ANNEX 3
Scoping review – existing literature on consultation“IT IS OUR MONEY ANYWAY”[13]
This study, commissioned by the DETR and carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, aimed to explore current methods and approaches employed by local authorities to consult their residents on their budget-setting. The project involved case studies in seven authorities, which were purposively selected to reflect the range and diversity of local authorities.
The project involved in-depth interviews with members and officers from the seven authorities, and focus groups with the general public in each authority. The project focused on referenda, self-completion questionnaires, public meetings and qualitative approaches (eg focus groups or discussion workshops). No distinction was made between qualitative approaches generally, and deliberative approaches specifically.
The key messages for best practice for authorities to come out of the research were:
The necessity to overcome cynicism and to persuade the public that their views are being taken seriously. Objectivity and feedback were seen as the key to achieving public confidence.
The key challenge authorities faced was the presentation of financial information to enable the public to understand the issues and make informed decisions. The public preferred information to be presented in the form of diagrams and pictures, and were keen that information should make clear what level of service an individual household or area could expect to receive.
The profile of local authority plans and the constraints under which local authorities operate need to be raised. The report suggests that this could be achieved by means of ‘public forums among selected cross-sections of the community and high levels of publicity for the event, outcomes and its impact on council plans’.
The findings suggested emphasis should be put on multiple approaches to ensure the ‘inclusiveness’ of the consultation. The public prefer consultation which ‘goes to them’ and for an opportunity to express views on issues relevant to themselves or their locality.
Two-tier authorities were keen to improve communication and collaboration with each other to avoid duplication and to combat the confusion the public often feels vis-à-vis the differences in responsibilities and budgets of the two tiers.
Internally, two key lessons to be learned are the close involvement of officers with marketing and/or research experience in consultation exercises, and the need to have councillors and departments from across the authority committed to the consultation exercise.
REVISITING PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A DECADE OF CHANGE[14]
This study, commissioned by the DETR, and carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, was designed to measure the extent of popular knowledge and engagement with local government in England. Issues covered included: basic knowledge of their local authority and political control; local government services; and council finance. Satisfaction with services and information provision were also covered. Attitudes towards and willingness to take part in consultation initiatives were also measured.
The project involved 2,074 face-to-face interviews with a random sample of English adults aged 18+, in March and April 1999. The overall response rate was 65% and data was weighted to correct for selection and response biases.
The survey found some confusion surrounding council functions, which is bound to impact on residents’ abilities to make informed judgements on local authority finance issues. For example in single-tier areas, 30% thought that schools were provided by central government and 23% that hospitals were provided by their local council. In two-tier areas, 49% thought that hospitals were provided at either district or county council level.
The majority of the population (64%) believe that councils should have the final say in deciding council tax, with no difference by party allegiance as had been the case in previous surveys before 1999. However, 41% perceive that central government currently has all or a large say in setting council tax. Likewise while only 23% knew that central government is responsible for setting the business rate, 64% think local councils should have this power. This would suggest there is popular demand for more local autonomy in setting local taxes.
Although around two-thirds of people (68%) recall receiving an explanatory leaflet with their council tax bill, only 15% say they have actually read it. Though fewer people say they had received a newspaper from their local council (58%), 27% say they have read it, suggesting that local authority finance issues are considered less important, interesting or comprehensible than other local authority issues. Perhaps reflecting the increased difficulty people have in comprehending finance issues as opposed to other council issues, 58% feel their local council kept them very or fairly well informed about the services it provides, falling to 39% who say the same about financial matters. A fifth of people in two-tier areas say their county council keeps them well informed about finance issues; this reflects people’s perceptions of county councils as being remote institutions (which MORI often finds), and the fact that official council tax communications come from district councils. Two in five say they have not seen any information about their county council finances, compared with 16% who say this of their district council.
Unsurprisingly, given low turnout in recent years in local authority elections compared with general elections, a third of the population say they have a great deal or a fair amount of interest in local politics, and this has obvious implications for the very political process of local authority budget-setting. However, 45% claim they would be interested in taking part in an important decision about their council’s budget. Twice as many (60%) say they would trust a referendum of local people to come to the best decision about increasing the council tax always or most of the time, as would trust local councillors (30%).
