THE CONSULTATION INSTITUTE

ESTABLISHED 2003 - 5,000+ PROFESSIONALS TRAINED

01 tCI Coffee Mornings

Consultation & engagement is often a job of one.

You carry the legal risk, the political pressure and the methodological calls, frequently the only person in your organisation who does this work. The Coffee Morning puts you in a room with people who do the same job, every Thursday, for an hour.

Thu
Every week
11am
For an hour
Free
To attend
Online
On Teams
A member enjoying a coffee at an informal session
One topic, one room, one hour
02 The problem we built this around

Most practitioners make these calls alone

The judgment calls that decide whether a consultation survives challenge rarely have a colleague down the corridor who has faced the same one.

i.Whether continuous engagement can stand in for a formal consultation, or whether a court would treat it as one anyway.
ii.How to prove you reached the people a proposal actually affects, not just those who always respond.
iii.What the consultation record needs to show before a judicial review letter arrives.

The Coffee Morning closes that gap. Each Thursday opens up one live issue, from the Gunning principles to managing organised campaigners, so you can test your thinking against people working through the same problems elsewhere.

03 The format

One hour.
One topic.
Every Thursday.

Every Thursday follows the same simple shape, so it’s easy to join, and built so the room does most of the talking.

01

One topic a week, picked for what practitioners are up against right now.

02

Opened by a tCI Fellow or an invited specialist who knows the terrain.

03

An open discussion: a conversation between peers, never a lecture.

04

Never recorded. Live only, so people speak freely about real cases.

05

Free to attend, from anywhere, on Microsoft Teams.

Colleagues around a meeting table joining a Coffee Morning on a video call
Join from your desk, or gather the team
04 Who attends

The people who lead consultation usually own its risk

01

NHS & ICB teams

Statutory involvement duties under sections 13Q and 14Z2, where a thin process invites a scrutiny referral or judicial review.

02

Local government & combined authorities

Contentious service change, devolution and planning consultations, held under close public and political scrutiny.

03

Fire & rescue services

Community Risk Management Plans and station or crewing change, usually with no dedicated engagement resource.

04

Police services

Police and Crime Plans and force change with PCCs and mayors, where legitimacy depends on being seen to listen.

05

Utilities & infrastructure

Renewables, networks and major infrastructure, where statutory consultation meets organised local opposition.

Every session becomes an insight

Read the thinking from past sessions.

After each Coffee Morning we publish a short, practical insight, the law, the risks and what works, distilled from the discussion. A growing, searchable library, free to read.

Explore the insights
We’ve got the kettle on.

Join the conversation, every Thursday

One hour, one topic, and a room full of people from across the public sector. It’s free to attend.

Register for free
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