Memorandum by Leicester City Council (LGC
04)
1. Leicester City Council is committed to
good consultation with its residents and service users and to
using the information received in ways that affects its decision-making
processes.
2. In February 2000 the Policy and Resources
Committee agreed the following statement:
The Council is committed to effective participation
with the people of Leicester—residents, service users, businesses
etc to improve the quality of decisions it makes on their behalf,
and will inform them subsequently of the decision and the reasons
why.
3. While this is, and remains, our aspiration
we recognise that sometimes our consultation does not reflect
these sentiments.
4. Our practise is sometimes good and sometimes
could be improved. We are striving to improve our standards and
feel that significant progress has been made over the last few
years—there is a much higher awareness of consultation within
the Council, a greater degree of concern about standards, more
effective use of the findings and, usually, significant influence
on decisions made.
5. This has come about through:
— a renewed focus and role for the
Public Consultation and Research group—the corporate body
with oversight of consultation within the council;
— a revised intranet based Consultation
Toolkit which contains a wealth of information on consultation
methodologies, procedures and processes;
— a quarterly Consultation Bulletin
which covers the major consultations being carried out by the
council;
— a Departmental Diary which lists
all the consultations being carried out over the forthcoming months
(included as part of the Consultation Bulletin). At the moment
in any quarterly period there are around thirty separate consultation
exercises being carried out by the council; and
— a Consultation Training Programme
open to all officers engaged in consultation.
6. The Leicester City Council has a dispersed
model of consultation. This means that responsibility for each
consultation exercise rests with the department initiating the
exercise. There is no corporate control although there is a central
co-ordinating and oversight body mentioned above.
Question 1. The general effectiveness of
public consultation and its impact on local authority decision-making
and possible ways to improve it
7. We try to achieve this although we acknowledge
that there are areas where the emphasis is more on ticking the
box rather than indicating a real desire to consult positively
our residents.
8. We have a number of examples of good
practice.
— In Social Care and Health specific
community groups are set up, funded and supported which offer
the opportunity for input into policy making; eg physically and
learning disabled groups and carers groups. These are effective
because they get a response from a range of people with a variety
of impairments and different life experiences, many of whom are
very vocal. Service plans are moulded around these expressed needs.
— The Housing Department has a number
of active tenant participation bodies. For example in the Housing
Stock Options consultation was a good example of listening to
housing tenants. Another example is the Tenant's Inspectorate
and the Customer Care Team which link with housing management
and front line services.
— The Education Department's recent
consultation on Building Schools for the Future has been a very
comprehensive consultation exercise indicating support for improving
the educational infrastructure of Leicester. Other consultation
exercises include those that are statutory and those that are
informal. The Education and Lifelong Learning Department are developing
a range of approaches to encourage the active participation of
young people, including the development of new ways of engaging
and consulting young people. Young people are currently giving
their views with regard to Children's services, by having discussions
facilitated by a youth worker followed by the completion of a
questionnaire.
Question 2. How public consultation fits
into the local authority decision making processes
9. We encourage all sections of the council,
and elected members, to welcome positively and encourage the participation
of our residents in the development of policies and in improving
service delivery. However, we would reluctantly have to acknowledge
that too often our consultation is one way.
10. Improving our decision making through
using the findings of our consultations is a difficult task and
involves a shift in mindset. However, we feel that the progress
made by the Public Consultation and Research Group in its five
years of existence has made a real impact in emphasising the benefits
to service delivery from "good consultation". In addition,
of course in many instances consultation is a statutory requirement.
11. One of our more pressing issues in this
area is to find adequate and reliable mechanisms for the dissemination
of intelligence gathered from individual consultation exercises.
Too often this information goes no further than those directly
involved. We are exploring ways of addressing this issue through
a possible half yearly "consultation dissemination newsletter".
12. Our elected members occasionally do
use information from consultation exercises to ask questions of
services and occasionally ask for further research.
Question 3. Whether public consultation by
local authorities is part of a continuing process of communication,
information dissemination and participation
13. A new body within the Council, the Communications
and Marketing Forum, has incorporated consultation within their
remit and so consultation is now part of wider focus on all the
communication and dissemination activities of the council.
14. We recognise that the public want feedback
and information from the council—and that we are collectively
considered as part of "the government" whether local
or national.
15. We are quite good at gathering information—not
so good at feeding it back and/or saying what has happened to
it. However, we also recognise that the public wants to see change
from their involvement in all consultation exercises. We are trying
to ensure that feedback happens at all times.
Question 4. Whether best practice is being
developed and applied widely
16. We have the Public Consultation and
Research group to facilitate this, plus the Consultation Toolkit
on the intranet with 21 sections covering all aspects of research
and consultation, setting up a project, implementing it and monitoring
and feedback. In addition we produce a quarterly Consultation
Bulletin, which is distributed to all responsible for, or involved
in, consultation.
Question 5. The extent to which consultation
exercises reach an audience beyond those who typically participate
17. This we are trying to ensure, particularly
through e-consultation mechanisms, and with our three yearly Residents
Survey. We are developing on-line forums, on-line consultation
and e-mail forms of consultation. This enables us a reach a computer
literate audience.
18. The three yearly Residents Survey is
a face-to-face interview with 1,100 residents in Leicester selected
on a random basis. We find that the information received from
this method is very reliable, although very expensive.
19. Most statutory consultations have set
target groups. For non-statutory consultations we are trying to
reach a wider audience than those who traditionally participate
through offering a wider variety and mix of methods of participation
eg public questionnaires in local newspapers along with focus
groups.
20. We do acknowledge an issue in Leicester
around language barriers and, while most consultations offer translation
facilities, our experience is that these are rarely used.
Question 6. Whether the new Cabinet structures
in local government facilitate consultation and the involvement
of constituents in decision-making
21. This varies between Scrutiny Committees
and we have no standardised approach. Some are good and others
are less committed to consultation. However, we feel we have moved
forward significantly over the last few years as consultation
has become embedded to a greater degree within council processes
and procedures. One good example of consultation being undertaken
is on the Night-time Economy of the city. This is part of a wider
in-depth investigation initiated by the Committee.
22. There does appear to be a greater understanding
of why we are consulting, what we are consulting on and what we
can change. This is significant progress.
23. We would also acknowledge that when
we have undertaken honest and effective consultation we have greater
legitimacy, more robust policies and better service delivery.
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