CorpComms Magazine

The age of austerity is going to affect everyone in Britain. June's emergency budget underlined how hard life is going to be over the next few years, as the coalition government tries to recoup costs partly by cutting jobs in the public sector.

And public sector press offices are an easy target. After all, what plays better with the electorate - less police on the beat or fewer corporate communications experts?

Already, the headline writers are focussing their attentions on those communications directors said to be commanding top salaries.

According to a newspaper report on 7 June, Suffolk County Council has just appointed a new head of communications on a six-month temporary contract of £700 a day - equivalent to an annual salary of nearly £182,000: £40,000 more than the Prime Minister earns.

The revelation inflamed Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, who commented: 'Spending on public relations and communications at local council level is far too high already...an age of austerity is coming and the county council should make do with the communications staff they already have. 'Most council tax payers would rather have better services than a council publication about better services.'

It seems the knives are out for communications departments. And no-one is likely to remain untouched. According to Richard Edwards, business and enterprise director at specialist advisers Communications Management, just 16 per cent of public sector chiefs are not planning to change or review their external communications provision over the next year.

At the annual meeting of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in June, permanent secretary for government communications Matt Tee warned of tough times ahead. 'Brace yourselves,' he said. 'The outlook for public sector PR is going to be challenging. We PR practitioners have to up our game.'

But just how many public sector corporate communications posts are there - and how much do they typically earn?

Edwards says: 'I was at the talk given by Matt Tee, and he said he had no idea what the communications budget was in Whitehall. He was saying the difficulty is that people have communications budgets/responsibilities in their role but no official communications title. The communications budget is squirreled away in different places which are not visible.'

Salaries for senior public sector communications experts hover round the £55,000 to £75,000 mark, though, as the Suffolk story shows, there are plenty earning much more than that.

A recent Cabinet Office report shows the salaries of 158 quango employees who earn more than David Cameron's modest stipend of £142,500 for running the country. It included four corporate communicators.

Already, there are signs of cutbacks and amalgamations. Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has merged its communications department with that of its local NHS trust. The move is expected to save £100,000 in its first phase. Director of policy and communications Tom Stannard says: 'This new service will transform the way health and social care issues are communicated as it brings them all under one roof'.

Further amalgamations are likely - some experts predict that that several bodies will ultimately share a PR team, which will effectively become like an in-house agency with several 'clients'.

There is also an expectation that some public sector bodies will outsource their communications to agencies because, however high the fees, it will work out cheaper than paying wages, pensions and other expensive benefits for a fully-staffed in house department.

Gavin Ellwood, co-founder of Ellwood & Atfield, says that even before the cuts were announced, his issues-led recruitment company had seen increased activity as culling appeared inevitable. While he says there have been many success stories of communications professionals moving between private and public sector, there are fundamental differences which can make moving over hard.

Ellwood warns: 'The public sectors comms professional can lack the investor relations and financial PR experience that some corporate communications roles demand. Historically, and this is likely to remain the case, private sector roles have commanded

higher salaries and this tends to be commensurate with higher risk roles. For example, it is quite common for a director of communications to follow their chief executive out of the door.

'The quid pro quo for lower public sector salaries has been the much prized final salary pensions and greater job security. In the public sector, given the often high turnover of ministers in government departments, it would be extraordinary for communications directors to move on with their political masters and indeed they are civil servants not political appointments.'

But who knows what will happen. Ellwood says: 'The anticipated cuts are of a scale we have not seen before so we watch with great interest.'

On a more general level, the job cuts could mean a total re-think of the way corporate communications in the public sector is handled. Edwards says: 'Over the years I've been following and working in the public sector, public sector communications chiefs have got used to growing communications functions to get the job done - certainly, few have got smaller in recent years.

'Now they are going to have to rethink completely the way they service their organisation's communications needs as budgets fall. This will mean some uncomfortable decisions about sharing services, a lower level of communications support available to people within organisations and a rethink about the very nature of their own roles'.

He adds: 'The best corp comms professionals will step up to the plate and give great strategic advice about the form and function size rather than taking a solutions-based approach to the problem. This is a defining moment for the strategic role of corp comms in the public sector.'

And the challenge for a public sector corporate communications director is to make their slimmed-down or amalgamated departments work - for their employers, the public and the media.

Those in the public sector are not giving up without a fight. David Holdstock, head of communications at Hillingdon Borough Council and chair of LG Comms, the national body made up of local government communications specialists, says that defensive actions are already being taken.

For example, Holdstock claims that local government communications departments are making sure they offer value for money, because their work is going to be under close scrutiny and it is 'almost certain' there will be fewer communications posts.

Departments should become more proactive at cost cutting and, indeed, revenue generating. At Hillingdon, the communications department asked staff members what they would do to cut costs easily. 'We implemented one idea straight away and it saved money from the moment it came in,' says Holdstock. It was a simple initiative: putting one person in charge of all the stationery ordering.

Revenue generating is the issue that might be more of a challenge. For example, a local council communications team might consider starting a campaign to encourage the locals to use the leisure facilities more. More usage means more money for the council and straightaway, the communications department is generating revenue. 'It's about having a targeted approach,' says Holdstock. 'A good communications department can show the council and the taxpayers it is cost-efficient and can also prove it has boosted the council's income.

'You can see how, given those scenarios, a council chief executive might think that there has never been a better time to have a good strategic corporate communications function than there is now.'

Top of the chops

Top paid corporate communicators include:

• Godric Smith, the director of communications for the Olympic Delivery Authority. His salary is the highest on the list for a corporate communications role and is between £195,000 to £199,000. He used to be Tony Blair's official spokesman.
• Karen Webb, executive director for marketing and communications at the Olympic Park Legacy Company. She earns between £170,000 to £174,999.
• Matt Tee, the permanent secretary for government communications. His salary falls into the £160,000-£164,999 bracket.
• Jon Phillips, director of communications and stakeholder relations at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. He earns between £150,000 to £154,999.

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