HAVOC - Stoke-on-Trent Compact, Consultation and Policy Appraisal: Code of Good Practice

Stoke-on-Trent Voluntary and
Community Sector Compact

Consultation and Policy Appraisal: Code of Good Practice

Extracts from the Compact are in the white boxes.

Consultation gives an opportunity to Voluntary and Community Organisations to bring their knowledge, experience and expertise to the City Council and Partner Organisations on behalf of the people and causes they work for. The VCS should be willing to offer their advice based on their objective experience and appropriate consultation with the people they work with.

Aims
The aim of this Code of Good Practice is to improve the consultation process between the City Council, Partner Organisations and the communities they serve.

The City Council and Partner Organisations will consult with the community in order to understand the affect [sic] their proposals will have on different parts of the community. Therefore consultation will not be limited to those in receipt of funding or support, but to all the appropriate communities who have a special interest in the
issues being consulted on.

"The aim of this Code of Good Practice is to improve the consultation process between the City Council, Partner Organisations and the communities they serve".

The majority of Local Compacts in England are three to five years old (2003-2005). We do not know when Stoke-on-Trent formulated our Local Compact, but it was probably at least a couple of years ago. In the past twelve months, the Council have proved conclusively that they have not improved the consultation process one iota (Schools, Dimensions, Middleport, ...). Granted, they hold "consultations", but the views of the communities are shown, time and again, not to hold any weight whatsoever.

The City Council patently does not understand the effect that their proposals will have on different parts of the Community. If they had shown even a modicum of understanding, the proposal to shut Dimensions Splash Pool would never have been put forward, and many hundreds of wasted hours would have been saved by the Community.

Once again, an important Council document has been published without being properly proof-read. In the last paragraph of the above extract, there is one very basic spelling mistake and one sentence that makes no sense at all (they have left out a necessary verb after the comma).

The time scales of a consultation process are dependent on the methods used and the form of reply requested, e.g., written, oral or e-mail. The usual time for written replies will be 8-12 weeks. In extreme circumstances there may be a need for more immediate consultation. In these circumstances it is preferable to have some consultation rather than none at all.

The National Compact actually suggests a minimum consultation period of twelve weeks, but SoTCC seems to be so averse to talking to the people and to Community Groups that the shortening of the timescale comes as no surprise. We might also suggest to the Council that they drop the words "In these circumstances" and just work by the maxim "it is preferable to have some consultation rather than none at all"!

Key Principles for Effective Consultation and
Policy Appraisal

The following are the key principles that build effective consultation and policy appraisal:

Build consultation into the regular planning cycle and consult early;
Appraise new policies and procedures, particularly at the development stage, identifying any implications for the VCS at local level;
Give enough time to respond and be clear about the purpose of the consultation;
Write documents in plain language and be clear about their purpose;
Use many different methods of consultation and communications media;
Be flexible in your approach to consultation and consider the needs of the people you wish to consult. Take account positively of the specific needs, interests and contribution of those parts of the community that represent hard to reach groups and/or socially excluded groups e.g., BME and Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual;
Respect confidentiality to encourage openness and honesty;
Feedback findings of consultation process and action taken;
Evaluate each consultation and improve future practice from findings .

Probable judgement of SoTCC by the Community on the above criteria:

consult early - FAIL
FAIL
FAIL
FAIL
FAIL
Be flexible - FAIL. consider the needs of the people - FAIL
Openness and honesty have to be two-way processes - FAIL
Feedback - FAIL
improve future practice - FAIL

So, NO COMMUNITY STARS for abiding by the key principles of Effective Consultation.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council and
Partner Organisations’ Commitments

The City Council and Partner Organisations will:

Consult the VCS on issues that are likely to affect it;
Build consultation with the VCS into plans for policy development;
Appraise new policies and procedures particularly at the developmental stage identifying as far as possible any implications for the sector;
Consult early and where possible involve the sector at a sufficiently early stage of policy development subject to considerations of urgency sensitivity or confidentiality;
Use the most appropriate methods of consultation that use accessible formats that are culturally appropriate and which give notice of and publicise consultations;
Ensure that consultation documents will be concise, written in plain language and clearly laid out;
Take account positively of the specific needs, interests and contributions of organisations that represent hard to reach or under representative groups;
Be sensitive on a case by case basis to any additional resource implications for the VCS in carrying out consultations.

In the eyes of the real Community, the City Council's record on these matters speaks for itself. We suspect thet the Council consults with self-appointed "community" organisations such as RENEW or the Burslem Regeneration Company, then deludes itself that it has actually carried out a consultation with the Community. This kind of "consultation" is not acceptable. To use one of the Council's slogans, it is "OUR CITY, OUR FUTURE" - you need to talk to, and listen to, the mere mortals who are most affected by your changes!

We must add at this point that one of the "Partner Organisations", the PCT, is massively more effective at communicating with the people than the City Council. So, to all who have carried out proper consultations for the PCT, a big Thank You!