The Institute’s book launch this week brought together people from an amazing range of disciplines. From the Cabinet Office to local government, managers in the Health Service, the Royal Colleges, Think Tanks, campaigning organisations, consultancies and miscellaneous others.

Some are established clients who knew we were writing The Politics of Consultation. Others were completely new to the Institute and maybe came out of curiosity. In both cases, they heard some interesting perspectives. The key message was that public consultation has become an integral feature of our democracy, but that few people have given it the attention it deserves. Until now.

No matter how much the Institute has done to promote best practice by public bodies (including about 16,000 person days of training) there is still a lack of understanding at senior levels. Frequently, the excuse is that political factors have prevented officials from planning and undertaking a good listening exercise. Either there is not enough time. Or Councillors or Ministers will not consider options which stakeholders advocate. Often it is true, but there are ways and means to handle such issues.

Political interventions in public consultations take many forms, and in The Politics of Consultation, we have tried to chronicle these occasions and derive some conclusions from them. There are few magic bullets but every organisation contemplating a controversial change needs to learn how to manage such situations. Quite apart from publishing what we hope will be an entertaining account of what currently happens, we need to help public bodies work with the political dynamic that affects them. It is not an easy area, and whilst there are experienced and proficient lobbying consultancies and public affairs specialists around, for public bodies to use them is sometimes frowned upon. And very few of them really understand the processes of public consultation.

So, whilst the launch of The Politics of Consultation is a major milestone for the Institute, it also needs to be the start of a significant area of added-value as the Directors and Associates make a determined effort to address significant challenges of coping with the political dimensions of public engagement.

Rhion Jones

Elizabeth Gammel