Consultation Strategy

1 Introduction

1.1 Hampshire County Council is committed to spending public money wisely to deliver services that people want and expect. Seeking the views of local people is consequently of utmost importance to the authority in order to ensure firstly, that strategic priorities reflect local public opinion and secondly, that the strategic priorities are being achieved. The test of any authority’s success takes place at the ballot box and consultation can uncover the issues that concern residents and which may become issues at an election.

1.2 This document should be read in conjunction with the Council’s Corporate Business Plan, which sets out how the Council will give practical effect to the achievement of the 3 Corporate Priorities – Hampshire safer and more secure for all, maximising wellbeing and enhancing our quality of place – which were agreed by Council in July 2006. These priorities were shaped by a wide variety of information, including the findings of consultation from the MORI 2004/05 residents’ survey.

1.3 The importance of consultation to the Council is reflected in the corporate values, outlined in the Corporate Business Plan:

• Removing barriers to opportunities and improving choice for all
• Responding to the improvements that people say they want
• Planning for and investing in the future
• Encouraging partnership, participation and contribution

1.4 Hampshire County Council already consults widely with service users, members of the public and others and many examples of good practice exist. Consultation is undertaken by the individual service departments as well as corporately through the centralised market research function based in the Research and Intelligence Group within the Economy, Transport and Environment Department. To ensure that all the authority’s consultation activities are as effective as possible, a consistent and coordinated approach needs to be adopted.

2 Strategy Purpose and Aims

2.1 This document sets out the Council’s approach to consultation and is designed to ensure that:

• consultations link closely to the performance management framework, which in turn is governed by the priority actions set out in the Corporate Business Plan
• a system of coordination exists between individual service departments and the centre
• a consistent approach to consultation is adopted across the authority
• all consultations are carried out to a high standard
• the information collected from consultations is used to best effect

3 Definitions

3.1 In this document, ‘consultation’ is taken to mean all activities where Hampshire County Council has contact with people in order to find out their views about the Council and the services it provides. This covers a wide range of quantitative and qualitative methods, including face-to-face, postal and on-line questionnaires, telephone surveys, focus groups, workshops, public meetings and so on.

3.2 Consultation is part of a wider process of ‘community engagement’, which the Department of Communities and Local Government defines as ‘the process of working collaboratively with and through groups of people affiliated by geographic proximity, special interest or similar situations to address issues affecting the well being of those people.’ Hampshire County Council is developing a community engagement strategy which may further develop this definition.

4 Why Consult?

4.1 To ensure that the Council provides the services that people want in the way they want them. Consultation is used to:

• Involve users in making decisions about priorities, policies, projects, and strategies (which in turn stimulates the local democratic process)
• Target services more closely by providing what people say they need and want
• Monitor user satisfaction with services over time
• Improve the quality of services
• Improve the take up of services
• Address issues arising from proposed changes to services

4.2 The requirement for local authorities to consult with the public and others in a meaningful and effective way has become increasingly important over the last few years and is now a central plank in national government policy. The whole area of community engagement, of which consultation forms a significant part, is emphasised in the Government White Paper on Local Government – ‘Strong and Prosperous Communities’.

4.3 In many cases, County Councils have a statutory duty to consult. Examples of statutory consultations include Best Value Reviews, which require local government to deliver high quality, cost effective services, to set performance measures and targets and to monitor improvements over time, and consultations about the Local Structure Plan, planning applications, race and equality impact assessments and community care plans.

5 Who Does Hampshire County Council Consult With?

5.1 The people that the County Council is committed to consult with fall into a number of ‘stakeholder’ categories:

5.1.1 Council Tax Payers

Council-tax payers contribute to the funding of the County Council’s services and they have elected representatives – county councillors – making day-to-day decisions on their behalf. Generic issues such as crime and disorder, quality of the environment and long-term growth of Hampshire affect them. Methods used to consult with council tax payers over the last year have included postal questionnaires, face-to-face questionnaires, the Citizens’ Panel, focus groups, public meetings and workshops.

5.1.2 Service Users, Potential Service Users, Families and Carers of Service Users

These are the groups of people that the County Council probably spends most time consulting and involving in decision-making. Across most departments, the long-term involvement of service users is key to providing efficient and effective services which meet their needs. Methods used to involve service users include service feedback forms, telephone surveys, setting up regular service user group discussions.

5.1.3 Local Businesses

Local businesses, through the business rating system, also contribute to the funding of services that the Council provides and have an interest in a variety of subject areas. The County Council may regulate local businesses under trading standards legislation and has influence over issues that may affect the long-term growth of industry and commerce, such as education, transportation and the availability of land for development. Current methods for consulting the business community include regular surveys and special interest meetings.

5.1.4 Partner Agencies and Voluntary Bodies

The County Council has built up strong relationships with other public sector organisations, service providers and special interest groups over many years and consults with them on a regular basis. The Council’s ‘COMPACT’ is a jointly agreed framework of principles to guide the working relationship with the community and voluntary sector. Methods for involving partners include workshops and joint forums.

