Edward Andersson
  • Home
  • Services
  • About Me
  • Resources
    • Publications
    • Articles
    • Videos
    • Links
  • Contact
  • På Svenska

New Principles -but how were they received? 

8/23/2012

0 Comments

 
In the first of a series of three Blog posts about the new UK Government Consultation Principles Edward Andersson looks at the initial reactions from the engagement community.

The Cabinet Office launched their new Consultation Principles on the 17 of July (Which replaced the old Code of Conduct for Consultation) while I was on holiday and it has taken a few weeks for me to find the time to write about the changes. In this first blog post about the principles I’ll look at stakeholder reactions. A second blog post will provide some Involve commentary and a final post will provide links to further guidance to support civil servants.

The Principles received a mixed reception. They were welcomed by The Consultation Institute who said it would help make consultation “fit for purpose and not unnecessarily onerous”.

Online Engagement expert Steph Gray was cautiously optimistic but worried that civil servants might choose a simplistic interpretation that minimized their interaction with the public and stakeholders. He also said “‘digital by default’ is at risk of becoming a weasel phrase akin to ‘evidence based policymaking’ or ‘social marketing’ which can be met with a nod to a SurveyMonkey response form or a tweeted launch.” He also mentioned the excellent Participation Principles written by Participation Cymru for the Welsh Government.

“Compact Voice” was critical of the new principles and felt they might prevent organisations from responding or engaging with policy decisions which affect them and Chris Whitehouse characterized the new principles as “an incredibly arbitrary system that will result in too little time being given to consultations on key policies and will severely limit the opportunities charities have to engage in public policy development”.

In our next blog post I will provide some Involve commentary on the new Principles.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Edward Andersson

    This blog is a repository for posts I have made over the years at Involve as well as more personal reflections.

    Archives

    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    August 2012
    April 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    November 2010
    October 2010
    July 2010
    May 2010
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    November 2007
    October 2007
    July 2007
    March 2007

    Categories

    All
    Blog
    Climate Change
    Consultation
    Costs And Benefits
    Crime
    Democracy
    Digital
    Duty To Involve
    E Democracy
    E-democracy
    Engagement
    Evaluation
    Facilitation
    Good Practice
    Health
    Innovation
    Involve
    Local Government
    Methods
    Nudge
    Online
    Participation
    Parties
    Politics
    Predictions
    Riots
    Safety
    Sustainable Development
    Turkey

    RSS Feed

Edward Andersson 2013-2018
  • Home
  • Services
  • About Me
  • Resources
    • Publications
    • Articles
    • Videos
    • Links
  • Contact
  • På Svenska