It seems that SOLACE have woken up to the reputation challenge facing local government. Their Co-Managing Director writes in response to Ben Page in the MJ about the Chief Executives plan for restoring local government reputation. Essentially it is three steps. First, build on an apparently successful meeting at the LGA conference. Second, utilise social media to promote the sector using some leading figures. Third, develop a wider case for improving reputation through a 'SOLACE communique'. This is a solid start, but we need to be much more strategic and radical if we are to meet the four main reputational challenges facing the sector. This is the challenge of reassuring government that we are ready for localism; demonstrate to residents that we can meet the challenge of austerity; provide visible leadership to staff and show community leaders how we will really empower them to develop a ‘Big’ or ‘Civic’ society. Put simply, reputation is what someone says about you when you leave the room. It can evoke respect even if you don't like someone. It can mean not having confidence in a person or body, even if they are well meaning. But the point is that it is about what people think about you. The SOLACE prescription is all about what we think about ourselves. My advice to SOLACE is to think through the hard issues about how you tackle reputation in austere times, with a sceptical public and staff uncertain about the future. I'd advise them as follows. First, test the evidence. The good news is that there has been a marginal improvement in the reputation of local government over the summer. A new poll by Populus shows that net satisfaction with the local council is up to 55% - a 15% increase since the great snow crisis in January. It is also noteworthy that this improvement appears to be underpinned by the fact that local authorities are beginning to get the communications right, demonstrated by a significant increase in public understanding of budget proposals over the last six months. Second, if reputation is the sum of our actions the whole sector has to focus on doing the right thing by our communities. Councils have an unenviable and sometimes undeserved reputation for doing silly things, but sense checking service decisions is essential to restoring reputation. Looking at recent news, no chief executive would agree to a ‘keep off the grass’ sign on three square feet of turf; or build a fence through a football goal or paint yellow lines around parked cars. They can’t deal with every service issue but should be clear about setting a general instruction to managers to apply common sense in service delivery and consider the reputational consequences of individual actions.Third, value for money has to be central to everything we do. The simple rule should be “would we spend this cash if it were our own money?” Demonstrating value for money to the public should be the daily mission of every Director and each communications team. From the autumn we will start the process of setting the budget for 2012-13, so every council needs to be thinking through how it will work with communities to do this. The MJ’s Council of the Year - Harrow - offers a model here with their Let’s Talk campaign http://www.harrow.gov.uk/letstalkFourth, there needs to be some passion; a fight against injustice. Councils that can show how they are determined to reduce poverty, end illiteracy and fight disease will garner public support more quickly than campaigning against cuts, because they will be demonstrating leadership, and people respond to that from good local government. We are all part of a noble cause; building local public service to improve lives. Why then do we disguise this in 80 page committee reports, unreadable mission statements and statutes providing rather than enabling. We should release our inner community activist to show how we are on the side of people and can do a lot of good by devolving power, ending restrictions and funding worth projects. Finally, after evidence, services, outcomes and leadership comes communication, which does have a significant impact on reputation if the former elements are in place. Effective communications means putting yourself in the shoes of the audience and tailoring PR around them. It means using all the tools in the box, press, social media and marketing to reinforce core messages. It means funding evaluation and presenting to cabinet a monthly reputation report. Reputation should build trust in public services and support service delivery. It should not be about promoting politicians or chief officers. You should be able to say that you build a positive reputation because service delivery improved because of the challenge of sustaining reputation and effective communication increased access to public services.
