Public consultation Gantt chart template: review gate and open period
An editable public consultation Gantt chart: draft, legal and policy review, publish, the open period, response analysis, decision-maker review and publishing the outcome, with dependencies and milestones.
What the public consultation gantt chart template: review gate and open period process is
A public consultation is not an ordinary project, because the middle of it belongs to other people. Once the document is out, the open period runs for as long as it runs, and nothing your team does can shorten it. What you control is everything on either side: how long the document takes to get approved, and how much of the analysis and response is already done when the period closes. A timeline shows which of these two sets the date.
This template has five groups: Proposal and drafting, Review and approval, Open consultation, Analysis and response, and Decision and outcome. It has 21 tasks and four milestones. "Define the proposal and questions" (4 working days) is the only starting task. "Draft the consultation document" (7) and "Plan engagement and target groups" (4) both follow it. The questions come first because everything after them is built on them: the document, the response form and the analysis categories. A question changed late is the most expensive change in the plan.
Review is the first gate. "Review the draft internally" (5) leads to "Run legal and policy review" (6) and to "Prepare plain and accessible versions" (5), which run side by side. Both must finish before the milestone "Approved for publication". The overlap is safe only while the text holds still: if legal review changes the wording, the plain and accessible versions are done again. "Build and test the response form" (5) follows the engagement plan, not the approved document, so it is finished 9 working days before approval. Use that gap to check the form against the approved questions, because a form that no longer matches them has to be rebuilt after the consultation is already published.
"Consultation published" waits for both the approval and the form. After it, "Consultation open period" (20) is a plain wait task. Set its duration to what your own rules or the people running the consultation require, and replace our figure. "Run outreach to target groups" (12) runs beside it, and "Log responses as they arrive" (15) starts 5 working days into the period with a start-to-start link, so it finishes on the day "Consultation closes". Analysis can then start at once. Without the overlap, logging would add a further 15 days after the close. The numbers are illustrative: they give 66 working days to "Decision recorded" and 70 to "Notify respondents of the outcome".
After the close the date is set by the review chain: "Analyse the responses" (8), "Draft the response document" (7), "Legal review of the response document" (4) and "Decision-maker review" (5) each wait for the one before. The last gate is a person with a diary, so check when they can actually review. A timeline schedules the work. It does not make a consultation lawful or its outcome binding, and it does not replace your own rules or the duty to consider what respondents say. For related plans, see /templates/regulatory-submission-gantt-chart for another plan with an external wait, and /templates/policy-review-approval-process for the approval steps as a flowchart. For how overlap and gates are drawn, see /guides/gantt-chart-overlapping-tasks and /guides/gantt-chart-dependencies.
What this flowchart covers
In this template
- Five groups, Proposal and drafting, Review and approval, Open consultation, Analysis and response and Decision and outcome, with 21 tasks and four milestones: "Approved for publication", "Consultation published", "Consultation closes" and "Decision recorded".
- A review gate before publication: "Run legal and policy review" and "Prepare plain and accessible versions" both lead to "Approved for publication", and the text must hold still while they overlap.
- A plain wait for the open period: "Consultation open period" is a task of 20 working days that you replace with the length you are required or have chosen to run.
- Work beside the open period: "Run outreach to target groups" and "Log responses as they arrive", which starts 5 working days in so analysis can begin the day "Consultation closes".
- A response chain with two reviews: "Draft the response document", "Legal review of the response document" and "Decision-maker review" before "Decision recorded", then "Publish the outcome and response" and "Notify respondents of the outcome".
When to use this template
- You are consulting on a policy, a proposal or a service change and need to see how long it takes from a first draft to a published outcome.
- You want to know whether the approval before publication or the open period decides your date, and what can be done while you wait.
- The decision has a fixed date, such as a committee meeting, and you want to see whether the open period and the review chain fit before it.
- You run consultations regularly and want a standard plan to resize for each one.
