This part of the book returns to the consultant’s notebook that we dipped into in the latter part of Chapter Five. The notes in these last three chapters of the book reflect more widely on the contexts of policies and ideas that have a bearing on doing or using consultancy. We call them notes because they are not finished, in the sense that they are continuing reflections, thoughts that have arisen as we have carried out our consultancy projects over the past two decades. We have found that we continually revisit previous consultancies to highlight new facets and introduce new interpretations, in the light of further experience.

In Chapter Seven we explore the reasons why consultancy makes a significant contribution to public sector organisations, which may grow in future, as the balance between state and independent (private and voluntary, or what is often called ‘third sector’) provision of public services changes in favour of the latter. We discuss the different ingredients in consultancy in public services. We also examine factors that lead to universities and university staff taking an increased stake in consultancy. Chapter Eight deals with the ideas associated with consultancy and its different meanings, moving on to explore in more detail a variety of ideas about, and approaches to, empowering consultancy. It will be apparent that no single perspective on consultancy can do justice to the complexity and variety of the field of public services. What we can do, however, is to develop ideas about the values and principles that are common to a great many different approaches. We can, somewhat speculatively, develop some coherent ideas about the basis for practice, which amplify our reflections the examples explored in Part 2.