In Issue 187 Spurtle criticised what we feared was emerging as a contrived and meaningless consultation process between the Council and public on the capital's budget crisis. Many people have since seconded those concerns, although of course Council employees have been unable to do so publicly.
However, not everyone was similarly disappointed, and we're happy to give full space here to a contrary opinion. Lyndsay Law is the Chair of Broughton Primary School Board, and attended the consultation at Drummond Community High School on 4 October. Here she describes her impressions.
I definitely felt that one of my points was attended to. I was able to speak with the Director of Children and Families after the event and she admitted in conversation that I had made a good point about sourcing inefficiencies and that it was something that they were looking at.
I didn't think that the whole thing was a PR exercise, but actually – and perhaps more worryingly in some ways – the Council are at a loss as to where savings can be made without a public backlash.
I felt that the Council were in a Catch-22 situation and trying to make the best of it in the following sense: if they didn't consult with us and made cuts when the budget was announced there would be uproar, but because they are consulting there was a huge backlash in the meeting along the lines of: 'Why are you not fighting the cuts?' 'Why are you just rolling over and accepting that cuts need to be made?'
Thus, much of the meeting was spent justifying why they are having to think about cuts at all, which I didn't think was the point of the meeting.
So, my point about inefficient sourcing was attended, but my point about the cuts (for instance, free music tuition) widening the gap between the families who are already vulnerable and the rest of society was not really discussed. My perception was that this was more due to the time limits of the meeting than to a lack of interest or concern.
In short, I felt that the Council Officers had a genuine interest in hearing what the public thought, but that the productivity of the meeting was hampered by:
- the vast number of topics to be discussed
- the conflicting agendas of the different groups attending the meeting
- the nature of the meeting itself – it would have helped to break up into focus groups and had a more in-depth discussion on each area.
What do you think of the consultation process? How can it be improved in future?