Last Thursday was the annual Neil Stewart Consultation conference, and among the speakers was Sharon Grant of the Commission for Public-Patient Involvement in Health. She was giving an update on the Local Involvement Networks (or LINKs) which will take over from the Forums which the CPPIH painstakingly set up three years ago.
Her words were not very encouraging.
Commenting that there is every possibility of Parliamentary ping-pong between the Lords and Commons over this part of the Local Government Bill, she highlighted areas of continuing confusion and uncertainty that must affect anyone planning to implement these proposals.
No-one seems to have the faintest idea of how they will work - or how on earth the DH can imagine that mobilising a hundred plus interested stakeholder organisatins will turn out to be cheaper than the predecessor Forums (of <10>
Public consultation in the Health service has not been a Blair success story. Adding social care to the mix (the right thing to do) increases the importance of getting it right - so let's hope that Alan Johnson and Hazel Blears between them can sort out a mess that their immediate predecessors foolishly created.
Rhion Jones
The "Guru" of Consultation
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About Me
- Rhion Jones
- Sandy, Bedfordshire, United Kingdom
- Rhion Jones is Programme Director of The Consultation Institute and is an acknowledged authority on customer service, citizen participation and e-government. He is the author of CRM in the Public Sector, and over 30 other thought-leadership White Papers and Briefings. In his role with the Institute, Rhion has pioneered a comprehensive portfolio of training courses for those involved in public and stakeholder consultations, so that the Institute can now offer its Certificate of Professional Development. He has also developed new techniques of evaluating the effectiveness of consultations and works closely with the Royal Institute of Town Planning on the implementation of Statements of Community Involvement. In addition to providing services and support for consultors, the Institute has developed a training event for consultees called Responding to Consultations, and Rhion is particularly keen to see hard-to-reach and other disadvantaged groups given more assistance to participate in public engagement exercises.
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