Agenda item

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 particular the work that they had done and continued to do in difficult circumstances. He asked if clarification could be provided as to how they would be included in this programme of work going forward and what their role might be. Councillor Doherty recognised the huge amount of work that they did in the area and stated that the process needed to be fair and equitable. The Council would be consulting with potential partners and other people who might want to be involved to make sure that there was an objective view across the district. Discussions would take place with stakeholders and the Volunteer Centre would certainly be involved in that process.

Councillor Tony Vickers supported the aim of the Strategy but referred to paragraph 4.11 in respect of the Resident Survey held in May 2020. He was concerned that too much emphasis had been placed on the results of the survey. The consultation had been on-line only and not all people had access to on-line methods of communication. These were very often the people that the Council needed to reach e.g. the vulnerable, elderly people with disabilities etc. Councillor Vickers asked for reassurance that this was not a self-selecting biased sample and that it tied in with the disbanding of the existing Community Panel and the reforming of something to replace it e.g. a Citizen Jury where there would be a representative panel. Councillor Lynne Doherty replied that the Council was aware that it had not received the breadth of response that it would have liked but the survey had been undertaken during Covid and obviously it was therefore necessary to ensure that it was an on-line survey as communication channels had been limited. When the survey results had been analysed it become evident that there was an under representation of younger people and discussions were being held with the Education Service to consider how the Council could engage more effectively with younger residents so that their voice could be heard. It was proposed that the survey would be repeated on a regular basis which would include actually going out and engaging with people in their communities.

Councillor Adrian Abbs noted that the Strategy referred to BAME and BAMER and he asked if there could be some consistency throughout the Strategy as to which was the appropriate term to use. Councillor Lynne Doherty noted that Councillor Owen Jeffery had also raised a number of typographical errors in the paper and the Chief Executive would be amending those prior to it going to digital print.

Councillor Erik Pattenden noted that there did not seem to be any baseline or milestones within the document and he therefore queried how it would be known whether any of the actions arising out of the Strategy were actually going to address the issues that had been identified. Councillor Doherty confirmed that there was a clear direction of travel within the Strategy and it was the Delivery Plan which would deliver the objectives set out within the Strategy and this would be monitored by the Customer First Programme Board.

Councillor Jeff Brooks referred to the issue around the use of on-line methods for consultation. He felt that it was essential to use traditional methods like paper in order to engage with hard to reach groups. There was not one mention of paper within the channels it was intended to use to communicate with these groups. Councillor Doherty responded that over recent months when the Council had important messages to get out to the community it had actually had leaflets delivered through doors and had put up posters across the district. Paper communications did not always fit with the environmentally friendly solutions in any event which was why there needed to be a balance. Looking at the demographics it was actually more of the older generation who had responded to the survey using on-line methods.

Councillor Lee Dillon noted that in a previous response it was mentioned that the Delivery Plan would be monitored through the Customer First Programme Board. However, that Board did not have cross-party representation and he felt that it should come back through the Executive. In relation to the commissioning of a Local Infrastructure Organisation (LIO) despite the statements regarding partnerships and of not doing ‘to’ communities but doing ‘with’ them, this Strategy would have the opposite effect. In terms of the commissioning the Council already had a relationship with the Volunteer Centre and the services it provided for many years and indeed it had relied on the goodwill of the Volunteer Centre throughout the pandemic. The Volunteer Centre had built trust with the community and was well respected in West Berkshire. It had funding in place until March 2022 and it was therefore felt that the process should not start until the Autumn of 2021 as there could be a situation where two publicly funded organisations would be running concurrently which would be a duplication of effort. The Council should be working with the Volunteer Centre to build capacity. Councillor Lynne Doherty confirmed that the Council respected every partner that it worked with but she still felt that there was a need to go through a fair tendering process. She had had several discussions with the Volunteer Centre over recent months but this was about ambition and it was an important part of the strategy going forward. She recognised the work that had been done by the Volunteer Centre over the years and this was not about undermining that at all. This was about the scalability of an operation to ensure that the Council was future proofing how it engaged with all of its communities going forward. It provided an opportunity to have a conversation with all involved so that they could all feed into what it would look like which could then be tendered through a clear procurement process. She expected that the Volunteer Centre West Berkshire would be involved in that process and if they won the tender it would give them the security to build on. Councillor Jeff Beck concurred with the comments made by Councillor Dillon.

Councillor David Marsh queried if the report had been produced internally or whether external consultants had been involved. There seemed to be a lot of jargon in the strategy and he asked for an assurance that any communication should be in plain English as the one thing that would put members of the public off of engaging with the strategy was the use of jargon and management speak. Councillor Lynne Doherty confirmed that this was something that she was keen to achieve and there was something in the strategy about the use of plain English. Councillor Marsh asked who sat on the Communications Steering Group and it was confirmed that this was an Officer group who met weekly. Councillor Marsh stated that during the Covid pandemic the communications from the Council had been good but in terms of consulting he felt that the record had been generally poor, for example, the consultation on charging for green bins. Councillor Doherty commented that a consultation framework was in place but it was recognised that the Council could do more and since she had become Leader she was trying to ensure that that was the case. For example, the consultation on the Economic Development Strategy had consisted of a different level and form of consultation. Councillor Marsh asked if it was proposed to communicate more effectively with elected Members of the authority and he referred to an incident where he had only been informed of a significant planning application in his ward from a resident. Councillor Doherty confirmed that a lot of communication had taken place with Members e.g. a weekly e-mail, briefings and Member Development sessions. She suggested that Councillor Marsh should have a word with Planning as he should be copied in to any planning applications in his ward. Councillor Marsh also raised the point about the Leader writing the weekly blog and whether that was appropriate. Councillor Doherty responded that both she and the Chief Executive had been working jointly throughout the pandemic. There was nothing political about the blogs and she would have no issue with that whoever the Leader was.

Councillor Owen Jeffery referred to page 39 paragraph 4.4 and the comments around engaging with Town and Parish Councils. He felt that the Council had a long way to go in terms of engaging with them. Councillor Lynne Doherty stated that she had a good level of communication with her Parish Councils – she attended meetings regularly, wrote a monthly report and had really good levels of communication with them. It was down to all Members to ensure that Town and Parish Councils were informed and that this communication was happening. Town and Parish Councils received the weekly updates and the Council would also be hosting a District/Parish Conference shortly to which all Town/Parish Councils had been invited to send representatives.  

Councillor Hilary Cole agreed that the Council had worked hard over recent months to significantly increase the level of communication with local residents and the ways that the Council was looking to engage tied in very well with the recently announced government initiative to sustain the community spirit.

RESOLVED that:

(1)       The actions set out in paragraph 2.9 of the attached document be approved;

(2)       The financial implications associated with these actions and how it was proposed to address them be noted;

(3)       It was noted that the Delivery Plan would be submitted to the Customer First Programme Board for approval by the end of November 2020.

Reason for the decision: The need to enhance the Council’s communication and engagement activities had been highlighted from a number of different directions not least the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic. This Paper sought to address this requirement through the development of a comprehensive Strategy with a range of recommendations aimed at enhancing both external and internal communications and the Council’s wider engagement activities.

Other options considered: None.