|
18.1 Written consultation exercises are designed to provide a formal
means by which people can be invited to comment on policies and proposals.
The key is to get the best spread of views from those most likely to be
affected, and from those with most to contribute.
18.2 All consultation documents should be concise, clearly laid out and
written in simple language that will be understood by the intended
audience, avoiding jargon. They should ideally contain the following:
 | a summary (preferably no more than one page long);
| a description of the issue, proposal or problem being addressed;
| the purpose of the consultation and, if appropriate, the objective
of the proposal;
| the issues on which views are being sought; wherever possible they
should take the form of clear questions and/or options;
| an explanation of what decisions, if any, have already been taken
and an explanation of why a particular option is favoured;
| if relevant, various sources of opinion and information, and
factual statements (for example, from academics or consumer groups);
| where appropriate, an explanation of who is likely to be affected,
and how, including an assessment of the impact on particular groups such as
small and medium-sized enterprises, the voluntary sector, charities and
consumers;
| the deadline for responses, and wherever possible an outline of
the proposed timetable for the rest of the decision-making and
implementation processes;
| the name, address and, wherever possible, the telephone number and
e-mail address of a person whom respondents can contact if they have
further queries;
| a list of those being consulted. You could also ask consultees to
advise you of any other organisations/individuals who should be consulted;
| a request that those responding should explain who they are and,
where relevant, who they represent (to help ensure that responses from
representative bodies are properly weighted); and
| a statement that responses will normally be made available unless
they are confidential.
| | | | | | | | | | | |
Points to think about:
| Publicity: publicise the existence of the document (for example,
through an appropriately targeted press release), and wherever possible use
the Internet to publish it and receive replies.
| Format: be ready to deal sympathetically with requests for
documents in other formats/languages. If necessary, consider other ways of
consulting ethnic minority groups or people with special needs, for
example, through face-to-face discussions.
| Timing: allow people consulted enough time to reply, making
allowances for holiday periods and other potential timing difficulties.
Decide in advance how to deal with requests for the deadline for comments
to be extended, and how to acknowledge responses.
| | |
After the consultation period:
| Reporting: the results of all consultation exercises should be
carefully analysed. Once a decision has been taken on the way forward, let
respondents know promptly how the work will proceed, and explain how the
decision reflects the results of the consultation.
| Summary: produce and make available a summary of views and
information collected from the consultation exercise.
| Feedback: where respondents ask why their views have been rejected,
try to give them a prompt and full explanation.
| | |
Pros
| Can provide users with detailed, comprehensive information.
| Gives you considered views of respondents based on
accurate information.
| |
Cons
| You may get a low response written documents will put some people
off commenting.
| You will exclude people who can¹t read or write English (consider
translating documents and providing them in other formats).
| Costs of printing and distributing documents can be significant.
| Timescales will be longer than for some other methods
of consultation.
| Analysing responses can be resource-intensive.
| | | | |
Costs: relatively cheap, but depends how many people you consult and how
you print and distribute documents.
Use to: get views on detailed and potentially complex information from
interested parties.
|