LGA SURVEY ON DETAILS OF LOCAL AUTHORITY CONSULTATION ON BUDGETS AND COUNCIL TAX IN 2001/2
This survey, conducted by David Maddison of the LGA, asked all local authorities whether they intended to consult over the 2001/2 budget-setting process and the audience and method of consultation they used. A proforma was sent to each authority and 91 responses were received. The results are based on unweighted data.
All of the respondents to the survey (91 of 388) said they intended to consult over their budget-setting process in 2001/2.
Of the audiences intended to be consulted, businesses appear to be the main constituency asked their opinion (not surprisingly, as there is a statutory duty to consult businesses), with 88% of authorities of the survey doing this, followed by 42% who consult council taxpayers, 20% who consult their staff or trade unions, 19% consulting voluntary sector, and 12% consulting schools. Around 48% say they consult other audiences, and these vary quite widely from parish councils, council tenants, area forums, to minority groups, churches, Citizens’ Panels and other council partners.
The predominant method of consultation appears to be meetings, with two-thirds (66%) of the authorities responding to the survey saying that did this. Less than half use other methods, with 35% using letters or questionnaires, 25% leaflets, newspapers or adverts, 21% market research (focus groups or Citizens’ Panels), and 2% using referenda. Around a third (37%) say they use other methods, some quite innovative, for example an internet version of a ‘taxometer’ used by Cheshire County Council, roadshows and radio phone-ins used in the Isle of Wight, and presentations to area forum meetings (Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council).
There are a number of possible implications to be drawn from these findings, although we should be wary of the fact that most authorities failed to respond.
Many authorities make little effort to consult beyond traditional approaches among largely self-selecting audiences;
There are examples of innovation.
ATTITUDES TO LOCAL TAX AND SPENDING[15]
This study, a re-analysis of British Social Attitudes survey data, is presented in a commentary paper by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In the 1996 British Social Attitudes survey carried out by the National Centre for Social Research, a module on local tax and spend issues was included, which was asked of a third of the sample (1,200 randomly selected British adults). The sample included 149 out of the 459 authorities in Great Britain in 1996, and 43 out of the 55 shire counties (including Scotland). The module was designed to answer three questions:
Is there evidence of public demand for greater local autonomy on tax and spend issues?
If local authorities had greater autonomy, is it likely that councils would face pressures for higher local spending?
For which local services are there likely to be pressures to change spending decisions and are these due to self-interest or altruism or both?
The report acknowledges that ‘there has been very little research into public support for (or opposition to) increased local autonomy over taxation and public spending decisions’.
The analysis demonstrated that levels of support for less central government control over local authorities have been broadly consistent from 1983 to 1996. Around 40% have consistently said that central government should exert less control with around 10-20% saying they should have more. There is a link between views of whether central government should have more or less control over local authorities and those who support or oppose local tax determination. Over 80% of those who want less central control over local authorities support local tax determination; by contrast 35% of those who want more central control over local authorities support local tax determination.
However, a majority do think that local councils should have the final say over the level of local taxes, though this has decreased from 75-80% in the mid-1980s to 68% in 1996. There are significant regional variations with respondents in Greater London least likely to favour local councils having the final say (54%) than those in Scotland and Wales (over 80%).
The analysis showed that people are more likely to support higher spending at the national level (63%) than at the local level if local taxes had to rise to pay for it (21%). The analysis found ‘there is a close correspondence at the individual level between support for changes in local spending out of self-interest and out of the interests of the area as a whole’.
Multivariate analysis of the two key components of individual support for changes in spending (personal benefit and benefit for the area) on each of seven local services (schools, services for the elderly, services for children, street cleaning, leisure services, local housing, and local police) was carried out. This demonstrated that for each of the seven spending areas, if they thought a spending increase would increase their council tax bill, people were less likely to see the extra spending as being in their interests or in the interests of their local area.
MODERN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: GUIDANCE ON ENHANCING PUBLIC PARTICIPATION[16]
This document, written by Professors Lowndes, Stoker, Wilson, Leach, Dr Pratchett and Melvin Wingfield, aimed to ‘help officers and members in local authorities to think through and then advance their approach to public participation’. Essentially it aimed to guide local authorities in how to develop a more systematic approach to participation within local authorities.
The key messages from each chapter were:
In the last thirty years local authorities have increasingly consulted more with the public they serve and developed a range of approaches for doing so. The election of a Labour government in 1997 committed to see more effective public participation in decision making has meant that ‘engaging with the public has become a touchstone for the general effectiveness of local authorities’.
