CHAPTER 3
Developing a strategy‘The heart of the challenge is to develop a strategy which ensures that effective participation becomes a mainstream feature of the activities of the authority and not a bolt-on extra’ Vivien Lowndes and others, Guidance on Enhancing Public Participation, 1998, p18
Consulting over the budget presents its own particular challenges and difficulties. But the approach to consulting over the budget should be seen as integrated and linked with other consultation programmes within the local authority – for example, best value, the community plan or discussions within and around local strategic partnerships. Consulting over budgets should be one part of the council’s wider consultation strategy.
The key issue is to develop a strategic approach rather than just stumble into some form of participation because it seemed a good option given political contingencies or it was the only way that the authority was able to set something up quickly. This chapter outlines the key ingredients of a strategic approach to consultation over your council’s budget. We hope that by providing answers to a series of questions we will help you develop a strategy suited to your local circumstances.
WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE CONSULTATION?
To put the question provocatively: how brave do you feel? The starting point for all consultation should be a discussion within the authority on how open the process of budget-setting should be and how far consultation should go. Whatever form of public involvement is used, from a special budget conference of invited individuals to a referendum of the whole adult community, there is a decision for elected representatives and their advisers to make. Namely, what choices and options should be put before the public in the first place. The worst thing to do is to raise expectations among the public about the degree to which they can influence the outcomes of your budget deliberations and then not deliver. This not only creates problems in terms of expectation management – it is also a waste of resources.
A crucial part of any strategy will be to communicate the choices involved in budget making to your chosen target groups. People need to know about the opportunity to have their say. They also need a clear understanding of the issues that they should need to consider. Communication is a key challenge and it will need to be at the heart of your approach.
There is a strong argument for ensuring that your participation has a deliberative flavour. You need to provide information to people in a way that allows them to effectively weigh up options and reflect on the implications of different choices. They need to have the time and opportunity to come to a reflective judgement. Consulting over a budget is similar to consulting over a strategy, since that is what a budget should deliver, a sense of direction and purpose. It requires an opportunity to debate the issues and reflect on them rather than a quick test of consumer opinion or satisfaction.
In short you need to be clear about the choices that are going to be presented to the target audiences. There needs to be an opportunity for those who are consulted to have time and scope to reflect on and consider the choices that are open to them.
Finally, it is important to be clear about how far you want to pass the decision over to the public. Yes, the judgement lies with you in the final analysis – but if you go down the route of a referendum, whether you say so or not the public will regard the result as binding. Putting the decision out to the public should only be done if the political will is there and the leadership capacity is present to see it through. Moreover the decision should be a significant one in terms of the implications for budget and the council tax that is being raised. Given the time and expenditure that is involved in organising a large-scale referendum it is essential that major issues be at stake. Involving the public in that type of decision would seem to be most appropriate when a significant choice is at stake.
WHO ARE THE TARGETS OF YOUR CONSULTATION?
One way of thinking through your consultation strategy is to view your target audience as a series of expanding boundaries. First there are the stakeholders that you already have a relationship with. They might be business, voluntary or community groups who attend your current consultation forums or who are engaged with the council as grant receivers, key partners or providers of services. There is a case for taking on board the concerns of those who already have a strong stake – such as schools, various voluntary organisations, tenant and neighbourhood groups – through distinctive streams on consultation, rather than letting them dominate your consultation of the general public. Working with your existing partners and stakeholders is likely to give the results of your consultation a certain flavour and style. They represent the first circle of interests who you should expect to consult.
Table 3.1: Targets of Consultation Stakeholders are those you have an immediate relationship with. However, you also have a relationship, albeit more distant, with the general public. The initial challenge here is to reach beyond what are sometimes called the ‘usual suspects’. The ‘usual suspects’ are the residents who are most inclined (and able) to get involved and have their say. There is a strong case for considering consultation mechanisms that will give those who are not regularly involved a chance to consider the budget options faced by the council. If the budget choices you make are going to have maximum legitimacy then consultation that reaches beyond stakeholders and the ‘usual suspects’ to the general public should be considered.
There is another group who might be considered as in more a distant orbit still from the local authority, namely the so-called hard-to-reach groups. Those who struggle to get involved or are difficult to attract to consultation events may include the frail, elderly, young people, some ethnic minorities and so on. There are various ways in which these hard-to-reach groups can be reached.
