Aug 2011 /
Why?
· Good communications are essential for effective engagement; there is a strong correlation between levels of satisfaction with council services and communication.
· The Council is committed to good communications, employing professionals, developing internal and external communications strategies and setting corporate identity guidelines, resulting in the Council’s communications being highly rated and recognised as best practice.
· Allerdale Borough Council in the top 50 councils in England and over performing in terms of informed ratings versus population dynamics (LGCommunications ‘Communications Index’ 2010).
· However in the current economic climate, the way in which the Communications function operates needs to change. A reduction in the number of communications professionals and limited resources requires a more focused and prioritised approach to communication with target audiences and for the organisation as a whole to take responsibility for communication.
Aims
· Allerdale Borough Council has seven strategic priorities to help it achieve its vision of making Allerdale a great place to live, work and visit.
· The role of the communications function is to articulate and communicate activities and services that support and deliver these priorities.
· The Council’s communications aim to communicate clearly, openly and regularly, both internally and externally, to facilitate an improved service for the people of Allerdale.
· Therefore the key communications messages are:
1. Customer focus
2. Not ‘one size fits all’
3. Embracing change / 4. Improvement
5. Right skills in the right place at the right time
6. Value for money
Who?
· The Strategic Management Team (SMT) and service managers are key to implementing this strategy and ensuring communications are in service plans / · Elected members hold the key to good council communication because they are the personification of the Council in the district and with the media / · The Communications Officer will carry out day-to-day management of the strategy
How do we get there?
To ensure cost-effectiveness and efficient use of limited resources, the Council’s communications needs to become more strategic:
· Close links between communications and policy, with communications acting as the ‘conscience’ of the Council / · Articulating and communicating the Council’s strategic messages / · Taking an audience-centric and structured approach to communications
Primary audiences
· Internal stakeholders (councillors, staff, shared staff) / · Residents (young people, adults, parents and children, older people) / · Businesses
Understanding audience
Employee engagement to encourage commitment, productivity and advocacy / Understanding audience
Conversations to identify community issues and engagement to allow residents to influence and improve service delivery / Understanding audience
Stakeholder consultation and conversation to help make decisions about services
Internal communications
Internal stakeholders are the Council’s ambassadors.
Information must be communicated to staff and councillors that is relevant to them doing their job and helping them to provide the best service they can.
In addition, transparent and consistent access to information about wider council business will increase knowledge about key issues and developments and enable staff to become more involved in policy and service planning.
/ External communicationsExternal communications will take a campaign approach to identify specific issues and target communications with the appropriate messages for the identified audience. This allows a more corporate, and less service-specific, approach to communication and encourages all communication tools to be considered.
Focusing on audience need results in a more transparent approach to communications spend. The perceived cost of ‘waste’, from customers receiving irrelevant information through a one-size-fits-all approach, is reduced:
Audience / Council Services? / Communications tools
Young people / Leisure, regeneration/arts, benefits, democratic services, parks / Social media, trusted specialist channels eg colleges, word of mouth/peer recommendation
Adults / Council tax, benefits, car parking, building control, environmental health, contract services, planning, housing, democratic services, parks / Media, social media, audience-specific publication, refuse trucks, face-to-face
Parents and children / Housing, benefits, contract services, environmental health, leisure, regen/arts, democratic services, parks / Media, audience-specific direct mail, social media, trusted specialist channels eg schools
Older people / Housing, bereavements, contract services, benefits / Media, audience-specific publication, face-to-face, trusted specialist channels eg age concern
Business / NNDR, regeneration, environmental health, contract services, car parking, building control, planning, licensing / Media, audience-specific publication, specialist channels eg Chamber of Trade
To maximise limited resources, the role of the Communications Officer is to:
· Provide guidance and direction to services (eg developing easy-to-use corporate identity guidelines, briefing on issues)
· Create well-researched and easy to understand communications that either have direct relation to the key communications messages or are to articulate new, or changes to existing, council services; not ‘vanity publishing’.
Communication tools
· Intranet and website
· Team meetings
· Corporate messages from SMT
· Briefings – when required on key issues
· Global emails for major corporate messages
· Posters on Council noticeboards
· Messages in payslips
· Information in induction packs
· Policy bulletin
· Executive members meet with managers/attend directorate meetings.
In addition, other channels could be developed further eg webcasts which enable staff who cannot make briefings to see first-hand what is being said. / Media
· Vital for getting important messages to a variety of audiences
· Also a trusted opinion former
· It is important to ensure the right messages are put across quickly
· Although there is no guarantee that any news release will be used or used as issued, good media liaison tends to result in more sympathetic coverage. / Social media / website
· Allows people to connect, have conversations and share information
· Enables us to communicate with residents and to keep up to date with what is happening in communities
· Information must be regularly updated; users expect a response in minutes rather than hours or days
· Best practice recommends that all discussion is allowed, even if it is not positive
· The Council’s social media communications needs a planned and strategic approach which will enable greater efficiency through the use of technology
· The Council’s website is highly-rated; it and other electronic means must be maximised so customers can help themselves to access services. / Marketing campaigns
· Promote accessibility to services
· Influence perceptions and change behaviour
· Need to follow the ROSIE* approach:
· Given the cost perceptions of publications, publications will be rationalised and produced to meet specific audience needs.
*Research, Objective, Strategy, Implementation, Evaluation
Objectives
· To develop communications channels to provide honest, accurate, understandable and timely information to all staff and councillors that is relevant to them doing their jobs effectively and increasing their understanding of council business
· To listen as well as inform, ensuring that sufficient channels of communication, including feedback mechanisms, are in place so information moves up, down and across the organisation
· To ensure staff are aware of, and involved in, decision making and activities
· To enable all staff to take responsibility for ensuring they keep up-to-date by accessing the information that is available to them. / Media
· To develop proactive and open relations with the media, responding quickly and effectively to media enquiries
· To use news releases to inform and educate target audiences about changes to service delivery and issues directly related to the Council’s key communications messages
· To ensure procedures are in place so that all officers and councillors dealing with the media have appropriate support. / Social media / website
· To focus social media activity on developing Twitter as an information provider, with Facebook used for time limited campaigns, issues and engagement, rather than for general news updates
· To support the use of the Council’s website to promote the Council and its services and to facilitate e-channels of communication that the public can use to speak to us and access services. / Marketing campaigns
· To develop understanding of the needs of different audiences and plan marketing communications accordingly
· To promote services and information in a clearly branded way through the most appropriate channels
· To ensure guidance and support is available for internal use so that the corporate identity guidelines can be adhered to by all.
Delivery
Delivery of internal communications is defined in the Council’s Internal Communications Strategy, which is regularly reviewed. / Delivery of the media function is defined in the Council’s media protocols. The media protocols are regularly reviewed. / A set of social media protocols needs to be developed. / The Council’s approach to communications, branding and the corporate identity is detailed in the Council’s Corporate Communications and Branding Handbook.
How do we know if it’s working?
Communications must be evaluated to ensure that audiences are receiving and understanding the messages that the Council is giving. However this must be balanced against the appropriate use of resources. As such, rather than evaluate the effectiveness of all individual communications tools utilised, the Council will measure the contribution of communications activities as a whole by:
· Internally – Staff survey, councillor survey / · Externally – Perceptions survey