5.1.5 ‘Hard to Reach’ Groups

One of the underpinning values the Council has adopted is to ‘remove barriers to opportunities and improve choice for all’. It is important to recognise that traditional consultation methods such as postal surveys, tend to exclude people from some backgrounds or those who have unorthodox lifestyles. Such people are often referred to as ‘hard to reach’ because more time and effort is usually required to find the most effective ways to establish and maintain contact with them, so that their views are not overlooked. In reality, it is the public sector which is hard to reach and therefore particular effort is required to build the confidence of these communities to encourage them to tell us their views. That work takes time and we need to use a range of different approaches to understand the needs of diverse communities. We know that barriers to participation exist for:

• Minority ethnic communities
• People living in isolated rural areas
• Older people
• Teenagers
• Travellers
• Disabled people
• People of different faiths
• Homeless people
• Lone parents
• Gay, lesbian or bisexual people

The Council sets out its overall approach to Equality and Diversity through a range of policies and schemes which seek to ensure equality of opportunity in all aspects of its activities, both as an employer and a service provider.

5.2 In addition to the above, HCC also consults regularly with staff, service managers, councillors, visitors and tourists and suppliers.

6 Statement of Objectives

It is the aim of this strategy that all consultation exercises carried out by the Council, or on behalf of the Council by external bodies, should adhere to the following objectives:

6.1 Consultation will not be carried out unnecessarily

Consultation should be the second stage in the process of information gathering, following on from desk research to ascertain whether the information required has already been collected, for example by someone else in the Council, one of the Hampshire districts, central government, or another local authority. Where consultation is not statutory and the required information can be obtained from secondary sources, resources will not be wasted by carrying out an additional consultation exercise.

6.2 Consultation will be clearly linked to the priorities set out in the Corporate Business Plan

The Council’s Corporate Business Plan sets out the priority outcomes and activities designed to meet the 3 corporate priorities – Hampshire safer and more secure for all, maximising wellbeing and enhancing our quality of place. Resources will be directed to those consultation activities which support the achievement of these priorities.

6.3 Consultation will be clearly linked to decision-making and take place as early as possible in the decision-making process

Consultation should be planned at an early stage in the decision-making process, in order to allow time for all the necessary organisation, administration etc to be put in place and for those being consulted to be given sufficient period of notice and enough time to respond. This is particularly important where 'exploratory' qualitative research is being carried out among the public, key partners or stakeholders. Sufficient time should be allowed for this initial stage to be undertaken thoroughly and, where appropriate, the issues raised to be considered and used to inform the development of options for further consultation.

All parties should be clear about the purpose of the consultation, how respondents’ views will be used and when and where their views will be considered as part of the decision-making process.

6.4 Consultees should be informed of any limitations and expectations should not be raised beyond the Council’s ability to deliver

Those carrying out the consultation have a duty to ensure that they communicate honestly to respondents to ensure that expectations are not raised beyond the Council’s ability to deliver.

6.5 Consultation will be carried out to a high standard

Consultation should be targeted to make sure that the right people are involved and that others are not bothered unnecessarily. The method of consultation should be appropriate and members of staff should be competent in using these methods. Consultations should be carefully planned and should make reference to all relevant background information, including the statistical and contextual information on the Hampshire Facts and Figures webpage. Before undertaking a consultation exercise, staff should refer to the consultation good practice guidelines which are available on the intranet and should seek advice from the Research Manager if necessary. For consultations involving the community and voluntary sector, staff should refer to the COMPACT Consultation Code.

If a high quality cannot be guaranteed by carrying out the consultation internally, consideration should be given to using an approved external social research consultancy company to undertake the work on behalf of the authority.

Decision makers will be made aware of any limitations of the consultation exercise, in particular, how representative the respondents were.

6.6 Consultation will be inclusive

Different sections of the community in Hampshire have different needs and views. Every effort should be made to involve a representative cross-section of the community in decision-making. The Council will actively seek ways of engaging with communities who are ‘hard to reach’, including people from the groups mentioned in paragraph 5.1.5 above. Consideration should be given to using the voluntary and community sector to facilitate consultations with hard to reach groups.

6.7 Consultation will be coordinated

All service departments within the Council will share information on consultations to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort. Service departments and the central market research function will liaise on a regular basis to share information and ensure that departmental consultations are linked to corporate work and meet clear business objectives as set out in the Corporate Business Plan. A combined annual consultation plan will be developed covering the centre and the service departments.

Where appropriate, the authority will seek to work in partnership with others to ensure that consultation is cost-effective and is not repetitious and confusing for the people being consulted. Where opportunities exist, consultation should be carried out in partnership with other local service providers.

6.8 Results of consultation will be widely disseminated

Results of consultations will be disseminated to a wide audience to include senior officers, members, respondents and the general public.