being said; trying to understand it; appreciating why it is

A public engagement strategy has to respond to many conflicting pressures. Few things matter more than a good understanding of those people with whom you wish to engage; stakeholder identification is almost always done by or with those who know the thematic area; they often have a history of dealings with key people and may