Responses to Consultation on FIRST DRAFT - Summary
From Jenny Lewis (Barnardos):
Dear Derek, A good document. Just one comment. The Draft Section on Equalities includes Young People. Could this say Children and Young People? Consultation with younger children is a challenge and one that is not always faced by organisations. It is also clear that when considering initiatives etc. children's needs are not always considered alongside the needs of adults, thereby marginalising children. Jenny.
From Jon Bos - Community Buildings Officer:
We should ensure that meaningful, regular mentions of the Compact are made in all Council consultation documents, policies and publications.
Response from Bristol City Council Community Development Unit:
Costs of Participation - particular concern was expressed with regard to PCT's.
BDA:
There appears to be no link or reference to the City Council's own Race Equality Scheme adopted on 31st May 2002. This needs to be included, with particular reference made regarding Section 11, Consultation.
From Evelyn Elworthy:
Re consultation I think that this should be beefed up to read something like 'However, for written consultations it should be a matter of good practice to allow 12 weeks for replies etc. 'Only exceptionally should less than 12 weeks be allowed...'
Then I thought that there should be extra time allowed when the consultation period includes major holidays such as Xmas and Easter as this has been the subject of complaint by forums and voluntary organisations.
From James De Burghe Project Officer (Disabled Peoples Employment):
Consultation: The reinforcement of the need to consult in a meaningful is a good step forward. But should we not also be encouraging a further step forward by involving stakeholders in the decision making process itself. This would increase the legitimacy of decisions and actions.
VOSCUR Compact consultation:
Consultation
Implementation
The Consultation section should include clear, comprehensive guidelines on response times to correspondence, requests etc - any such guidelines should operate as a 2-way agreement between the CV sector and statutory agencies.
In any consultative process, there should not be a favoured
group and an outside group.
There must be a commitment to ensuring that consultees will be informed of the outcomes of their contributions and how this will be done.
There must be agreed standards that people facilitating consultation meetings must work to. (People must have appropriate experience and training).
People should be recompensed for their consultation time.
In addition to volunteers' expenses volunteers' consultation expenses should be acknowledged and built into funding applications.
From BREC:
1. Bristol City Council's Race Equality Scheme 2002-2005 includes some sections that should dovetail with the compact as follows:
- New Democracy Plan to include actions to address under-representation of BOME groups in public life (no.10)
- Consultation (No.11)
- Developing the Joint Declaration on Race Equality with other key public authorities (No.12) etc.
From Crisis Centre Ministries:
1. Cost of participation
The recognition that participation in consultations requires resources is very welcome, but we don't think that the full impact of this has yet been recognised.
Consultations like this obviously require informed participants, which in general means it must involve the few paid staff. Consultation generally takes place during the working day, which also implies that it will involve staff rather than volunteers. While they are taking part in the consultation they are not available to the organisation which they represent.
It is not only a matter of covering their salary while they are taking part in the consultation (and in preparation, research, etc.) but also the loss of their contribution (in time, energy and expertise). Since staff are often engaged in enabling volunteers to work, the loss of staff time will have a disproportionately high effect on the organisation's productivity.