Comments on: Improving communication

By: Mission Creep | Neil Williams » Blog Archive » Look what I found: 23 November to 26 November

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:07:20 +0000

[...] Lords of the blog – Improving communication – A discussion kicked off by Lord Norton around how government consultations are published and announced online. I watch with interest, having already met Harry Metcalfe to talk about ways we can help. [...]

By: Simon Deane-Johns

Simon Deane-Johns — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:30:06 +0000

Great to know there is dialogue, though it is ironically opaque without the helpful responses and the questions proposed. Hope it makes the consultation process more accessible, citizens engage, their responses are public and can be shared and subscribed to by others – and, of course, they are taken into account.

By: lordnorton

lordnorton — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:19:28 +0000

Liam: On your penultimate point (the very different websites that Departments have), that is something that I am very conscious of and is the subject of a Parliamentary Question that I tabled last night. I am pursuing to what extent there is some central co-ordination.

By: Liam

Liam — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:02:35 +0000

If there were to be an elected president, would they be the president of the Commonwealth? It would be fun to have Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand vote for a president. Although it probably wouldn’t work in practice; national governments wouldn’t like the power such an individual would gain through the extra legitimacy of being elected. Still, a fun idea though.

We attract some people who become part of the Lords of the Blog ‘family’

I was thinking it might be good to all get together one day.

What is remarkable is just how much Departments differ, with little central co-ordination.

It’s possible to divine that just by looking at department Web sites. The different technologies used (PHP, ColdFusion, Java, .NET, etc.) indicate disparate teams, working separately. It seems to be similar to the university my wife works at.

One interesting move by Obama was promising to create a post of Chief Technology Officer for the US government. I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea (unless there’s significant input from people in the field), but it’s worth thinking about.

By: Bedd Gelert

Bedd Gelert — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:58:22 +0000

Baron Thomas does not appear to be in the modern world regarding improving communication – he is relying on tablets of stone…

http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2008/11/ego-has-landed.html

By: lordnorton

lordnorton — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:18:29 +0000

Thanks for the further comments. Mike: I plan to post them once they appear on the Order Paper. Some Departments can and do answer reasonably promptly, but some do not and there are not infrequent complaints about Departments that fail to answer within the two-week period. There are currently just over 60 Written Questions that are still unanswered after fourteen days. The Leader of the House variously reminds Departments to answer within two weeks and, in order to name and shame, the order paper now lists the number of Questions per Department that are unanswered afer fourteen days. The worst offender at the moment is the Department for Energy and Climate Change.

Tom: Delighted to discuss this further.

Shane McCracken: Many thanks for very useful points. I agree with what you say and some of my Questions are designed to encourage the Government to ensure that Departments follow best practice. What is remarkable is just how much Departments differ, with little central co-ordination. I very much agree with your point about maintaining a conversation with people beyond the 12-week consultation paper (assuming the 12-week recommended time is actually followed). I will reflect on how to pursue this in order to influence Departmental culture.

Simon Dickson: Thanks for your comments. We attract some people who become part of the Lords of the Blog ‘family’ and what has struck me is how international a family it is. This can be extremely useful, as shown by the response on the experience in New Zealand in communicating more effectively with the public. You conclude with a very apt question!

Pamela McLean. Thanks for your comment and also for drawing that to my attention. I will pass it on the Hansard Society.

By: More accessible consultation papers « The Free Legal Web

More accessible consultation papers « The Free Legal Web — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:31:32 +0000

[...] by Nick Holmes on November 12, 2008 Props to Harry Metcalfe for bending Lord Norton’s ear: In a recent post, I identified problems with ensuring that government consultations are accessible [...]

By: Pamela McLean

Pamela McLean — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:10:56 +0000

Delighted to find this blog. NB I clicked on “Complete the Newcomers Survey to tell us a bit about you.” and “Complete the Feedback Survey to tell us what you think of the blog.” but the surveys are now closed. (Please re-instate them or delete the links to maintain the initial excellent impression of potential involvement)

By: Simon Dickson

Simon Dickson — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:09:33 +0000

Shane hits the nail on the head. Consider this blog as a perfect case study in itself. A steady stream of down-to-earth communication builds credibility, engagement and trust. You become ‘friends’ with people you’ll never meet. So, when you throw a question out to your readership, people are happy to respond, in a similarly informal manner… as friends do.

I wonder how this compares to responses to the official ‘consultation on consultation’ this time last year?

By: Shane McCracken

Shane McCracken — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:32:51 +0000

tellthemwhatyouthink.org is a very good start to the issues of accessibility but it is only part of the problem.

Many consultations seem to be designed to exclude people because of the format and language they use. For example there is a consultation on Voting at 16. It is a PDF download (http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/voting-age-consultation.pdf) with 24 pages of close typed text. It has a set of 8 open ended questions to be responded to on paper and posted. The instructions on how to respond lie at the opposite end of the document from the questions.

I must say however that this is not typical. It is better then most – it uses colour, has a front cover and provides an email address.

As I said at the top, TTWYT.org is a good start but until consultations are designed for the public to respond then making them available to the public is only one very small step along the way.

A final point is that Govt needs to maintain a conversation with people over time. 12 week formal consultations are important, but more listening and conversation with interested parties is needed. Too many people see a formal consultation as a selling tool (http://www.gallomanor.com/2007/06/what_is_consult.html) and if government is to get over this they need to have a regular and frequent dialogue in a less structured manner.