The first, and most important principle of The Consultation Charter is Integrity. It states that a consultation should be transparently honest, and that no-one will waste your time asking your views if their mind is already made up.

This is why it is so important for organisations to be crystal clear about the scope of their consultations. In effect there is a need to state “These are the matters upon which you can influence us; but on these aspects, the decision has already been taken….”

So far; so good. Nothing could be clearer!

However, in practice, there are significant challenges. For example, there is a difference between decisions you have consciously taken as a consultor organisation, and those over which you have limited or no control, and for which you have no responsibility – and with which, on occasions, you may profoundly disagree.