Originally published 18 January 2006. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
At one our recent Seminars on Engaging the Hard-to-Reach, one participant was heard to complain that if you added up the numbers identified in each of the separate groups thought to fall into this category, you exceed the population of the UK by about 250%!
In other words, by the time you’ve made special provision for so many different categories, there’s no-one left for whom the standard provision applies. It’s a case of the whole being smaller than the sum of its parts!
Once upon a time, we could create a consultation using an agreed format, and offer a special facility for one or two specially-identified requirements from targeted stakeholders who faced particular difficulties. In the same way, there was a time when the motor car was a bog-standard product with one or two available accessories to meet the particular foibles of particular customers. Then the brave new world of consumer marketing came along, and its magic trick was to segment the market in umpteen different ways. In today’s world of database marketing, it’s what is called slicing and dicing the market. The result is that the basic commodity is hardly to be found; virtually everything has been designed, engineered and packaged for particular stereotypical groups, for which the marketing gurus provide fancy names. Even the Government thinks this is a good idea, with talk of design-your-own public services. In short, we’ve gone segmentation-mad!
Is this what is happening to consultation? Are we possibly becoming over-focused on looking for special needs everywhere, with the result that we may get a far more representative sample of minority groups, and an inadequate response from the silent majority? Or are we just redressing the balance by taking more trouble to help groups that have been traditionally disadvantaged to overcome some very real barriers to public participation?
The Disability Equality Duty comes into force in Great Britain later this year, and provides us with an opportunity to think seriously about some of these issues. It will require public bodies to go that extra mile to help many such people secure an involvement which has previously been difficult or impossible. But this can only happen if consultors plan properly, and invest appropriately. The sums involved may not be huge, but resources must be found, including all-important training so that organisations know what’s expected of them
Right now, the Institute is working with the Disability Rights Commission to think through the implications, and at the London Workshop last week, one of the salient messages was that, on the latest interpretation, up to one in five of the population is a disabled person …….. this figure came as news to many people.
So if one of the aims of the new legislation is to make us all more aware of the true shape of our society, and from an awareness, to move towards positive reactions, maybe it isn’t just segmentation after all - it may actually do some good. And no wonder the arithmetic comes as a surprise!
Trigger point
- The next joint Disability Rights Commission/Consultation Institute Workshop on implementing the DED.
This is the 51st 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