CorpComms Magazine

There is a simple logic to local strategic partnerships that bring together public, private, community and voluntary organisations; the community is better serviced through more effective resourcing - which also suits ever-tighter budgetary constraints arising from a troubled economy. But making such a partnership work appears to be far from simple; for the public-sector professional communicator, there are multi-faceted opportunities and challenges to supporting the success of this multi-agency approach.

Why LSPs?

The rationale for a local strategic partnership (LSP) seems obvious when you take just one of many case studies. In 2002, Brighton faced a near catastrophe when 250,000 people descended on the seafront for Fat Boy Slim's 'Big Beach Boutique II', against expectations of just 60,000. Police and council leaders looked on in horror at the multiplying crowd knowing that they were woefully under-resourced to ensure the revellers' safety. Only good fortune prevented a weighty death-toll and many of the attending police officers subsequently needed trauma counselling. Councillors predictably refused to allow a repeat party the following year; indeed the council might have been forgiven for battening down the hatches for good.

Instead, teams across the council - including licensing, community safety, environmental health, events and emergency planning teams - came together, in partnership with the police and emergency services, to better manage events. This included establishing a Safety Advisory Group partnership to pick up on potential problems, and focusing more generally on the easier and smoother running of all events across the area.

In 2008, Fat Boy Slim returned to join an increasingly busy annual events calendar of more than 60 festivals. Last year, Brighton and Hove won the Beacon Award - a government sponsored scheme that recognises best practice - for its partnership work in managing the city's night-time economy. 'This clearly demonstrated how we collaborate successfully with all our partners - ranging from transport, emergency services, businesses and the voluntary sector - to create a safe yet thriving night-time economy,' says John Shewell, head of corporate communications, Brighton & Hove City Council.

Nor is Brighton alone in such partnership success. Ian Lewis, director of Hackney's LSP, Team Hackney, thinks that the partnership has resulted in a trajectory of service improvement across all partners. 'The councils, primary care trusts (PCT), police etcetera are all performing better,' he says. 'But the big success is in crime and education - there has been a real shift from often being the poorest performer or bottom authority to now achieving the national average in GCSE results and getting crime down by 40 per cent. The partnership has had real tangible outcomes.' David Wood, manager of the West Suffolk Local Strategic Partnership (WSLSP) says his partnership has added value by funding community initiatives that would not otherwise have been possible - for example, reducing alcohol abuse in the area and tackling the skills gap in local employment. 'You can spend all your time on strategy, but get nothing done,' he says. 'But we want to ensure that we are delivering new services that people need.'

The downside of LSPs

Giles Roca, head of communications at Essex County Council, agrees that LSPs should be able to make a significant difference to local authority residents' lives because they 'bring together the full resources and focus of the public sector to tackle the issues of a particular area'. He warns, however, that simply working together for the sake of it will not necessarily result in better services. 'The whole point of collaborative working must be to improve outcomes,' he says. 'This work needs to be grounded in reality and on what communities actually require to improve chances and tackle underlying weaknesses.'

The examples above seem outcome-oriented, which is perhaps why it is easy to identify the successes. But for the positive case studies, there appears to be considerable criticism of LSPs that exist for no particularly good reason. 'There's a risk that LSPs fail to deliver to people,' says Alex Aiken, director of corporate communications at Westminster City Council. 'It's too often an excuse for communications groups to navel gaze and have endless discussions that don't actually go anywhere.'

'Good, strong, effective communications are seldom achieved by committee,' adds Roca. 'There is, therefore, a danger that outcomes and the real focus could be lost due to the inherent bureaucracy of a multi-agency approach.'

Compounding this problem is the difficulty in establishing the partnership in local government life. 'It's a challenge to get the partners that are involved in the LSP to see it as part of their mainstream work, rather than thinking that they have a day job as well,' says West Suffolk Local Strategic Partnership's Wood. When he first joined his LSP five years ago, people struggled to see the partnership as a central part of their role, which is why he also thinks that many partnerships spend their early days talking but without actually doing anything.

The communications role

Despite the challenges, there are signs that at least some LSPs are making considerable headway. Indeed, in recognition of the importance of LSPs, it appears that local government communications strategies are better aligning to these new partnership goals. LGcommunications, a national body aimed at raising the standards of local government communication, has now broadened its membership to primary care trusts, fire services, housing associations and so on, reflecting the new partnership approach.

David Holdstock, national chair of LGcommunications and head of corporate communications at the London Borough of Hillingdon, says that the ultimate objective is to create a 'public sector communications hub' model through which areas could deliver communications across various public sectors.

'At Hillingdon we have a public sector communications group that plugs into the LSP so we work collectively on the joint pursuits for our LSP,' he says. 'We work to deliver shared solutions, best practices, resources and staff - the whole spectrum. It makes for much more effective outcomes.'

