Lessons From the #EUref?

I haven’t posted anything about the EU referendum on this blog, although I have made no secret about which way I voted on my personal facebook and twitter pages. The last few weeks have, however, got me thinking about consultation: when is it good to ask the public what they think?

Lots of the funding applications I write are strengthened by public/user consultation and funders look for this (as evidence that the project is needed) in a good bid. What I am reading in the aftermath of the referendum has made me think about what makes a good consultation (not that the referendum was a consultation, it was a vote, but I think there are still lessons that can be learned).

A dictionary definition of consultation is: “The process of discussing something with someone in order to get their advice or opinion about it.” This is different from a vote. This is not allowing the public to make a decision, this is listening to the public’s views, opinions and advice to inform a final decision. Public opinions might be considered alongside an expert/specialist point of view. The people running the project will also have an opinion (based on previous experience) and this will also be taken into account.

My thoughts around good consultation are:

1. The public (your audience/user group) must understand what is being asked of them: it is important that the people being consulted understand that they are not being asked to make a decision, they are simply being asked for their opinion.
2. The public (your audience/user group) must be able to form informed opinions about your project or the different options they are being asked to consider (what do the different options mean, why might one be better than the other?). Exposing people to different solutions (e.g. trips to other projects, examples of best practice) is not ‘influencing the result’, it is broadening their horizons before they are asked to make a decision.
3. Consultation should be designed in a way that is most appropriate to the user group (questionnaires are easy but they don’t work for everybody – e.g. a group of 3 year olds will find it hard to respond to a questionnaire but they will still have opinions which should be listened to). You should also seek to actively engage everyone (not just the people who shout the loudest) and this may be through a variety of different ways.
4. This one may be controversial…The public (your audience/your user group) may not always know what is best. Families see this every Christmas: children make a long list of expensive, colourful, bright toys and end up spending most of their time playing with the boxes they came in. Your own previous experience and evidence from other projects is also valid in a consultation exercise.
5. Once the results of a public consultation are in. They MUST be considered alongside the advice of experts, examples of what has/has not worked well in previous projects, the opinions of project staff and, if needed, the views of the funder. Ultimately, you must make what you believe is the right decision (based on all the information available to you), even if this goes against the majority of the responses you receive from the wider public.
6. Above all, if a decision made on the back of consultation isn’t working out, projects must not be afraid to hold their hands up, apologise and change course. Consultation should be ongoing and open so that users can continue to contribute their views and shape the project as it develops.

This has been on my mind a lot since the referendum but this post is not meant to be about the EU, the referendum result or even the way the referendum was carried out (or whether it should have been carried out at all). Real-life examples are useful to understand the activities that we carry out professionally and I have found it impossible not to compare the referendum to the smaller scale public/community consultations that are essential in my work. I actually think the referendum would have been better as a consultation. It wasn’t, and I can’t change that, but I can make sure I understand what I believe is good about consultation and ensure that I deliver this in my projects in the future.