Originally published 20 December 2005. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
One of the success-stories of the last decade has been the gradual acceptance by consultors, that their attempts to engage stakeholders and the public have to be more socially inclusive. Seeking the views of the usual suspects has always been easier than building relationships with communities and groups who are less accustomed to the culture and processes of British bureaucracy! At last we're looking beyond them.
Most public bodies - and the more socially-aware private firms - today recognise that they do a better job if they take account of the diverse nature of modern society. The Equalities agenda has made Managers at all levels more aware of the need to avoid discrimination on racial, ethnic, gender or religious grounds. Legislation such as that on Disability is having a growing influence, and despite derision in the popular press, Councils and other organisations have made appointments of people whose full-time role is to ensure that those whose views were previously neglected, are now able to be heard.
In theory, therefore there should be fewer people who are hard-to-reach. But the terminology is flawed. Although it is excellent shorthand to describe such groups, the truth is that many of these are in fact relatively easy to find! What is more difficult is to engage them.
Here there is much more to be done. Such Consultation Strategies and Toolkits as have been examined by the Institute concentrate on the mechanics of having a dialogue with hard-to-reach groups. It is now recognised that traditional tried-and-tested methods that work for the usual suspects won't do for these groups and that more participative techniques are required.
But the most critical pre-requisite of all is to understand that there is frequently an entirely different mindset to be addressed. The usual suspects, after all include many organisations whose size, tradition, culture and ethos integrates them well into the wily ways of British public administration. They know their way around the corridors of power (be it national or local), they wine and dine with decision-makers, and they share similar values …. and lifestyles. In short, they all know the rules of the "game".
An essential feature of the "game" is that you win some and lose some. Professional consultees don't expect to win every argument, and can be patient, recognising that the wheels of policy-making often grind very slowly and that abrupt change rarely happens.
How different is the world of hard-to-reach groups! Many of these include communities of people or interest where individuals face serious personal or environmental problems. For them to give any priority to sitting down with a consultor to discuss their needs or their perceptions requires direct motivation - what can they gain by so doing? They have no interest in playing the "game" - they just want results.
But in general, consultation professionals struggle with results. Feedback is often inadequate, and not always positive. With hard-to-reach groups, this simply won't do. If we want to avoid engagement with these people being a one-off flash-in-the pan, we must demonstrate that we've listened - and that positive things have happened as a result. Then we will truly engage the hard-to-reach!
Trigger points
- Have you a good enough story to motivate hard-to-reach groups to engage with you?
- Does your organisation have a defined strategy for finding, motivating, engaging and helping hard-to-reach groups and involving them in your consultation programme?
- Read the Institute's new Discussion Paper: - Exploring hard-to-reach issues upon which this Topic is based; also watch out for forthcoming Seminars on Engaging the hard-to-reach
This is the 35th 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