On Friday I had a surprising text from Gez which read, “Youre going on the radio in fifteen minutes” (kthxbai). Once I had established that this was actually true, and had a quick chat with Jonathan Miles’s producer at BBC Radio Newcastle I was soon speaking with Jonathan about public consultation.
My role was to explain a bit of consultation 101 type stuff, different consultation methods including online and the importance of feedback.
The slot came up following the news that Durham County Council are consulting on how expected reductions in the Council’s public transport budget should be implemented, including cancelling bus routes. This high profile consultation alongside the government led Spending Challenge and Your Freedom crowdsourcing initiatives got Jonathan and co to thinking, ‘Why are we suddenly being asked what we think all the time?
I think this raises an important question about how we expect the public to react to this new found ability to ‘Have their say’ on a huge array of policy initiatives and spending reductions ad infinitum.What kind of a response do they want from me? How long does it have to be? I don’t really have time to do anything but a short few lines, is it worth it? Why would I want to take part in this?
How can we get people to meaningfully take part in consultations and avoid the “speak your branes” comment thread contributions if people have no idea why or how to go about having their say?
I am certainly not suggesting that consultors start prescribing the relevant content or format of ‘valid’ answers, which only allows a narrow group of experts or campaigning groups who have the time and savvy to write the ‘perfect’ response. But surely some guidance on what to keep in mind when you’re taking part would be helpful to most, things like:
- Personal experiences can be used to illustrate points, but we cannot help your individual case, please seek advice from your local authority or CAB.
- Please read as much of the background information as you can,
- You don’t need to answer all the questions if you don’t want to,
- This consultation focuses on [Area name], please try and keep responses relevant to this area
The same goes for de-mystifying the process:
- The responses in this consultation will be analysed by x to create a report to support the decision making process,
- The timetable for the consultation is as follows… The decision on policy x will be made 2 weeks after the consultation report is filed.
- Feedback from this consultation will be available on this site as of 23rd May, you can also request copies from the following address xyz@example.com.
Good consultations already do this, but recognising an individual’s consultation response or crowdsourcing idea comes from a different place to a key stakeholder company and providing guidance will certainly help people to understand and take part in more consultation.
I think as consultation and crowd-sourcing becomes more prevalent, the public will begin to answer the questions above and common standards of presentation and accessibility of language will emerge in processes, and indeed become expected by those taking part.
One of the most interesting parts of online consultation is that we are now (hopefully) over the tipping point of ‘should we be consulting like this’, to the idea that this just needs to happen and from that the far more interesting debate about how we build and improve processes that are relevant and helpful to respondents.
You can listen to my chat with Jonathan here.
