Does the public really like being consulted?
When a hospital trust seeking public opinion on its proposals to reform health services was recently labelled an unaccountable quango, you’d be forgiven for briefly entertaining a desire for the fall of democracy.
In an ideal world, public consultation is a way of arriving at an informed decision. It is a two way process involving sharing, thinking, listening and responding.
Instead, it is all too often a one way process, with members of the public failing to take part, or if they do, failing to give their opinion on the issue at hand.
The above response may provide us with a clue as to why this happens. The disgruntled resident went on to say that the trust was more concerned about delivering ‘efficient services’ (possibly referring to cost effective services) than improving the standard of patient care.
Instead of considering the proposals (which gave good account of their contribution to improving public health) and sharing a constructive response, informing the debate and potentially the decision, the respondent decided to ignore them completely and launch an ill informed attack on the organisation.
Despite denying themselves a view, in all likelihood this person will feel they have contributed to the debate and will therefore feel let down by the consultation process when the final decision fails to take their words into consideration.
Although some people really do consider the proposals and provide relevant feedback, the point of the consultation is too often missed and the process is instead used as an opportunity to criticize.
Why is this?
There are a number of reasons why people possibly fail to engage properly with consultations.
People are used to having important choices made for them. It is possible that they do not trust their own judgment or think they don’t have anything worthwhile to say.
Public opinion isn’t always solicited consistently. Many important decisions are made without their input – so that when they get the opportunity to have their say, it is not restricted to the proposals but is seen as a release valve for collective bile.
The public tars all consultation with the same brush. Just before the trust, mentioned above, was seeking opinions, a major local government consultation ended in a publicly unpopular decision. Does this reinforce the belief that all consultations are an exercise in transparency and the decision has already been made?
There are too many consultations. As people were considering the future of health services, they were also being asked to take part in a schools consultation. How can we expect people to decide the future of government, health and education, all at the same time?
Perhaps we need a consultation.