A key choice then is how far to extend the consultation over budget issues. Is your main target stakeholders? Are you interested in getting beyond them to ‘ordinary’ members of the public? Do you have a particular concern about ensuring the involvement of hard-toreach groups? Your choice will reflect your sense of local demand, capacity and need.
WHEN SHOULD YOU GET PEOPLE INVOLVED?
The difficulties over timing were discussed in Chapter 2. The solution we propose is a twostage approach.
Stage 1: This would begin very early in the budget cycle (May – June) in which broad priorities and possible directions are discussed. At this stage you would not expect to talk about the details of budget allocations but instead ask for feedback on broad options and priority setting. This stage might be developed through making links to other consultation activities on best value and other issues and giving them a budget flavour.
Stage 2: This would come to the fore from November/December of each year and run on for several months. Information about funding is more precise and the levels of expenditure undertaken in the existing financial year are clearer – this means that the options and information presented to the public can be more fully expressed. At this stage you may well be consulting about details of at least part of the budget.
Most local authorities that we visited during the period of our research did not engage in an explicit two stage process such as the one that is suggested here, although Northamptonshire County Council are developing proposals along these lines. Our argument is not made in order to load new consultative demands on to local councils, but in order to make explicit what is sometimes done implicitly now and to link budget consultation with other consultative activity. The kind of first stage consultation we are suggesting would perhaps already be undertaken as part of best value reviews or other ongoing activities. We are arguing for the integration of such activities within an overarching budget consultation strategy.
WHO SHOULD LEAD THE PROCESS?
A key finding from our research work is that the strategy of the council needs to be owned throughout the organisation:
political leadership is crucial;
the understanding and at times the involvement of opposition and non-executive members is vital;
the senior officer core both on the corporate and service sides of the council have to be committed to the process;
front line staff are vital because they communicate both good and bad messages to the public that they contact.
For a strategy to work, it needs champions at various locations within any authority. The political leadership of the council in the executive must have ownership of the consultation agenda and take a prominent role in seeing it through. Councillors with an overview and scrutiny role should be aware of what is being proposed and should ensure that any consultation fits in with the broader strategy.
There could be advantages in recognising and allowing for some tension in the approaches of executive members and those more focused on overview and scrutiny. One option might be to allow a wide range of deliberate exchanges (some led by the executive and some led by overview and scrutiny members) in the early stages of budget consultation. The executive should take an increasingly dominant leadership role as the process moves on to stage 2 where draft budget options have to be considered. In order not to confuse the public it is probably better for one set of mechanisms at the second stage to be established. Overview and scrutiny councillors would remain involved but as commentators on the general unfolding budget process and ultimate arbiters with the executive of any final set of options to be put to a referendum and indeed the ultimate budget decision.
Throughout the process, officers from the finance division and beyond need to be involved in preparing budget options, organising the consultation and sifting through the responses that are obtained. Your own staff need to be kept informed and they, in turn, can be a focus for consultation.
The need for effective cooperation between officers and members emerged as a key ingredient for success in the case studies that informed these guidelines.
WHAT METHODS TO USE?
The best general advice here is to use a variety of methods in order to ensure that a variety of opinions are heard. Chapters 4-6 detail the options available to local authorities. The key point from a strategic point of view is to have the right methods for the objectives and target groups that you have in mind. What works for contacting existing stakeholders will not necessarily be appropriate for contacting hard-to-reach groups. If you want to reach beyond the ‘usual suspects’ to a representative sample of the general public, certain methods are going to be more suitable than others. Many councils may choose to adopt a range of methods in order to meet a combination of underlying objectives.
HOW CAN THE CONSULTATION STRATEGY BE SUSTAINED?
Training and management development practices may need to be re-thought to reflect the consultation strategy. There is a need to plan for consultation in the way that is done for other major tasks of change management within your authority. There is a need to identify champions to get the process going, and to address gaps in capacity in terms of training, time and financial resources. There has to be commitment to sustaining the approach over the long-term in order to build up public confidence. It is also vital to establish clear mechanisms for reporting the results of your consultation. The need to develop a sustained approach to consultation is the focus of Chapter 7.
Published 4 July 2002
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