Regular listeners to Radio 4’s TODAY programme on Tuesday morning may have heard an interview with Professor Helen Stokes Lampard of The Royal College of General Practitioners. She claimed that the UK’s standard ten minute slots for GP consultations is among the shortest in Europe, and that this affects the quality of the primary care service.

Obviously, the wrong type of consultation; not relevant to the Consultation Institute, I thought.

And then I thought again. What was the Professor’s complaint?

Although it was adequate for some straightforward conditions, and for those able to describe their symptoms easily, things were not always that simple. Older, less articulate patients suffered from multiple ailments or had complex issues and needed longer to be heard; others found difficulty explaining their circumstances, especially where there was a long history and the GP was one they did not know personally.

And I thought there were parallels here with many public consultations. Earlier this week, I addressed over a hundred planning specialists in the annual Waterfront Infrastructure Planning Forum. They all encounter communities which need time and space to absorb what is potentially happening to them, and need a process that affords them the opportunity to be heard.

One of the talking points was the effectiveness of public hearings, with statutory bodies like Natural England pointing out that they have to charge for the time of their staff if they attend such events. You start wondering whether dialogue is there for the professionals or the public!

Planning consultations take months – whereas GPs only have 10 minutes.

But both are processes of listening, and have to be tailored to the specific dialogue environment. They must take account not only of the subject-matter, but also the ability of individuals to express themselves and the capacity of organisations and decision-makers to take account of what they have heard. In legal terms, public consultations have to observe the four Gunning Principles. The fourth states that consultors must demonstrate that they have given consultees’ views conscientious consideration. The entire purpose of the exercise is to arrive at that point.

Just like a GP arrives at a diagnosis and a treatment plan, so a public service decision-maker seeks to understand the available options, their likely impacts and what people think about them.

Both require skillful listening, and considered decision-making.

There’s lots in common!

Consider attending our Law of Consultation training course on 26 April in York to learn more about the Gunning Principles and how to prevent Judicial Reviews.