Advice please...Having been employed as a Business Consultant previously (incl one of the big 5), I am considering my options for returning to the big wide world - what do you think the chances are in being employed as a Consultant again or is it best being self-employed these days?(I took 6 years out for personal reasons and feel more than capable of doing what I used to do.)

All depends what you've been doing for the past 6 years. If the answer is "fu*k all", then it's gonna be difficult to explain in an interview!

As above but with the caveat that if you took the time out to have kids then most of the big consultancies ave very willing to hire and often run specific schemes to help you get back up to speed with the business.