Issue - meetings

Purpose:  To set out a proposed Strategy for enhancing the Council’s communications and engagement activities over the coming three years.

Resolved that:

·         the actions set out in paragraph 2.9 of the attached document be approved.

·         the financial implications associated with these actions and how it is proposed to address them be noted.

·         it be noted that the Delivery Plan will be submitted to the Customer First Programme Board for approval by the end of November 2020.

This decision is eligible to be ‘called-in’.  However, if the decision has not been ‘called-in’ by 5.00pm on Friday 23 October 2020, then it will be implemented.

The Executive considered a report (Agenda Item 6) concerning a proposed strategy for enhancing the Council’s communications and engagement activities over the coming three years.

Councillor Lynne Doherty in introducing the report stated that in November 2019 the Council had invited the LGA to conduct a Peer Review. One of the key themes coming out of the feedback from that review was that the Council had been hiding its light under a bushel. They recommended that the Council should make communication central to the Council’s thinking and at the heart of what it did for both residents and staff. This Strategy recognised that an effective engagement spectrum was wide and varied in approach. Feedback received in respect of the communications around Covid over recent months had been very positive and residents felt that they were being kept informed on recent events. However, in order to keep this level of communication going it was recognised that additional resources would be required. It would also be necessary to communicate directly to local residents and therefore a new delivery platform was set out within the Strategy. This was an e-mail platform and Councillor Doherty was pleased to announce that just prior to the meeting she had been informed that the Council had over 50,000 subscribers who had between them signed up to some 86,000 topic subscriptions. In the recent residents’ survey over 81% of residents had stated that they preferred e-mail contact to any other form of contact.

The Strategy was looking to enhance consultation and engagement using different methods in order to actively seek feedback which would help to assist, shape and form policy. It was the deeper levels of engagement which involved collaboration and empowerment that had not been as fully formed as she would like and hopefully this was addressed in the Strategy. This should be done jointly with local residents and it was therefore necessary to ensure that appropriate mechanisms were in place in order to hear their voices. The community engagement framework set out in the report identified the first wave of priority actions that needed to be taken forward to improve engagement but also left a degree of flexibility to enable the Council to try different methods and to obtain feedback from residents on their preferred options. They would inform the Delivery Plan that would be brought back to the Corporate First Programme Board for sign off and monitoring going forward.

Councillor Doherty specifically highlighted paragraph 9.4 of the Strategy which set out the outcomes that the Council was seeking to deliver and section 10 which focused specifically on what the Council was seeking to do and gave details around some of the actions. Councillor Doherty felt that effective communication and engagement was vital to ensure that the services and the way that they were delivered met the needs of the residents that the authority served.

The report was seconded by Councillor Hilary Cole.

Councillor Richard Somner referred to the Volunteer Centre for West Berkshire and in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31