The key to ‘unlocking the challenge of advancing effective public participation’ is recognising the gap between the public and ‘officialdom’. Issues that need to be fully recognised are the public perception (however fair or unfair) that local authorities are remote and bureaucratic institutions, and that to engage the public they need to be convinced that something worthwhile will be achieved by their investment of their time and effort. It also needs to be recognised that both members and officers can be sceptical about the virtues of participation. An honest assessment of the tensions raised in promoting public participation is needed for it to be effective.
The document goes on to argue that the real challenge is to ensure participation is a mainstream feature of an authority’s activities and not a ‘bolt-on extra’. Therefore authorities need to assess their own consultation, communicate their commitment to consultation, build capacity to carry it out and ensure the results impact on decision making structures.
Another challenge for authorities is to comprehend what they are doing, why they are doing it and whether it is achieving its objectives. Issues revolve around the evaluation of current consultation exercises and developing a comprehensive resourcing strategy for it.
In addition to thinking carefully about the strategic and evaluative approaches, authorities need to focus on communication of the core elements of their consultation strategy to members and other stakeholders. The scope and limitations of consultation initiatives need to be communicated.
Development of consultation depends on developing capacity among the public and among the authority’s staff. Training is key to building support within an authority while the public may benefit from citizenship education.
A more connected approach between consultation and political and managerial processes needs to be developed. To overcome the public perception of officialdom as monolithic, effective strategies are necessary to work together with other government agencies.
FEELING THE PULSE: INTERPRETING AND USING PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT[17]
This report, written by Simon Atkinson and Ben Page of the MORI Local Government Research Unit on behalf of the IDeA, was intended as a guide for local authorities on how to interpret and use quantitative opinion surveys. The guide focuses on four areas – aims and objectives, analysing the results, how results can be used corporately, and communications.
The key four points are: remembering the original objectives of the research; understanding the differences between research and consultation and their respective merits; ensuring the work fits in with Best Value reviews; and ensuring that all stakeholders are involved. Understanding the strengths and limitations of the methodology (eg sample size, profile, seasonal factors) are also important.
The Analysis Stage section focuses on key things to look for when analysing results – the overall picture, whether views are consistent across the population, what is most important to service users, what do we know about expectations. It emphasises the importance of comparing findings, with other council services, other authorities, and historical trends.
The ‘Corporate Dimension’ chapter sets out how to use survey results given the various constraints local authorities operate under, particularly the tough limits on public expenditure and the extra roles authorities have been given by central government, such as community leadership. Thus important issues to look at are the relative importance attached to services and current perceptions of them, and statistical analysis to understand what is driving attitudes.
The chapter ‘Getting the Message Across’ focuses on how authorities can identify priorities from the research – which findings do not require action, which things cannot be changed in the short-term, which results highlight a communications need, and which results highlight the need for more action. The guide suggests focusing communications requirements on three key areas – who the audience is, method and content of communication.
NEW COUNCIL CONSTITUTIONS: CONSULTATION GUIDELINES FOR ENGLISH LOCAL AUTHORITIES[18]
This document, written by Professor Gerry Stoker of the University of Manchester, and Dr Colin Copus and Frances Taylor of INLOGOV (University of Birmingham) set out guidelines for local authorities to consult over the introduction of new political management arrangements. The Local Government Act 2000 places a duty on authorities to consult, and the guidance set out ways authorities could ‘approach, organise and design consultation in line with the requirements of the Act’ and engage ‘the public and other stakeholders in a debate’ to ensure ‘consultation is open, transparent and responsive’.
The guide focused on five areas: getting into the right frame of mind, launching the debate, enriching the debate, meeting specific challenges and coming to a judgement.
Getting into the right frame of mind argues that consultation should be seen as an opportunity for a wider ‘health check’ on the state of local democracy, and stresses the challenge that consultation is (arguing for different approaches for different audiences). It also stresses the importance of timetabling and that consultation should be divided into three phases – launching the debate, engaging the public and coming to judgement.
Launching the debate discusses how to provide information in a fair and balanced way. Using the findings of focus group discussions, the authors advocated the use of a variety of mechanisms for distributing and presenting information, providing information through familiar routes as well as unusual channels, avoiding jargon, using plain language and good quality design, and utilising information from non-local authority sources to demonstrate information is not biased or partial. Based on the focus groups, the guidance argues for the presentation of the context and principles underpinning the debate, the clear presentation of the basic options (without using ‘jargon’) and the key distinctive features of each option that need to be explored before a decision is made.