Brighton & Hove's Shewell takes a similar approach, thinking it crucial to apply communication resources to an overarching public-sector strategy. 'Communications has to start thinking about 'place' in its broadest sense and start unifying local public service communications,' he says. 'By unifying communications, local public services can focus on issues of common concern, shout with one voice, and deliver a more efficient and effective model for communications that ultimately benefits the local taxpayers. This approach also means citizens can expect to receive one set of messages - this reduces competition for 'air time', resources to deliver the message, and cost.'

To succeed in such goals, Shewell says that the biggest challenge has been agreeing an approach, which he has addressed with three core strategies:

• Identifying what the place narrative is - or the 'place brand'
• Identifying what the place outcomes are through robust research and analysis that supports any communications activity
• Agreeing an approach that unifies communications delivery

In keeping with Holdstock's ideas, Shewell's team is working on creating a local public sector communications hub. 'This is simply about unifying local public service communications to support the big place outcomes better,' he says. 'It's about evolving both the partnership model - bringing it closer to citizens - and creating a communications model that supports the LSP.'

This focus on engaging the community with the partnership included a nine-month local democracy and citizenship campaign to raise residents' awareness of how to get involved in local decision-making either in the council, the health or emergency services, or in the community more generally. The joint campaign was organised by Brighton and Hove City Council with Sussex Police, NHS Brighton & Hove, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, and community and voluntary sector organisations. 'It was hugely successful simply because we were able to draw on the expertise from other sectors,' says Shewell.

The question of branding

In presenting a partnership approach to the community, there is a question of local government branding: should local government present public sector service delivery via the partnership or via individual organisations? Do residents care? 'There's been a lot of discussion around whether you specifically brand the LSP or not,' says Holdstock. 'When you talk about the police, health etcetera, people understand what you mean; when you talk about public services as a whole it's far less tangible; who is this public service?' Holdstock says this correlates with surveys in which residents' satisfaction ratings under 'place' surveys tend to be lower than when individual organisations do their own satisfaction surveys.

Westminster's Aiken agrees with this more cautious approach to public sector branding, thinking that local authorities should not over-egg the importance of partnerships. 'LSPs are important for strategic co-ordination but have a limited role in communicating the role of local public services,' he says. 'For this reason most communications campaigns, which are generally designed to improve access to services or change behaviour, should be delivered through the local authority.'

Aiken also advises against overly focusing on the LSP or any other structure. 'We should be focused on the outcomes we want to achieve - healthier people, increased recycling or greater civic participation - and build the campaign around the audience rather than seeking to serve a structure like a LSP.'

Specifically branding Hackney's LSP proved useful, however, in that it enabled organisations to remove themselves from the council's poor reputation. 'Initially, we branded quite separately because people weren't ready to trust the council,' says Lewis. Although he says that there's now a lot more ease about the council, the branding continues to be that of 'Hackney' rather than its individual organisations.

It's all about the place

And perhaps it is this that is the key. While several LSPs seem to be rethinking their approach to branding, the objective is not to communicate/brand the LSP as such, but to create a better place identity - to engage residents with the community in which they live.

So rather than branding Brighton & Hove's LSP as such, Shewell's objective is to define the city's unique brand and then redefine the council's brand to bring it closer to the place. 'The question of logos will come up, so one approach is to remove them all and stick to a 'one brand' principle that advocates the place,' he says. 'In this way there should be no debate about how many logos appear on the communications activity, but  agreement on the outcomes and place brand.'

Successful place branding will demand a unified communications approach that will no doubt support the continuation of LSPs. And for residents there is little doubt that it is easier to identify with a place, than it is with all its various different organisations. But there remains the problem raised by both Holdstock and Aiken - that place or LSP branding will not help people really understand where the service delivery is coming from, or help them know where to go for help and/or support. As Aiken says, a place or an LSP does not have a door for easy access. Initiatives like Brighton & Hove's local democracy and citizenship campaign should help with this, but only in areas where organisations really have overcome the internal challenges to work effectively in partnership - so that they can then work with residents as a unified team. In areas where LSPs are still maturing, this may be a leap too far.

In addition, there is always the question of funding. 'The next few years are crucial. It'll be make or break time for partnerships,' says Lewis. Hackney's partnership is likely one of the more successful of the LSPs, but it has also received some of the greatest funding for neighbourhood renewal - a great incentive, agrees Lewis, for getting people to work together. With a budget deficit to manage in coming years, it is already clear that public sector cuts are on the agenda, no matter which party succeeds in the coming election. Any further squeeze on budgets will require better partnerships to ensure minimal resources are used effectively. But it may also mean that individual organisations become ever-more protective of their own budgets, with fewer incentives to work as a team. At the end of the day, it will undoubtedly come down to commitment. Those areas that firmly believe in the power of partnerships, and already have mature LSPs, will no doubt go on to maximise their potential. They may very well change the whole perception of public sector service delivery and succeed in better engaging residents with their community. For those LSPs that have not yet proved their value, however, partnerships may just appear to be a waste of everybody's time.

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