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Comment - From Wolverhampton City Council

In Wolverhampton the extent to which people are involved in commissioning services and service planning varies enormously. We would therefore suggest that the guidance should be flexible enough to reflect the varying levels of development.    We propose guidance similar to the Compact would be particularly suitable; for example, detailing rules of engagement, methods of redress and setting out all parties' expectations, rather than attempting to set out a 'model process'.  Any guidance should adopt a 'light touch' approach with principles outlined and no prescription viz methodology.

The guidance could, however, usefully cover potential approaches to a number of practical areas:

• the channels through which local people can hear about and participate in Best Value consultations
• the availability of capacity-building and training to enable local people to be meaningfully involved
• the involvement of local people at a number stages in the commissioning process from specification to interview
• the involvement of local people in the drawing up and monitoring of overarching commissioning strategies as well as individual commissioning processes
• the involvement of local people in decisions around decommissioning as well as commissioning of services
• the provision of information about organisations working on commissioned services and their performance to local people
  the use of innovative involvement methods to engage hard to reach or vulnerable groups

Like many other towns and cities, Wolverhampton has well established mechanisms for neighbourhood and area community engagement as well as service specific mechanisms and expect that the guidance would not require setting up additional mechanisms that might duplicate these functions.  Equally, it should not be the place of the guidance to set out management or accountability structures for consultation - however, practitioners have expressed the opinion that senior managers should be more engaged in the process of planning consultation and acting on the results, so perhaps the guidance could usefully define where ultimate responsibility sits for the engagement of local people in Best Value.

Our partnership approach to community engagement in localities has opened the door to the possibility of bespoke services/responses being developed in different areas. A broadening of the Best Value Duty to consult could compliment this approach.  However, in the longer term, it may entail a loosening of whole council/ whole organisation service targets which, in turn, could have implications for performance management.

It should be recognised that there are a number of current constraints to the ability of Best Value authorities to engage the public.  Aside from issues of resources, time, staff, admin support and training, other potential constraints to greater involvement in Best Values were the availability of and ability to use technology innovatively, changing and conflicting priorities which make consistent decision-making difficult, and a lack of information on latest developments in consultation.