Our approach to consultation

How Oxfordshire County Council consults with the public.

We believe it is very important that people have a say on how our services are planned and run and how their council tax is spent.

Consultation helps us to stay in touch with what our customers need and want. This is especially important when we need to make difficult decisions that affect the people of Oxfordshire.

Our Consultation and Engagement Strategy 2022 – 2025 (pdf format, 196Kb) set out our key objectives and ambitions for engagement and consultation activities can be found here.

Key principles of consultation

The council follows the principles of consultation (known as the Gunning principles):

  1. Consultation must be at a time when proposals are still at a formative stage. A final decision has not yet been made, or predetermined, by the decision makers.
  1. There is sufficient information provided, including the reasons for proposals, to allow for intelligent consideration and response. The information provided must relate to the consultation and must be available, accessible and easily interpretable for consultees to provide an informed response.
  1. There is adequate time for people to consider a proposal, participate and respond. The length of time given for consultee to respond can vary depending on the subject and extent of impact of the consultation.
  2. Conscientious consideration must be given to the consultation responses before a decision is made. Decision-makers should be able to provide evidence that they took consultation responses into account.

How we consult

We consult widely, in a variety of different ways, to ensure we understand the needs and views of local communities.

There are lots of ways that you can have your say. We regularly run public meetings, hold consultation exhibitions, carry out surveys and organise focus groups.

You can view all of our consultation on the consultation website.