Detailed Contents

 

 

 

Chapter 1 - Introduction: Vote for me!

  • The politicians’ dilemma
  • National, local and devolved politics
  • International perspective
  • Is the UK the world’s leader in consultation?
Chapter 2 - Why politicians should consult
  • Sounder decisions
  • Unpopular choices
  • Stakeholder support
  • Public education
  • Previous promises
  • Blunders and mistakes
  • Public relations spin
  • An impression of activity
  • Decision avoidance
  • Legislative obligations
  • Best and worst motives

Chapter 3 - The legal framework

  • Statutory duties
  • Equality law
  • Legitimate expectations
  • Judicial reviews: Building Schools for the Future, King Richard III, the rat run case, Greenpeace, Birmingham Council, library closures, Lewisham Hospital
  • Aarhus
  • Gunning Principles

Part Two: The Role of Consultation in Politics

 

Chapter 4 - Introduction: Beyond tokenism?

  • Tokenism according to Arnstein
  • Power sharing – right and left wing views
  • Evaluating consultation
  • Playing politics
  • The fall of a forestry minister

Chapter 5 - Consultation and Planning

  • Town planning
  • Neighbourhood planning
  • Nuclear power
  • Energy from waste
  • HS2
  • NIMBYism
  • Airports
  • Fracking

Chapter 6 - Consultation and Health

  • Loving the NHS
  • Engagement mechanisms
  • A surfeit of abbreviations
  • Organisational complexity
  • Mid-Staffordshire
  • Local engagement
  • Patient pathways
  • Foundation trusts
  • Children’s cardiac surgery (Royal Brompton Hospital judicial review)
  • Hospital reconfigurations

Chapter 7 - Consultation and governments – national and local

  • Schools and education
  • Sunningdale Institute
  • Government blunders
  • Council structures
  • Double devolution
  • Community websites
  • Participatory budgeting
  • Council budgets
  • Symbolic consultations

Part Three: The Influence of Politics on Consultation

 

Chapter 8 - Introduction: Is anyone in charge?

  • Silo mentality and the drive for centralisation
  • Politicians v technocrats
  • Who’s in charge?
  • Select committees
  • Reluctant stakeholders
  • Stakeholder mapping
  • A brief history of consultation guidance
  • Parliamentary ping-pong
  • The Whiston case
  • BBC consultation
  • Whitehall gets it right?

Chapter 9 - How political timing affects consultation

  • Established consensus
  • Volatility
  • The policy life cycle
  • The electoral cycle
  • Purdah problems
  • The Big Conversation
  • Serendipity

Chapter 10 - The community’s influence on consultation

  • Parish politics and the willow tree
  • Petitions ancient and modern
  • Petition platforms
  • Analysis treatment
  • The cardinal’s miscalculation
  • Community advocacy
  • Voluntary bodies

Chapter 11 - The influence of business on consultation

  • Public affairs and lobbying
  • The water industry
  • Privatised utilities
  • BBC Charter renewal
  • West Coast Mainline fiasco
  • Management consultancies
  • Single options
  • Airspace consultations
  • Fracking again
  • Big Tobacco
  • Fixed-odds betting
  • Clientelism

Part Four: Where Next? The Challenges Faced by Consultation

 

Chapter 12 - Introduction: Revisiting the rationale

  • Employee consultation
  • Power imbalance
  • Sciencewise and the culture of the expert
  • Engaging on badger-culling
  • Unpopular politicians
  • Challenging direct democracy
  • Dumbing down debates

Chapter 13 - What consultation must combat

  • Three drivers of dumbing down debate
  • Disappointment with democracy
  • Failure of political careers
  • Looser language and lies
  • Social media
  • Echo chambers
  • Fake news
  • Trust

Chapter 14 - Improving consultations: three duties for consultors

  • Winners and losers
  • Parliamentary posturing
  • Too many standards?
  • Duty to define
  • Duty to explain
  • Duty to engage

Chapter 15 - Improving dialogue: three rights for consultees

  • Consultee entitlements
  • Right to know
  • Right to be heard
  • Public consultation hearings
  • Right to influence
  • Notional frameworks

Chapter 16 - Is there a better way?

  • Judicial review, the disadvantages
  • Adversarial legalism
  • Dredging Oakland Harbour
  • Fluoride in drinking water
  • A Public Consultation Act
  • An Office of Public Engagement?

Chapter 17 - ‘Dear Politician’

  • Hurrah for public administration
  • Pride in process
  • Help citizens participate
  • Champion public involvement
  • Leverage parliament
  • Saying no
  • Care with referendums
  • Better consultative instincts

 

 

 

This is a remarkably well-written book, journaliatic in its approach and using strong narrative structure and stories to drive the ideas forward. I learnt a lot and was fascinated by much of whatI learned. Whoever thought consultation could be so gripping 

 

Wendy Berliner, Author and awartd-winning 
Guardian Journalist 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a  must-read book for everyone in public policy and anyone involved in consultations and of course elected politicians There are real lessons to be learnt from them all.

 

John Brown, Author of PR and communications in Local

Government' and Council Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)