Enriching the debate sets out core principles of good practice for consulting both the public and stakeholders on complex issues. It outlines three general aims authorities should have – providing information, listening to the public and exchanging ideas with them. The authority firstly needs to identify the stakeholders to be consulted, and identify who is to ‘lead’ the consultation exercise (bearing in mind the importance of overcoming ‘they’ve already made up their minds syndrome’). The guidance then stresses the importance of selecting the right consultation method for each audience, bearing in mind the necessity to ensure representativeness and depth to consultation, the nature of the population, the degree of detail that require the public’s views, and the existence of established channels to save on set-up costs. The guidance argues that ‘qualitative methods are key to engaging stakeholders and forums’ and suggests using specific events to engage them. Two potential issues of concern the guidance addresses are ‘have we done enough’ and ‘how do we avoid the public thinking the result is a foregone conclusion’. The first, it argues, is dependent on the size and type of authority and the available resources, and the second on the behaviour of the councillors.
Meeting specific challenges suggests seven challenges authorities face when consulting on political management arrangements, three of which are pertinent to consultation on tax and spend – hard-to-reach groups, two-tier areas, and being prepared for the public response. For hard-to-reach groups, the guidance suggests using focus groups, using existing community and social networks, using public bodies working with hardto- reach groups (eg voluntary sector), and placing information material in regularly visited places. The key to consulting in two-tier areas is ‘to adopt a co-operative, systematic, yet flexible approach’ and ensure people are aware of the respective divisions of responsibility. The guidance warns of the pitfall that ‘people may well want an answer to questions that are not relevant’ and suggests that ‘a careful balance is needed between allowing the public and other stakeholders to debate the issues they feel are important and giving some direction to events to avoid the unhelpful issues’. Careful management of events and deliberation is the key here.
Coming to a judgement identifies three main issues – who should judge, how the responses should be weighed, how the judgement should be fed back. The guidance says ‘it would seem appropriate for public opinion to dominate at least in terms of the broad option’ and ‘letting the opinions of partner agencies take a more dominant role in deciding the detailed aspects’. The guidance suggests more weight should be placed on quantitative evidence for the choice of option, and on qualitative research for details of arrangements. Although the guidance anticipates local authorities making the judgement, it suggests an ‘independent commission’ could be useful to avoid the perception that the outcome is not pre-ordained. Feedback on the judgement is important – indeed ‘the care taken to consult in the first place should be matched by the care taken to inform the public of the outcomes’.
REFERENCES
“It is our money anyway…”: Lessons learnt from giving the public a voice in local authority spending decisions ISBN 1 85112 365 0 £25 (DETR, March 2000)
Revisiting Public Perceptions of Local Government: A Decade of Change ISBN 185112 367 9 £20 (DETR, March 2000)
Attitudes to Local Tax and Spending (John Hall, Carl Emmerson and Lindsay Brook, The Institute for Fiscal Studies, Commentary 68, February 1998)
Modern Local Government: Guidance on Enhancing Public Participation ISBN 185112 124 2 £10 (DETR, October 1998)
Feeling the Pulse: Interpreting and Using public opinion research in Local Government (Simon Atkinson and Ben Page, September 2000)
New Council Constitutions: Consultation Guidelines for Local Authorities ISBN 011 753563 X £90 per volume (TSO, October 2000)
[13] “It is our money anyway…”: Lessons learnt from giving the public a voice in local authority spending decisions ISBN 1 85112 366 0 £25 (DETR, March 2000).
[14] Revisiting Public Perceptions of Local Government: A Decade of Change ISBN 1 85112 367 9 £20, (DETR, March 2000).
[15] Attitudes to Local Tax and Spending (John Hall, Carl Emmerson and Lindsay Brook, The Institute for Fiscal Studies, Commentary 68, February 1998).
[16] Modern Local Government: Guidance on Enhancing Public Participation ISBN 1 85112 124 2 £10, (DETR, October 1998).
[17] Feeling the Pulse: Interpreting and Using public opinion research in Local Government
(Simon Atkinson and Ben Page, September 2000).[18] New Council Constitutions: Consultation Guidelines for Local Authorities (TSO, October 2000).
Published 4 July 2002
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