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Audits and Strategies toolkit – June 2004Consultation – What is consultation and why is it important?
What is consultation and why is it important?
This section defines consultation, explains the purpose of consultation inrelation to the audit and strategy process, places its importance in context,and identifies various principles for consideration and adoption.
1. What is consultation?
Consultation is defined by the Audit Commission (1999) as ‘
a process ofdialogue that leads to a decision
’. It is a very useful working definition. Thisdefinition brings to the foreground four important aspects of what consultationis that are worth introducing at this point in the guidance. These aspects aredetailed in Box 1.
 
Box 1 Four important aspects of consultation
Defining consultation as ‘a process of dialogue that leads to a decision’highlights four important aspects of consultation. These are:
•
First, consultation is about a dialogue – the sharing, publicising, informingand promoting of interest – in order to ensure that all relevant persons,bodies, organisations, agencies and groups are sufficiently aware toengage in consultation. Consultation is therefore
educative and inclusive
.
•
Second, consultation is a process – it is an ongoing activity rather than aone off duty. In the context of audits and strategies, this means thatconsultation is more than a statutory duty carried out once every threeyears. Consultation should be seen as an opportunity carried out on aregular and ongoing basis and one that should be embedded in the corework of CDRPs and partners agencies. Consultation is therefore
iterativeand ongoing
.
•
Third, consultation is a dialogue amongst people. Consultation involves awide range of individuals from within communities, social groups andstakeholders, and these groups should reflect the composition of thepopulation and its agencies and organisations of the local area.Consultation is therefore
participatory and inclusive
.
Issues for consideration
 1. What is consultation?2. Statutory requirements3. Doing audit and strategy consultation4. The wider context of consultation5. Benefits of consultation6. Barriers to consultation
7.
Principles of consultation
 
 
Audits and Strategies toolkit – June 2004Consultation – What is consultation and why is it important?
•
Fourth, consultation is about action and outcome. It is an importantprocess of decision-making about policy and service development.Consultation must ensure that the views of those consulted inform thedecision making of CDRPs. Consultation is therefore
action and outcomeorientated
.According to MORI (2003) distinctions can be made between consultation andresearch.‘The words research and consultation are often usedinterchangeably to describe particular initiatives. But there is animportant distinction to be made. Quantitative research will tend tocomprise an attempt to systematically
measure
the views of aparticular group of people at a particular point in time. Attemptsare usually made to ensure that the people taking part are asrepresentative as possible of the population as a whole, tofacilitate extrapolation. Consultation involves an authority seekingcontributions and views about a policy or service, whether fromindividuals or groups. Consultees may not be representative of thepopulation as a whole, but they usually have clear views about theissue under consideration’ (emphasis in original) (MORI 2003: 5).MORI go on to argue that as the range of services delivered and the numberof initiatives undertaken by local authorities have grown, the distinctionbetween research and consultation has become blurred. This is certainly thecase in the context of ever increasing statutory responsibilities for localagencies and organisations to carry out consultation on a range of issues overrecent years. Simply put – expertise and experience has developed in relationto doing consultation.MORI also indicate that an effective process will often involve elements ofboth research and consultation – for example using research to help discoverwhere there are concerns and inform policy proposals on which agencies andorganisations can then consult.
Note 1 Consultation and research
This guidance recognises that distinctions between consultation and researchshould derive less from the
approach 
that CDRPs take and more from the
context within 
which they have to carry it out. Carrying out consultationinvolves methods and techniques not dissimilar to those used to deliverresearch, whether of a social or market research orientation. However,CDRPs are constrained in their delivery of consultation as part of the auditand strategy process by factors including capacity, resources, timescale andexpertise.This guidance also stresses that CDRPs should note the original CDA 1998guidance that acknowledged the importance of context in developing anddelivering consultation:
 
Audits and Strategies toolkit – June 2004Consultation – What is consultation and why is it important?
In consulting, it should be made clear that there is a limit to what can be done,that trade offs between alternatives will have to be made, and that it will not bepossible to respond to everyone’s priorities. Reasonable time will have to beset aside to collect comments together (Hough and Tilley 1998: 27).Consultation should therefore draw upon the theory, methods and principlesof research, and should, wherever possible, ensure that it is representativeand that the findings are valid and reliable.
Signposting:
See Jupp, V. Davies, P. Francis, P. (2000) Doing Criminological
 
Research and King, R. and Wincup, E. (2000) Doing Research on Crime and
 
Justice for excellent reviews on doing research on crime, community safetyand criminal justice, including evaluation and consultation.
2. Statutory requirements
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (CDA 1998) as amended by the PoliceReform Act 2002 (PRA 2002) places a duty on specific agencies, known asresponsible authorities, to work together and with other agencies within thecommunity to tackle crime and disorder and misuse of drugs (substancemisuse in Wales).Working in partnership, these responsible authorities are required to carry outan audit to identify the extent of these problems within their community anddevelop strategies that deal effectively with them. These statutoryrequirements are contained in Sections 5 and 6 of the CDA 1998 as amendedby the PRA 2002.The new legislation means that partnerships are required, for the first time ona statutory basis, to complete a crime, disorder and drug audit and strategyand to consult on them (see Box 2).
Box 2 What is consultation in relation to audit and strategy?
Consultation is a requirement for the crime audits, most importantly at thestage between data collection and production of the final strategy. The mainaims of this consultation are to confirm that the audit has construed problemsaccurately and that it does not contain crucial omissions, and to canvassopinion about proposed priorities and options (Newburn and Jones, 2002).Consultation can also be carried out at other parts of the audit and strategyprocess. The full range of consultation stages are discussed in
When shouldconsultation be carried out?
 
3. Doing audit and strategy consultation
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