Originally published 20 December 2004. This article is retained from the tCI archive. Law, policy or practice may have changed since publication.
Tuesday Topic 6 tackled the thorny issue of budgeting and funding consultations. It recommended that organisations take steps to improve their accounting and monitor value for money. But this isn't the whole story.
Far more money is spent responding to consultations than organising them.
Consider a consultation issued from a central Government department. It may consist of a written consultation paper outlining various policy options, printed and circulated in hard-copy as well as posted on the appropriate website. It may be accompanied by some Seminars, workshops, a focus group or even a Conference. All together - and excluding the cost of policy-makers deliberating over a period of time, the cost could easily be £50,000.
If 100 organisations respond, how much time and money have they spent? Lucky is the stakeholder whose research officer knows all the answers and who can sit at their desk to draft a response. Cost - £300 perhaps?
More typical is the consultee who has to organise meetings with busy executives, prepare a synopsis of the consultation paper, circulate it internally - and maybe beyond. When the subject really matters to the stakeholder, there may be lots more to do - briefings to arrange, papers to exchange and a whole membership to consult……
Yes…..consult!For the truth is that consultations often spawn secondary consultations - where the respondents have to engage in their own consultation exercise - just to determine how they should respond to the original proposals. And the cost of this …..anybody's guess..
But even in our example of a hundred responses, a modest assumption that the average consultee's cost was £4,500 would result in the overall cost of the consultation being half a million pounds - with the Government only bearing 10% of it.
This is a salutary thought for those contemplating the plight of Government initiatives that are abandoned after consultation. There is a cost to flying policy kites, and it is not always the Government that pays for it. Maybe this is a price worth paying to avoid policy mistakes. But it places upon everyone a duty to think carefully before launching into new consultations. Clearly an area where more research is needed!
Trigger points
- Take the overall cost into account when authorising new consultations
- Seek opportunities to offer consultees lower-cost response options (eg e-consultation)
- Work with key stakeholders to find ways of minimising their costs of responding
- Consider capacity-building actions (eg Training) to equip your stakeholders to respond cost-effectively
This is the 7th 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