The votes have been counted and a new host of councillors, mayors and PCCs have taken their seats, alongside those lucky enough to have retained theirs. For many of you in local authorities, or other public bodies that work closely with local authorities, you will be dealing with brand new and shiny politicians, unaware of the need for consultation and the complications of having to ask the public again about things they thought they’d already agreed to.

So how best to go about sharing the wonderful news of consultation with them? Probably the easiest method would be to convene a workshop with your new councillors- put up your friendliest consultation faces and bring them into a room (preferably just after someone else has broken the news that they can’t just do everything they want to), sit them down and talk them through the key elements. But what do they need to know? Over the next two weeks, we’ll take you through the key points.

We can look at this through the traditional journalistic “who, what, when, where, why” paradigm, although in an unusual twist, we’re actually going to start with the why. There are of course the usual reasons- in many cases you will be legally required to, whether by statute or by the requirements of the common law (the Institute does a fine course on an Introduction to the the Law of Consultation if you need to brush up on these in advance- including my beloved Plantagenet Alliance, which explained the circumstances in which a duty to consult arises), sometimes for other reasons a politician may wish to consult when there is no specific duty to do so (though they should be reminded that in these circumstances the consultation must still be conducted lawfully) but at the moment, there’s another particularly compelling reason to do so- a moral one.

It is a sad truth at the moment that economic factors mean many councils are heading into the doldrums. One in five councils say they’re at risk of having to issue section 114 notices, an effective declaration of bankruptcy (though technically they can’t go bankrupt) which has serious implications for spending. Unfortunately, with the economy still in a highly sensitive state, there is unlikely to be any significant change in the near future, and it’s likely to mean spending restrictions and, whisper it, potentially even cuts.

As the new cohort of councillors come in, brimming with ideas, a dose of reality will swiftly approach. And this is where the moral reason to consult comes in. If cuts will have to be made, it is critical to consult to ensure that those cuts fall in the right way, to protect the most vulnerable (and often least consulted), and to take as humane an approach as possible to pulling resources away from public services. The process of consultation and listening also enables you to gather ideas and perhaps even take the edge off some of the more difficult decisions by working out alternative plans and proposals that you might not have come up with. Given that a common refrain from politicians looking to take council seats of their opposition is that the opposition have not been listening, you may find you have a captive audience when you explain how we formally record that listening in the policy-making process.

Two very compelling reasons for the ‘why’ we are consulting. How about the ‘what’? What exactly is the decision we will have to consult on? How do we want to present that decision to consultees? It’s alright to be clear in your own head on what you want to ask, but actually communicating that to others in a clear way can be difficult- at this point in the workshop, you may wish to delicately cough, and point out that there are experts employed to make sure this is done properly, possibly whilst either coyly looking at your shoes, or getting one of your colleagues to hold up a big neon sign behind you pointing at you and your consultation department, depending on the particular set of politicians you are working with.

Encourage the eager tyro politician to come and speak to you as soon as they know a consultation is necessary- earlier if possible, so that they can help you communicate their vision in a manner that is clear, rational and accessible to all relevant stakeholders. The better the relationships between politicians and consultation professionals are, the less likely you are to be seen as merely an inconvenient blocker to their great ideas. Establishing this from the get-go makes you a valuable humanised partner (remember the bit about friendly consultation faces? That also plays in here too…), and not an annoying process-obsessed bureaucrat.

Having established why you need to consult, what the decisions are that will need to be consulted on and how they need to work with you to ensure their policies can work and pass without legal challenge and disruption, then we can get down to the nitty gritty. Who do we need to consult? How are we going to do it? Where is our public forum in which it is going to take place? For that however, like a good play, you will have to return after the interval. Admittedly, a week is longer than most intervals, but all good things come to those who wait- and maybe you can use the intervening time to try and start setting up those valuable early meetings…

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Article by Stephen Hill

Stephen was formally the Institute’s Legal and Parliamentary Officer, though now spends most of his time playing with rockets and satellites. He retains a keen interest in issues of democracy and public engagement however and provides independent commentary on consultation current affairs and legal challenges.