Originally published 2 February 2011. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
Whether or not one believed them, the 2010 Election may be remembered as the one where every Party in some way or another promised to defend the ‘front-line’ from the cuts everyone knows are coming.
Nurses, doctors, policemen, traffic wardens, teachers, social workers, town planners and all the rest qualify as being on the ‘front-line’ – but consultation staff? Surely not! Cast your minds back to the 1970s and 1980s when ‘Quality Management’ became the vogue. Specialist ‘Quality Managers’ sprang up, charged with ensuring that processes everywhere built-in the required quality standard. It took years to realise that ‘quality’ was actually an integral part of every Manager’s job, and it began to be re-written back into their job descriptions. Next came Health & Safety; it took years to reverse the centralisation of many of these functions and to reinsert them into the role of line Managers.
Some may feel that Equality and Diversity has exhibited a similar pattern, and it may now be fair to question whether there are traces of the same characteristics in public engagement and consultation?
The ability to engage with stakeholders – be they customers, passengers, tenants, patients – whatever - has always been an important feature of front-line service provision. This never changed. But maybe the vast explosion in formal consultation over the last 20 years has served to divert attention from this genre of dialogue. And, whilst there is an obvious role for Corporate-style engagement on key policy issues, the mood music of the years to come may demand a re-emphasis on the front-line stuff.
Here are the reasons why: • A listening style of service delivery is proven to be effective – many of the best front-line departments have based their reputations on this. Well-trained staff learn how to gather customer or citizen intelligence, and how to pass it on. • Successful management of change requires extensive consultation with those who may be impacted. Don’t confuse protecting the ‘front-line’ with preserving the status quo. Dramatic change is on the cards in most public services and their implementation will be smoother – and cheaper - if care is taken to consult properly. • The Big Society concept and all it implies, means that the front-line itself will change. A smaller State means the introduction of different players with different standards. Imposing this without dialogue would be a recipe for disaster. • The nature of Accountability will change. Traditional Inspectorates (e.g. the Audit Commission) appear to be out of favour, and maybe the coming idea is that of being answerable to the public itself. So expect more Citizen Panel activity, or even specialist panels of service users whose verdict on performance may really matter.
The Prime Minister and those around him are stressing that across-the-board cuts may not be the way forward and talk about the need for a consultative process. The devil, however, is in the detail, and no amount of macro-consultation on the principles of expenditure reductions will compensate for proper discussion and participation at the local levels at which the true impact of change may be felt.
Two things need to happen:- 1. Consultation staff must spend more time with front-line service delivery staff, helping them observe good practice and determining when formal, process-intensive consultations are needed, and when more informal dialogues are best. 2. Front-line staff themselves need training in public engagement and consultation skills. Many of them are instinctive listeners with years of experience – so the kind of capacity-building that’s required is building on these foundations rather than setting out on something entirely new.
The general public - as recipients of a myriad of services - are ultimately the arbiters of whether these attempts to involve them amount to anything. Front-line staff frequently have more credibility than Whitehall bureaucrats, so the trick is to preserve their unique relationships whilst living to work in a different and probably more challenging world. Trigger points
- For an excellent and thought-provoking paper on the changing face of accountability, entitled Accountability Works, from the Centre for Public Scrutiny.
- Much of the above will be discussed in Implications for Public Engagement of the New Government
- Advance notice: .... A Consultation Institute Roundtable: Exploring the Big Society.
This is the 163rd 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