When the Institute began in 2003, there was quite a lot of public and stakeholder consultation. Some of it was excellent; rather too much of it was classic tick-in-box and the occasional exercise hit the headlines, usually for the wrong reasons.  The Government was prone to grand consultative gestures and spent freely on some major listening projects, but the link between public responses and policy-making was usually obscure.

Ten years later, our public services are leaner and meaner, but facing massive change and the pressures to consult and involve people effectively have never been greater.  No longer is it a question of whether to consult – today it is “How can we consult cost-effectively?”