The plan, task by task
Every task in the chart with its length in working days and what it waits for. A dependency is a step number; SS is start-to-start, FF is finish-to-finish, and +n is a lag in working days.
| # | Task | Group | Working days | Depends on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Define the proposal and questions | Proposal and drafting | 4 | |
| 2 | Draft the consultation document | Proposal and drafting | 7 | 1 |
| 3 | Plan engagement and target groups | Proposal and drafting | 4 | 1 |
| 4 | Review the draft internally | Review and approval | 5 | 2 |
| 5 | Run legal and policy review | Review and approval | 6 | 4 |
| 6 | Prepare plain and accessible versions | Review and approval | 5 | 4 |
| 7 | Approved for publication | Review and approval | Milestone | 5, 6 |
| 8 | Build and test the response form | Open consultation | 5 | 3 |
| 9 | Consultation published | Open consultation | Milestone | 7, 8 |
| 10 | Run outreach to target groups | Open consultation | 12 | 9 |
| 11 | Consultation open period | Open consultation | 20 | 9 |
| 12 | Consultation closes | Open consultation | Milestone | 10, 11 |
| 13 | Log responses as they arrive | Analysis and response | 15 | 11SS+5 |
| 14 | Analyse the responses | Analysis and response | 8 | 12, 13 |
| 15 | Draft the response document | Analysis and response | 7 | 14 |
| 16 | Legal review of the response document | Analysis and response | 4 | 15 |
| 17 | Decision-maker review | Decision and outcome | 5 | 16 |
| 18 | Decision recorded | Decision and outcome | Milestone | 17 |
| 19 | Publish the outcome and response | Decision and outcome | 2 | 18 |
| 20 | Archive responses and close the file | Decision and outcome | 3 | 18 |
| 21 | Notify respondents of the outcome | Decision and outcome | 2 | 19 |
How it works
Fix the questions first
Keep "Define the proposal and questions" as the start of the plan. If the proposal and the questions are already settled, shorten it to a few days; do not skip it if the form and the analysis will be built from them.
Set the open period
Replace the 20 working days of "Consultation open period" with the length your own rules or the group running the consultation require. Then check that "Log responses as they arrive" still starts 5 days in and still ends when the period does.
Size the review gate
Set "Review the draft internally" and "Run legal and policy review" from the time those teams actually need. If a reviewer is only available on certain days, lengthen the task to cover the wait.
Protect the accessible versions
"Prepare plain and accessible versions" runs beside legal review. Add a few days to it, or move it after the review, if you expect wording changes.
Fix the dates that cannot move
Give "Define the proposal and questions" a fixed Start on the day you begin, and give the task or milestone tied to a real date a fixed Start too. The plan starts on the earliest fixed Start and is scheduled forward, so read any conflict flag and compare the finish with the date you need.
Add owners, share and export
Put the responsible person in People for each task, share the chart as a link with the reviewers, and export a PDF or PNG for the committee.
Frequently asked questions
How long should the consultation stay open?
That is set by your own rules or by the group running the consultation, not by this chart. The template uses 20 working days for "Consultation open period" as an illustration. Replace it with the length you are told or have decided, and the dates after it move.
Does the chart check that my consultation meets the rules?
No. It schedules the work and shows how long each step takes. It does not make a consultation lawful, complete or binding, and it does not replace your own rules. Keep that check as a task with an owner, for example inside "Run legal and policy review".
My decision date is fixed. Can the chart check it?
Yes. Give "Define the proposal and questions" a fixed Start and give "Decision recorded" a fixed Start on the date of the decision. The plan is scheduled forward from the earliest fixed Start, so if the review chain and the open period cannot finish by then, the milestone is flagged with a conflict. Compare the finish date it shows with the date you need.
Why does logging responses start before the period closes?
Because responses arrive during the open period and can be logged as they come. A start-to-start link with a lag of 5 working days lets "Log responses as they arrive" begin early, so analysis can start the day "Consultation closes". See /guides/gantt-chart-overlapping-tasks for how overlap is drawn.
Can I paste my own task list?
Yes. Copy rows from a spreadsheet and paste them into the sheet. If the first line names the columns, such as Task, Duration and Depends on, each column is matched by name. There is no file upload for Gantt charts yet. See /guides/gantt-chart-with-owners for putting a person on each task.