Consulting the Public
Guidelines and Good Practice
John Seargeant and Jane Steele
The 1980s and 1990s have witnessed growing debate about the quality and
efficiency of public services. The emphasis in the continuing restructuring
of public services is on performance, efficiency and standards - and an essential
step towards these goals is the process of communication between the service
users and providers, through which the provider becomes more responsive and
accountable to the public.
Consulting the Public gives practical guidance to all those responsible for
public consultation and participation through an analysis of 14 detailed case
studies of consultation projects, ranging from 'Speak out!' - the Bradford Residents'
Consultation Panel - to the Liverpool Tate Museum's 'Young Tate' project; from
the Lewisham Citizens' Jury to the Science Museum's Consensus Conference on
Bioengineering in Food. Through their analysis of these and other case studies,
the authors
- identify the components of effective consultation and participation by
studying a range of different types of exercise
- explore the processes by which the results are used to inform policy and
service delivery
- assess the influence of consultation on planning, resource allocation
and management, standards of service and public satisfaction, and
- give practical guidance on the selection and use of different methods
in delivering public service organisation.
These in-depth assessments of case study consultation programmes will inform
all those responsible for managing public services, and provide valuable background
to the issues for students on a range of information and government studies
courses.
£17.95 paperback ISBN 0 85374 727 X
January 1998 208 pages 234 x 153mm
Report number 809