Aspirational consultation - Asking people what they want is clearly a legitimate form of consultation; but is this overdone at the expense of more practical choices?

Consultation comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are tightly targeted; often highly technical, using a specialist vocabulary and part of a continuing dialogue with known stakeholders. Others are meant for a wider audience, couched in more general terms and deliberately simplify complex issues in order to elicit the views of the public - and there are various scenarios in between these extremes………

To the extent that there is a trend, it is towards asking everyone about everything! Over-arching strategies – for community plans, spatial or environmental frameworks, transport or public services ranging from schools to social services – all require a broad consensus. So it is only natural that those who need to write such documents tend to organise a wide-ranging consultation.

If this was limited to a Local Authority’s public involvement programme, then a well co-ordinated Council could presumably avoid the consultation fatigue syndrome which afflicts part of the stakeholder base. However, as more and more public agencies with national or local remits also mount similarly wide-ranging consultations, the potential for overlapping and duplicated exercises increases. Many of these are aspirational in that their focus lies in asking one fundamental question:- What would you like to see ….? The aim is to understand what people want – undoubtedly valuable, particularly if undertaken with such skill as enables consultors to explore how different stakeholder groups harbour different or conflicting aspirations. Policy-makers really need this kind of input. But can you have too much of this good thing ?

Consider the disadvantages. Unrestrained aspirations can give rise to unrealistic expectations. A choice of practical, cost-effective, short-term options concentrates minds more effectively than long-term blue-sky wish-lists. Then there is the frustration factor. If a community group has already articulated its wants and desires three times, there comes a point when it insists on seeing action or responses from one of the earlier dialogues before wasting its breath on the next exercise. Given the long-term nature of so much aspirational consultation, demonstrating progress in response to earlier dialogues can be a real challenge.

The answer lies in striking the right balance between the aspirational and the practical. Too much of the former and an organisation’s reputation for giving people a say in real choices suffers; too much of the latter and they are accused of lacking vision and a failure to consult on the big picture. A sound programme of dialogue does both, and builds an inter-dependent, symbiotic relationship between them.

Trigger point

• Look at your recent consultations; have they been aspirational or practical?
• Do your aspirational exercises feed into your development of practical options?
• Do you prepare your stakeholders well for aspirational consultation? Are they sufficiently aware of the constraints and timescales?

This is the 46th Tuesday Topic; a full list of subjects covered is available for Institute members and is a valuable resource covering so many aspects of consultation and engagement