CorpComms Magazine

When refuse collectors forget to empty a wheelie bin or a parking attendant is over-zealous in their ticket distribution, it is the councils that face the public backlash. And when research shows that council tax bills almost doubled in the ten years until 2007, to an average annual levy of £1,078, it is no wonder that grumbling about local authorities has almost become a national sport.

But scratch under the surface and a different story emerges, far away from the tabloid headlines of record council tax hikes, nuisance speed bumps and hearses being slapped with parking tickets.

While public satisfaction with councils is falling in most local authorities, public satisfaction with council services is actually rising. Indeed, the Local Government Association (LGA) suggests customer satisfaction has been rising since 2004.

The association's findings are corroborated by David Holdstock, head of corporate communications at London Borough of Hillingdon, which is located about 16 miles north west of central London.

'Part of our challenge is when we ask people what they think of the council as a whole, they often have quite negative views,' says Holdstock. 'But when we ask about local services - for example, the library or local leisure centre, they are much more positive.'

This apparent dichotomy lies at the heart of the challenge facing councils in their communication with residents. Unlike corporates that have likely spent years building up a brand identity linked to communication strategies, councils have no such brand image to call upon. Residents across the UK, while benefitting from many of the local services provided by councils, from entertainment to education, may not actually connect such services to the council.

What may be more likely, in fact, is that they associate the council with negative missives. 'Councils are great at putting their name to the things they do that people hate - from council tax bills and court summons to parking tickets and No ball games signs,' says the LGA report.

ENVIRONMENTAL PRESSURES

In addition, the current economic situation is presenting councils with greater challenges than ever. With recession impacting most households, local authorities have been pressed by the government to keep the council tax increases as low as possible for the current financial year. While this may be a relief for many residents, it might not be great for maintaining service levels.

Research from the LGA, for example, shows council income is projected to fall by £2.5 billion due to lower income from investments, services and from selling off land amid falling house prices. Indeed, half of the country's councils have already cut jobs due to the recession.

John Shewell, head of corporate communications at Brighton & Hove City Council, says: 'The current economic climate presents a number of challenges as well as opportunities. One of the biggest challenges is to do more with less. Personally, I can't see the public agreeing to a tax rise in these tough times and surveys by YouGov and Politics Home show that there is no appetite for further stimulus measures. This means local government can expect an even greater tightening of the public purse. Therefore we've got to prepare for this now by being more innovative and disciplined; and we've got to get used to making some very tough choices.'

Nor are councils just facing the obstacle of having to deliver services with reduced funds. There is also the new Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA), which will force many councils to do things differently.

The CAA, whose findings will be made public annually from November, will assess local public services in terms of their overall effectiveness in improving local quality of life and, in particular, how effectively local partnerships, such as the council, police, and prison and probation services, work together to achieve this. 'Under the new CAA regime, the challenge for council communication teams is to take a lead role in developing communication strategies and co-ordinating this work across all the public sector partners. This is a huge challenge but it can be achieved,' says Shewell.

He hopes to succeed in the CAA process by creating a 'localised public sector communication hub' in the city, a goal that is supported by his recent overhaul of the communications infrastructure at Brighton & Hove City Council. The restructure saw five teams merged into three - media relations, marketing and design services. He also introduced new working practices to manage team performance and more focussed planning, such as a grid system to identify and plan stories, tools to monitor the media, research and plan campaigns, a 24-hour on-call rota, and daily media updates and meetings so the team could plan their stories for the day.

The team now has a new three-year communications strategy that focuses on building the organisation's reputation and has reorganised the team into an agency structure that has account teams working on campaigns. 'We're focused on three themes: people, place and performance. In short, it is about what we're doing (performance) for our residents and stakeholders (people) to improve quality of life and make Brighton & Hove a great place to live, work and visit (place)' he says.

WAKING UP TO CHANGE

Centralising and restructuring communications activities may be essential to responding to some of the demands currently placed upon councils. But some councils must first wake up to the important role communications professionals can play in pulling together communities and improving their reputation. 'The profession struggles to be taken seriously at a senior level within the sector,' says Giles Roca, head of communications at Essex County Council. 'Communications must be more than just effective channel managing. In Essex we have a chief executive and leader who both understand the strategic role and importance of communications. In a large number of other authorities this is not the case. It must be for the communications professionals to prove their worth and that of their operations.'

Councils also need to face up to the fact that traditional communication methods may not work. 'Council communication used to be targeted through media releases. It went through the filter of a journalist,' says Simon Wakeman, head of marketing at Medway Council. 'There's now a twin challenge to this: first, the decline of local media and the decreasing circulation of local newspapers; second is the growth of online content, with people developing and owning their own content, for example, blogs. This means that councils must look at news ways of communicating; they need to change the mix.'

