Regulation must be fit for purpose, by keeping our regulatory tools up to date, to ensure regulation is relevant, in the rapidly changing world of work, in which our registrants deliver their valuable services. Public consultation is an important part of this process to effect informed change. Being well prepared is critical before going out to consultation, demonstrating that you have thought through the most complex of matters, with a suggested plan, without forgetting the essentials.
Regulators response to Covid 19 demonstrated this very well, where every regulator had to rapidly adjust their regulatory tools to support their registrants and the services being delivered, in an agile manner, without full public consultation and requiring quick legislative change. However, this is not the norm, public consultation takes times, which must be used wisely.
Identifying changes happening in the industry and disruptors that are likely to change the working environment for your registrants is key.
Current challenges now include:
- the introduction of Artificial Intelligence
- the need to meet diversity, inclusion and equality requirements
- introduction of new technologies including safe and ethical use of data
- increasing demands on services with decreasing numbers of staff
- the impact of remote working on work choices
Haggart and Tusikov identified what is required for good consultation in relation to Artificial Intelligence. The organization seeking information needs to:
1) Properly define or frame the problem – this is often not straightforward, when it pertains to newly developing technology or complex issues, but a critical step to support debate and to educate the audience.
2) The organization should only propose specific policies when the public and policymakers have a good grasp on the issue and the public have been canvassed on the benefits and challenges of the issues in hand.
3) Ensure that there is balance in the voices being heard – some agencies have better resources to reply to public consultations, but it is important to hear from those who the change will impact most.
To deliver regulation that is effective, regular reviews of the regulatory frameworks and legislation giving the regulators their powers is required. This detailed work can take between two and five years, unless it is prioritised by all parties concerned. If legislation needs to be changed, it can be much longer.
To update your regulatory tools, regulators must look at national and international trends, noting reliable up to date research, policy documents, talking with policy makers and experts, paying heed to politics – the current leaders and the opposition; using relevant experts to ensure you are preparing the best document for consultation. Regulatory network organisations are very useful ways of looking at broad issues that are arising and need to be considered among the regulatory communities. Once your governing body has approved the draft document that your organization has diligently prepared you move to consultation.
Consultation is such a critical part of this work. Questionnaires are useful, as are remote meetings, but nothing beats sitting in a room face-to-face, with a broad range of stakeholders, including unions, professional bodies, employers, educators, students, governmental representatives, service user representatives to hear what their issues are and how your proposal is going to make a difference to them… or not.
Nothing beats looking at the body language of your stakeholders, when you are discussing a new proposal that may result in a lot of changes for people’s work/life. People may verbally agree, but by looking at them, you can often tell that there is some concern, so you must be very alert when dealing with these critical matters. If difficulties are brushed over or not trashed out at this stage, as you try to progress, you are likely to find obstacles that will be put in place later.
Allowances also need to be made for service users who may have special needs -the use of advocates to support these groups’ voices to be heard is important. One UK regulator, linked in with the representatives of the deaf community because of the impact a proposed amendment could potentially have on them – it is critical to hear the potential service users of your registrants.
This can be a challenging day for a regulator, but it is important to use these opportunities well if you want to get the best regulatory tools in place. It is always useful to have canvassed views before the consultation, to see if there are going to be any difficulties with what is being proposed. Despite all your work, issues will arise, that may not have been thought about. This is the point of broad consultation and while it can be hard to hear, it is critical to success of any new standards being proposed.
Hence knowing the depth of the flak jacket that you will need for that piece of work is very helpful and only based on the extreme preparations that you have put in place before the consultation meetings. It would be foolish to ignore the issues being raised that have not been considered by the organization. If the issues were considered during the preparation – the regulator will need to share the reasoning behind why it is being addressed in a certain way or is not being addressed at all.
Good consultation is important to a regulator trying to bring in new standards, but to be successful, you must be ready to listen, to hear and to consider how to deal with problems that are being raised and to identify a way to address the concerns. If issues are insurmountable, you need to go away and see what are the actual issues at play – are there issues outside of your control? Can you influence these matters? Sometimes the evidence from your public consultation can help you to push a change forward in other areas which may have previously hindered progress in your work.
Consultations can be very challenging, but done properly, they are a great way of making sure the standards you put in place are the right ones.
References
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