14 February - We have a plan; to spend another £55k.
The Finance Scrutiny Committee is more correctly known as Finance & Corporate
Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee and so it was appropriate that it
discussed Council Communications issues this week. The omens were not good
when the microphones failed three minutes into the meeting but fortunately
normal service resumed six minutes later.
There is a new (former NHS) Comms Manager, Gill Amas (†), and maybe she will have some new and original ideas.
But perhaps not especially self-generated as
external consultants had been hired
at a cost of £13,000 to suggest how things might change. Their plan will cost
an additional £55,000 to implement. The audio failure ensured that the first
question from Councillor Ferguson could not be heard but whatever it was Ms. Amas was unable to answer it.
The agreed Comms requirements are stated below…
The plan itself may be found on
pages 15 to 21 of the meeting Agenda (PDF).
Labour Leader Borella (Slade Green) wondered how we could possibly afford so much money (it has been
taken from reserves) and noted that The Bexley Magazine is pretty much the same now as it was 25 years ago. What
alternatives are there to the magazine? He suggested several including leaving it in
supermarkets. Cabinet Member Leaf spoke up for “the digitally excluded who
welcome a magazine through their letterboxes”.
Among the recommendations is one to adopt OASIS. Neither Councillor Borella nor O’Hare (Conservative,
Blendon & Penhill) knew
what it is and why should they when the new Comms strategy had fallen at the first hurdle by
not providing an explanation? The acronym translates to Objectives, Audience,
Strategy, Implementation and Scoring and “widely used by Communications
Professionals in the NHS”. Maybe Communications would be improved if people
simply spoke in plain English and is NHS management renowned for itְs effectiveness and efficiency?
Councillor Daniel Francis (Labour, Belvedere) thought that Faith Groups may be able to
help spread the Council Gospel. Councillor Leaf later agreed with him. Daniel noted that the Comms Team is small but it
still manages to overspend its budget.
He asked for any reason that might explain why some Council Members are given
publicity via official borough Retweets and others never were and referred back to
last November’s argument
about official Council photographs being used in party political material. Staff are contracted to appear in Council publicity
material when appropriate but can they complain when it is used by third parties, including political parties?
The overspend is due to falling Magazine revenue and [internal] printing and
graphic design costs. It was accepted that the Council’s Social Media policy was
inconsistent and if staff photographs are used beyond Council purposes their
permission should be sought and of not legal redress might be appropriate.
no one else had any questions and the new Comms manager left the building,
† An appropriate name for Valentine’s Day if you are a Latin scholar.