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Last week, approximately one in 600 of us thought we had swine-flu. Medical opinion is apparently unsure whether this is an accurate figure, as we have now supplemented conventional visits to a GP with new call-centre based and website-based diagnostic services. But, just as the National Pandemic Flu Service gets under way, it faces a […]

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

Publication of the national Place Survey results finally happened last week. So now we know that 29% of the population think they can influence decisions locally. As with all indicators (this is one is NI 4 – but there are lots of others!) isn’t it wonderful to have a number? The trouble, however, with such

A little-known piece of American research recently prompted the Hewson Group to write a thoughtful piece about the way organisations handle the early days of a commercial relationship. Ironic really, given current events, but this is all based on analysing the pattern of customer acquisition and loss by American Banks! It emerges that they lose

So after the next General Election, will public expenditure be cut by 10%? Or less … or more … ? Of course it depends whom you ask? 10% says the Tories’ Andrew Lansley, whose sums assume that preserving the NHS budget means that everything else is cut more aggressively. Less says the Government which claims

No-one can claim that our politics is on a go-slow right now! Suddenly, arguments on constitutional, parliamentary or electoral reform that have rumbled for decades are being teed up for action within weeks or months. If you believe Nick Clegg, MPs won’t have their holidays this year unless they take instant decisions on matters of

There are lots of issues emerging right now about the way Government departments and their agencies consult the public … and many of them are on important matters of policy. But it is at local level that public engagement really makes a difference, and it is for this reason that the newly-published National Census of

No-one can now deny that the MPs expenses issue has done immense damage to the reputation of Parliament. True, it’s a diversion from serious policy issues, and that there’s a lot of hypocrisy flying about with a holier-than-thou media salivating at yet another poke at elected politicians. But the damage is real. And there’s a

One of the myths about consultation is that it is a defined one-off event that starts and finishes … and that’s it. Now some consultation exercises do have those characteristics, but these are comparatively rare. Questions requiring considered input from the general public or technical stakeholders seldom emerge from thin air; there is usually a