One of the undoubted challenges facing those who organise consultations is that the target audience is very seldom homogeneous. The nearest we may get to this convenient state is when a trade body consults its members; when the General Medical Council consults doctors, for example, or when the Arts Council consults Theatre Managers. Even then […]
Inside information – When some consultees know more than others Read More »
In recent years, it has been fashionable in some places to complain about formal consultation and place the emphasis firmly on concepts of public ‘engagement’. Consultation, it is claimed, is too hidebound by rules and formalities; the idea of engagement is much looser and can be used for more constructive purposes.
We have to report that Tiny Tim and his friends have won their judicial review against Santa Claus Inc, with many implications for consultations. The sad story began earlier this year with a realisation that the Company’s Eurozone-based operations faced a major financial problem and needed to reduce its expenditure. Management decided it had no
High Court drama at Christmas – The judicial review none of us noticed! Read More »
For several years the cynical anecdote has been that, when the Irish electorate voted the ‘wrong’ way in a Referendum, the EU merely asked its Government to hold another one in the hope of getting a different result. From this, people joke that reluctant citizens can be repeatedly ‘consulted’ until they provide the answer preferred
Back to the beginning…? – When a consultation has to start all over again … Or does it? Read More »
Ask any group of public engagement and consultation professionals about standards and the chances are that the one rule they will identify as being applicable will be the years-old convention that consultations should extend for a minimum of twelve weeks.
Time out for Twelve weeks? – Is the ‘Twelve-week rule’ past its sell-by date? Read More »
The first Tuesday Topic was written on November 26th, 2003. It was entitled Consultation – or just another survey? and began an uninterrupted series of short, 600-800 word, briefs covering virtually every aspect of public engagement and consultation we found interesting, and possibly quite a few that weren’t!
Credible consultations! – WANTED – a few more whistle-blowers! Read More »
The answer to this riddle is that they have both concluded that Referendums can be inconvenient. It’s all really quite confusing isn’t it. Asking the public to give a view should, of course, be a no-brainer – and the more important the issue, the less one might imagine this to be controversial. Yet the hapless Greek premier
Cold feet! – What have Pickles and Papandreou in common? Read More »
The past decade has seen a largely unquestioned view that public policy should be evidence-based. And who could question it anyway? It seems so obvious. But it has not been a completely smooth journey. There have been times when it feels more like policy-based evidence-making, as researchers have desperately sought for data that can be
When the Government cancelled the Forestry consultation earlier this year, the Prime Minister is reported to have complained that ‘we hadn’t done enough pitch-rolling’. Despite mystifying non-cricket followers, he was probably spot-on. The road to consultation has two distinct aspects – procedural and substantive. Organisers of consultations these days are quite familiar with the necessary
Growth is in; the Government needs it badly, and the country as a whole is passionate to avoid another recession. It is the backdrop for the fascinating debate on the new Planning Guidance and its presumption in favour of sustainable development. In the meantime, 37 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in England are gearing up, and
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