The famous Welsh Rugby coach, Carwyn James (famous for his work with the 1971 British Lions) is remembered for once having urged his players to “get your retaliation in first”…

Public consultation is not traditional accountant-territory. Few consultation projects are formally budgeted, and many of the costs involved are normally funded from larger departmental or functional budget allocations. If you…

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…

“Chris! I’ll need you to organise a consultation on this issue……..” “So how long have we got ?” “Oh, don’t worry about it – you’ll get your three months –…

Sherry Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation (and its variants) is well known to many people who work in the field of public or stakeholder consultation. It starts with information giving at…

If spring is a time of re-awakening, it’s also time to get real and shed the cosy myths with which we surround ourselves in the dark days of winter. Indeed…

With talk of referendums in the air, we will all hear the old adage that the answer will of course depend upon the way the question is formulated. The suggestion…

Stand by for a dose of pure heresy…. For anyone who truly believes in high-quality consultation, it is axiomatic that it must have integrity; that the consultor genuinely wants to…

There comes a point in most areas of life where the amateur gives way to the professional, and where the rich diversity of people re-inventing the wheel every time yields…