The hustings are over, the results are in – and across the country, newly elected council administrations are waking up to the reality of being in office.For local authority communicators, the challenges are more acute than ever. We live in an era in which public cynicism about local authority decision making is widespread and councils need to justify every penny of expenditure.For communications heads across the country, the ‘morning after the election night before’ conversation with your new leader is a simple one. It covers the following three points.First, Congratulations. Second, what do you want to be famous for? And third, how are you going to convey what you stand for in a form residents believe?Question two is more immediate where your council has changed political colour and what the administration stands for is about to undergo a sea change.But the task for all heads of communications is similar, even if there is no change at the top. And it’s also a question that Chief Executives need to address directly to retain political and public confidence. The priority is to establish what the story of the new administration is. In essence, what do you want to be famous for? Could you explain it in ten words or less to someone in the pub?The answer does not lie in some vapid ‘mission statement’ but in a clear and succinct articulation of how you will improve the lives of residents and speak to their concerns. Round the country there are some powerful stories from Oldham and Lambeth’s co-operative council approach to “love Hackney” but there are also too many shocking, dull and incoherent ‘corporate visions’. In Westminster, our approach is “Better City, Better Lives” – a programme to encourage jobs and business while at the same time offering ladders of opportunity through training and work with families to improve the lot of all. This forms the basis of our corporate narrative. It is what we stand for.The delivery of this narrative needs to be conveyed through audience-focused campaigns which explain your story and provide tangible evidence of it at work. The old maxim of the property world is that “people buy with their eyes”, and this is true of your residents’ experience of the council. Their every encounter with the council – from doorstep collections to the state of streets and schools – informs how they feel. There is absolutely no point in engaging in fruitless SoS (sending out stuff) communications claiming all is going swimmingly if that clashes with residents’ experience.The much-touted phrase “doing more for less” now sounds a jaded refrain. With budgets squeezed, councils must show they are concentrating on core value-for-money services and activities which demonstrate they are on the side of residents. That, at the end of the day, is something we should all want to be famous for.
