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Consultation: frequently asked questions
If you have a question about consultation or the Code of
practice on written consultation, please email Paul Greening, Consultation Policy Team, Modernising Public
Services Group, Cabinet Office at pgreening@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
The questions are divided into two parts:
 |  Where can I find out
about consulting black and ethnic minority communities?
The Home Office have published "Black
and Minority Ethnic Voluntary and Community Organisations: a Code of
Good Practice". The Code of Good Practice includes a
chapter on consultation, participation and representation - developing
inclusive Government policy. The Code itself aims to make a positive
impact on the relationship between Government and the Black and
Minority Ethnic (BME) voluntary and community sector.
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| Where can I find out about different consultation methods?
We have published a best practice guide, How
to consult your users, which is designed to help you get
started, and point you in the right direction. It gives general 'good
practice' tips about consultation, introduce some of the commonly-used
ways of consulting users, set out some of the issues to think about
when considering each method, and summarise the pros and cons of
different types of consultation.
Also, the
IDeA website contains a comprehensive table showing may
different approaches to consulting.
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| Where can I find out about consulting hard to reach groups?
There are ways of reaching most groups in the
community, but some of them demand considerable effort, and there is
no easy answer as to how it should be done. The
IDeA website contains some useful tips and ideas as well as a
case study on the Newham experience of involving ethnic minorities,
taken from
'Involving the Public' and based on a published article
You might also like to see the reports from "Involving
Users", a two-year action research project by the
National Consumer Council and Consumer Congress, sponsored by the
Cabinet Office. It explains that effective consultation and
involvement are not easy and gives pointers to how barriers can be
overcome
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| How do I evaluate a consultation?
We are often asked for advice about how to evaluate a consultation.
Some
tips can be found on the IDeA website:
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| Does the Code of practice cover, both local and national
consultation exercises?
It depends! The code is aimed at national consultations - that is,
those that cover the whole area of a department's responsibility,
which may be England, or may include other parts of the UK - where
views are sought from the public. Parts of it may also be relevant to
more limited consultations - which in any event are often put in the
public domain - such as those seeking views from professional bodies
or departmental trade unions, regional or local consultations, or
consultation with local government (which is covered by the Framework
for Partnership between central and local government).
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