Consultation Strategy

Introduction

This Consultation and Participation Strategy updates work previously undertaken, and provides the following:-

A summary of local and national contexts for consultation;
The SHDC agreed consultation policy;
A progress update since adoption in 1999, with a supporting appendix including the agreed action plan;
Guiding principles that provide a framework for consultation and participation activities.

The Purpose of this Community Consultation and Participation Strategy

The purpose of this strategy is to increase community participation in:

the council’s decision making;
delivery of council services.

We believe that if South Hams residents have more of a say in these things, it will lead to:

decision making that reflects local people’s priorities;
development of services that match local people’s needs.

National Context

Consultation has long been used by both public and private sector to undertake market research, understand customer / client preferences and to measure satisfaction. It can also be used to help organisations determine strategic direction.

The duty of Best Value drove an initial wave of increased consultation for councils across England and Wales. The newly introduced Comprehensive Performance Assessment also requires local authorities to focus on consultation. Specifically the Corporate Assessment Methodology requires local authorities to provide evidence of community focus for the corporate governance strand as well as evidence that the Council’s priorities match those of the community to answer the first ‘fundamental’ question, (what is the council trying to achieve?)

Local Context

Involving the community in both the day-to-day operations of the authority and in helping to set strategic direction has become increasingly important. This has lead to the development of a range of strategies, guidance notes and techniques. There is a need to clearly identify which type of activity is being undertaken under the broad banner of ‘community involvement’.

Progress

In order to meet the requirements of Best Value and to continue engaging positively with the Government’s ‘Modernising agenda’ the authority has started to adopt a strategic approach to consultation and participation. This approach operates at three distinct levels that recognise the activities that inform:-

The strategic direction of the authority;
Day-to-day operations;
Community support.

It is supported by a statement of commitment to consultation and a range of associated activities. The agreed policy is reproduced verbatim below.

“Policy statement: - agreed by Policy Committee 11 February 1999

SOUTH HAMS DISTRICT COUNCIL POLICY FOR CONSULTING AND COMMUNICATING WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTH HAMS

Introduction to the principles

1.Public consultation and participation will ensure that South Hams District Council’s decisions are robust, that the authority remains accountable and that it continues to govern with consent. It is especially important in such a sparsely populated rural district in order to avoid the electorate feeling isolated from their local government.

2.Consultation and participation are not about giving away the power of democratically elected councillors. On the contrary, they are means of strengthening representative democracy by equipping councillors with important insights into what local people think and value. By engaging communities in the decision making process, South Hams District Council will reinforce its democratic mandate leading to greater understanding of its work by the communities it serves. It is believed that this will lead to a renewed respect for the Council, a revitalised involvement of local communities in the business of the Council, and an increased interest in elections.

3.Consultation fits into the democratic process as follows:

councillors are the elected representatives of all the District’s residents and have the power and responsibility to make decisions on their behalf in the common interest;
in making their decisions, councillors must consider the often disparate views of the individuals, communities of interest and geographical communities they represent;
residents' views carry more weight if they are the result of careful consideration based on reliable information;
consultation and participation are therefore concerned with eliciting the informed views of citizens to help councillors make judgments with which some people may disagree but which most people are willing to accept.

4.In a nutshell, South Hams District Council's policy is to promote dialogue based on good information and leading to informed decisions. Local people are genuine participants in that their views influence the judgments of councillors. It follows that the distinction between consultation (seeking people’s views) and participation (involving people in the decision-making process) is largely academic. Thus consultation is primarily a business tool for elected councillors.

Fundamental requirements

5.Before embarking upon any consultation exercise, the following basic essentials need to be satisfied to ensure that the consultation is relevant to local people and is performed in a manner that will aid the decision making process:

there needs to be a genuine reason (issue) for the consultation;
discernment - there are times when consultation is inappropriate;
there must be adequate resources, both for the consultation and for any outcomes;
realism must be incorporated to avoid raising false expectations;
the process must be both managed and manageable;
the council’s mind must not be made up in advance;
the process should in no way be seen as manipulative;
the members of the public who take part must be as representative as possible of the groups the consultation is targeting;
the process must be conducted openly and honestly;
the views expressed by members of the public must be taken into account when the council makes its decisions along with all other relevant considerations;
those decisions must be communicated back to the people who took part in the process.”

The above policy with supporting fundamental requirements has helped generate a wider understanding about the need to consult and the way consultation informs the democratic process.

Current and future activity

Currently the Council undertakes a range of consultation exercises for a variety of purposes. Diagram 1 on page 5 illustrates some of the range of stakeholders, techniques and reasons we undertake consultation. A mixture of quantitative and qualitative consultation techniques are deliberately employed:-

Quantitative consultation provides information that can be statistically validated, giving a level of confidence in the answers provided – it tends to reach more people but asks questions in less detail. In many ways it can be thought of as giving a valid ‘snapshot’ of public opinion;

Qualitative consultation is used to explore issues, gaining ideas and insight, and reasons for expressed preferences in depth and detail – but it can prove costly and tends to work with smaller groups of people.

The action plan agreed in 1999 was updated with commentary in 2000 and can be found at Appendix A. The remainder of this document contains a framework within which consultation needs to be undertaken and an action plan that builds on previous work and endeavours to address some of the more difficult issues we face in the future, for example the need to involve hard to reach groups under the ‘social inclusion’ agenda and the need to make better use of e-delivery mechanisms.