The Code Conversation - what we’ve learned about consultation

At the beginning of May we held three Code Conversation events with registrants – two online and one in person at our offices in London. Firstly, thank you to the 140 people who gave up their valuable time to attend and contribute to these events.

As I write this, we are deep into pulling together the proposed Code that will be considered at June’s council meeting. If they agree, this will be subject of a consultation launching in July and running over the summer and into September.

The events

Both the in-person event and the online sessions had an initial presentation from the GCC followed by a question and answer session.

The online sessions were chaired for us by Christina Cunliffe (Principal of the McTimoney College of Chiropractic) who posed questions to the GCC team from attendees and from her own perspective.

The discussion at the in-person event was livelier, as the attendees posed their questions directly to the GCC team, and bounced off each other’s thoughts. During the afternoon the attendees split into groups and explored some of the issues in more depth with facilitators from an independent consultation company called Community Research.

What we learned

As well as learning a great deal about the aspirations of the profession for the new Code (which you’ll see when the consultation is circulated); we also learned invaluable lessons about how we want to approach the consultation:

Running good online events is hard!

We know some attendees found the online format more restrictive than they expected, and there were some technical issues. We could have been clearer on the format in advance, and our ambition and experience of running online events were out of step. That said, Christina’s hosting was great – she did an excellent job hosting the online events, asking challenging questions and keeping the discussion moving.

The London event was made richer by registrants from across the profession talking together and our being able to meet attendees; but it required a whole day out of the clinic and was harder to access for people across the country.

During the consultation we want to bring together the best of both approaches:

• We will be clearer with attendees about the format for each session, and who will be present – some will be formal, some less so.
• We will reduce the length of presentations during the event – when you take the time to attend we want you to feel that it was worthwhile. If there is information we want to share, we can share it before the event.
• We also want to experiment with one or two less formal “drop-in” sessions when we’ll be online for an afternoon and you can drop by to chat direct with the GCC team on camera. Come for as long as you like and leave when you are done. If it works as a format, we’ll run some more.

Further details will follow in July as we firm up dates.

The specific words matter

One of the in-person attendees explained how valuable the Glossary is to the Code. As a writer, my instinct is to vary the language to keep the reader interested, but she highlighted how important it was to use the same word to mean the same thing.

When we refer to “treatment” in some parts of the Code, and “care” in others, readers look for a subtle difference in meaning – which may not be intended*. By choosing the right word, and then using it consistently, we want to create a Code that is accessible, relevant and clear for everyone who uses it.

*The word we will use in the above example is “care” as it is more appropriate to the wide range of chiropractic approaches.

“I don’t know” is valuable feedback too

It’s very easy to choose to not contribute when you don’t have a strong opinion on what is being asked, but this runs the risk of highlighting the polar ends of the discussion to the detriment of the majority view in the middle. This is not to say the consultation will be a “vote”, but we want to encourage responses to the consultation from across a wide range of stakeholders.

We are designing the consultation to give the opportunity to respond at different levels of depth. If you want to comment on the details of a specific standard, you’ll be able to, but if you want to tick a box to say that you are “not sure” that a general principle does what it needs to, you’ll be able to do that too.

What happens next

If Council agree with the proposed Code, and the consultation plan, we will announce the formal consultation in July, and it will be open over the Summer and early Autumn of 2024.

We’ll reflect on all the responses and look to develop the Code further, finalising the proposal for consideration by council at the December Council meeting.