STAGE THREE – DECIDING WHO TO CONSULT

STAGE THREE – THE SUMMARY

This box gives you a brief summary of the main points in this stage. Click on the links below to find out more information on each point.

3.1 IDENTIFYING YOUR STAKEHOLDERS
3.2 ENGAGING EVERYONE
3.3 WHAT SORT OF INFORMATION ARE YOU TRYING TO OBTAIN?
3.4 SET TARGETS FOR THE LEVEL OF RESPONSE YOU WANT FROM YOUR STAKEHOLDERS
3.5 HOW WILL YOU BALANCE STAKEHOLDERS’ VIEWS?
3.6 THINK ONCE, THINK TWICE, THINK LOCAL MEMBER
3.7 POINTS YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO MEASURE AT THE END
3.8 REMEMBER - KEY POINTS FROM STAGE 3

3.1 IDENTIFYING YOUR STAKEHOLDERS

Everyone involved in your service has a view on how it could be improved. Additionally non-users, staff, Councillors, suppliers, local people, agencies and organisations may have very valuable opinions and ideas that you want to hear.

You will need to work out who your stakeholders are and plan to consult them. You should start with the main customers or users of your service. For example if you were to consult on making improvements to a local park, you would probably need to consult with park users, people who live nearby, the rangers, local agencies or voluntary groups, businesses, the contractor and also people who don’t use the park (to find out why not).

Use Checklist 3.A - "Identifying Your Stakeholders” to help you be clear about who your stakeholders are.

You cannot consult with absolutely everyone about absolutely everything - do what you feel an objective observer would think reasonable and appropriate.

Consider whether there are Existing Groups and Networks  (22.55 KB) that you could consult about your proposals. Making creative use of existing forums can be time and cost effective.

3.2 ENGAGING EVERYONE

We need to ensure that our consultation is inclusive - and that we have made positive efforts to hear views of groups that have not traditionally been involved in public consultation. To see a list of these groups click here, this section will also provide you with advice on how to consult with these groups effectively.

3.3 WHAT SORT OF INFORMATION ARE YOU TRYING TO OBTAIN?

Think about what range of views you want to hear. The Table 3.1 What Sort of Views Can You Expect From Different Stakeholders  (20.50 KB)? will help you think about the sorts of responses you are likely to receive from different groups of stakeholders.

3.4 SET TARGETS FOR THE LEVEL OF RESPONSE YOU WANT FROM YOUR STAKEHOLDERS

Think about what sort of response you need for your exercise. Do you want a representative sample? Do you want an in-depth informed opinion from a smaller group of people? Do you want personal experiences? Do you want to give people opportunities to change their views through discussion and debate? The Table 3.1 What sort of Views Can You Expect From Different Stakeholders  (20.50 KB)? will help you think about the sorts of responses you are likely to get from different groups of stakeholders.

This will influence your choice of methods.

Set specific targets for the levels of response you want from your different stakeholders. Information about which consultation methods worked for which groups will be very useful for the future. At the end you want to be able to measure if:

• you got views from those you wanted
• you were successful in consulting minority, disadvantaged or under-represented groups
• different groups responded to different methods
• you gave feedback to those consulted
• people consulted felt that the consultation was worthwhile.

3.5 HOW WILL YOU BALANCE STAKEHOLDERS’ VIEWS?

At this early stage you need to consider how the views of different stakeholder groups will be balanced against each other. If there are opposing views you will need to record and report them - but whose views will you give the most weight to and why? You will need to be ready to explain this if challenged.  

Consider:

Who are your major stakeholders?
Whose opinions are more important?
Can you please everybody?
Will your decision (if one is needed) be made simply by numbers of responses or will you use more in-depth qualitative methods to get thought-through answers?
How will you explain what decisions you have taken to different people?

3.6 THINK ONCE, THINK TWICE, THINK LOCAL MEMBER

Where local consultation is planned it is the responsibility of managers to ensure that Members are kept informed and become part of the process. Click here to find out the councillor for your area.

The Area Co-ordinators can provide you with help and advice on contacting and involving local Members in public consultation. Contact Maggie Bryan (South Worcestershire) 01905 766103 or Nick Riding (North Worcestershire) 01905 728515.

Where strategic or potentially contentious consultation exercises are planned the Cabinet Member with Responsibility needs to be involved in the early planning stages - before the consultation starts. For information about when a consultation might be defined as contentious please click here  (21.00 KB). The Lead Member needs to be aware of, and have input to, the purpose of the exercise, the Consultation Project Plan  (159.50 KB) and the key messages that the Council intends to communicate about this consultation. For strategic/potentially contentious consultations the proposals should be approved by Cabinet before the consultation is undertaken.

Remember to flag up strategic/potentially contentious consultation exercises in the Cabinet Forward Plan. Consult your manager about the process for this in your Directorate.

The Member / Officers Relations Protocol   (231.95 KB)gives further advice on the distinctive roles of Officers and Members.

3.7 POINTS YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO MEASURE AT THE END

At the end, you want to be able to measure whether:

you got views from those you wanted
you were successful in consulting minority, disadvantaged or under-represented groups
you gave feedback to those consulted
the people consulted felt that the consultation was worthwhile.

Your feedback is important!

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