Wakeman has been writing about the impact of social media on council communications for some time, aptly using his own blog at www.simonwakeman.com to encourage debate. In particular, with people far more likely to use social media tools - including Facebook and, more recently, Twitter - Wakeman sees the public as directly involved in the communications process. 'Councils need to be communicating with people, not to people. It's about enabling discussion and dialogue,' he says. 'It's much more challenging, because you have to engage people in the process.'

TURNING CHALLENGE INTO OPPORTUNITY

For some councils and their communications professionals, however, these testing times are proving a major opportunity to stand up and be counted. 'The current economic environment has meant we have reacted to the needs of people who live and work in Manchester,' says Sara Tomkins, director of communications at Manchester City Council. 'We have shaped our communications to focus on the really current issues like jobs, money and debt issues, concerns on keeping a roof over your head and what free things we have on offer, from family fun events to energy saving light bulbs. Every little helps.'

Roca also sees the recession as being key to connecting with residents. 'If we can steer communities through the downturn, helping and supporting and are seen to be doing so, then the rewards in terms of improving trust and satisfaction will be significant,' he says. In Essex, much of last nine months has been taken up with downturn communications culminating in the recent launch of the Bank of Essex, the first council-run bank for more than 30 years. The bank was created under powers which councils have to promote the economic wellbeing of their area, and offers small and medium-sized businesses, which have been trading for at least a year, loans of up to £100,000. 'It's about delivering on what is actually important to people and will make a real difference to their lives,' adds Roca.

Brighton & Hove Council also ran a specific campaign to support local businesses in this harsh economic environment. Called 'Be Local, Buy Local', the initiative encourages local residents to spend money in their city. Shewell says that the campaign has received a huge amount of positive feedback from business and the media. 'If you walk around Brighton & Hove, you'll see many shops with our pledge stickers - it's very visible and as a result it's had a positive impact on our reputation,' says Shewell. 'Communications is crucial during difficult times and the public will be looking for leadership, which is where councils can play a key role. As community leaders we've got to get out and explain what we're doing to shield our communities from the recession.'

Nor are councils overlooking new communication channels, with several seeing online opportunities for building relationships, particularly with the younger community. Like several other councils, Medway Council has launched a young person's website 'MixitOnline', which is an online guide to things to do and places to go in Medway. The council has also trialled several ideas including a monthly podcast - featuring news, interviews and local bands - which was produced by young people for young people.

At Brighton & Hove City Council, Shewell is in the process of developing an online strategy that is backed up by research and aligned with the overall communications strategy. 'Social media has to add value to your communications, but that means understanding the social media habits of your audiences,' he says. 'We're currently mapping out our social media landscape here in Brighton & Hove. We want to understand where our audiences are going and what they are talking about so we can develop a dialogue with them.'

UNDERSTANDING AUDIENCES

This understanding of the audience may, in fact, be the key to successful council communication strategies now and into the future. Not only does the current environment highlight how far councils need to relate to the needs of their community, but the rapidly changing landscape demands a broad communications mix that will only work if councils really understand the different audiences they are dealing with. Roca, for example, sees future development in the personalisation of council communications in exactly the same way that the supermarkets have been doing it for 20 years, but reinforced and enabled by e-comms. And it looks like councils are starting to target these goals. At Brighton & Hove, for instance, an analysis and research team spends a lot of time gathering and analysing quality data so that they can understand what the city wants and who the audience is. They also carry out annual surveys of media habits to identify which media residents consume and how they rank their credibility as news providers. 'In terms of research, we follow a simple rule: garbage in, garbage out - so make sure the data is of good enough quality for it to be meaningful,' says Shewell.

Councils may now be facing the toughest challenges, with recession forcing many to reconsider their approach to both their services and the residents that use them. For some, it may still be an uphill struggle to even register the importance of communication professionals in this process. For others, though, it's clear that communications are vital to success, with some investing considerable time and resources in centralising communications teams and giving them the tools they need to respond effectively to the rapid changes in today's communications landscape. Some of these are also producing award-winning campaigns that more than rival those of the private sector. For Essex's Roca, though, the proof of success lies with the target audience. 'I have a simple test when it comes to council communication - will it genuinely make a difference to people's lives? If it doesn't then it's time to rethink your strategy or simply stop doing what you are doing. Channels and technology will change, however, the goal of identifying, understanding and then delivering on people's priorities must not.'

The next year may well bring further changes, not least a potential change of government. If councils keep an eye firmly on the needs of their residents and remain responsive to their communities, however, then they should be well placed to handle whatever challenges lie ahead. 

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