The rhetoric of public consultation features very strongly in recent documents on health and social care planning, but turning those good intentions into practice is not always straightforward. During 2001 I conducted a public consultation exercise for a local authority in the south of England as part of a Best Value review. Best Value is a process by which local authorities look systematically at their services with a view to ensuring that they are combining optimal outcomes with sensible economy, and public consultation is an essential element in the process.