Consultation

Increasingly those wishing to deliver service change must consult first.  Good public consultation can make the relationship with a local community and will help to ensure good decision-making.  Bad consultation risks breaking those crucial relationships and often leads to expensive, time-consuming and potentially project or programme threatening legal challenge.

By bringing together legal and public affairs advice, we are uniquely well-placed to help develop and deliver successful public consultations; and equally to represent the interests of those adversely affected by bad consultation, or a failure to consult at all.

Consultation frequently attracts legal challenge so our advice takes full account of recent legal developments at a national and EU level, as well as the latest best practice, to avoid pitfalls.

We can advise on:

• Compliance with statutory requirements including the timing of consultation and the scope of parties consulted
• The design of a consultation strategy including methods of engagement, target audience and key stakeholders
• ‘Trouble spotting’ areas of weakness in a consultation strategy
• Discrimination issues whether in relation to the public sector equality duty or more generally
• Best practice and standards set by expectations
• Implementation of a consultation strategy including running public meetings and engagement events
• Potential challenges to consultation and engagement exercises

We work across many different sectors, including education, healthcare and development.