The LGA have voted unanimously to make ‘reputation’ a priority for the year ahead. This chimes with Sir Merrick Cockell’s manifesto pledge and recognises the need to repair public trust at a time when changes in services mean that individuals, families and communities may feel that they are getting less from their local authority. David Pugh, Leader of the Isle of Wight Council moved the motion. He told the conference that it was time for “the LGA to step up a gear and support its member authorities, up and down the country, in taking pro-active action to restore and enhance their standing within their individual communities.”Cllr Pugh was careful to say that this should not involve “propaganda or promotional campaigns at the expense of the taxpayer”. Instead he focused on “supporting and enabling local authorities – at all levels – from councillors to officers – to effectively explain and articulate what they are doing, why they are doing it, and what services are available to residents.”This is the right approach to such a campaign. The LGA’s Strategic Advisor, Joe Simpson, has long argued that communication should be about enabling conversations with communities – which means listening and delivering a tangible response to public views, rather than the traditional “broadcast model” of press release plus council magazine. There is plenty of good material from which any council can review their communications to sustain and improve communications and trust with the public, and community leaders. The LGA’s reputation project, material from professional groups such as LGInsight on public attitudes and LGcommunications and the CIPR Public Services Group on media and marketing all offer the foundations stones for the strategy and plans for delivery. But if Cllr Pugh’s wish that we should use communication to “explain and articulate” what councils are doing and “why they are doing it” is to work it requires leading councillors and the senior management of every authority to do three things. First, they need a strong and coherent core story to tell to explain why we do things. This is not the rubbish corporate strategies of yesteryear. This should be a short and pithy statement of priorities that would pass a “pub test” in terms of a councillor or officer being able to explain in a social setting what the council is trying to do. Nottingham City Council’s “Pride” narrative is one example. Second, stupidity must stop. Our collective credibility is undermined by the unthinking, mismanaged actions of councils that implement policies that waste money and put local government in the box labelled “bureaucrats” rather than being seen on the side of people. Chief Executives should sense check every policy and cabinet members should enquire and test proposed delivery. Both should put “common sense” top of the guiding principles for staff in delivering the services. How else can we stop a farce like the recent action of York Council contractors in building a metal fence through a football goal making the pitch unusable? Third, we must learn to consult and feedback rather than just ask and then forget the audience. Too many central and local consultations have no formal or informal feedback to those who contributed and the wider community to show what changed as a result of the consultation exercise. Sutton Council consulted on the tricky issue of waste collection last year, initiated a debate, were criticised locally but listened and changed policies as a result and told people what they were doing. Their satisfaction scores are increasing, because people see that they listen. Cllr Pugh said in his speech that the Isle of Wight has “a strong sense of community identity, and proudly so. Our residents care about the communities in which they live, and take a keen interest in local matters, such as frontline services.” I know that this is particularly true of the Island, but it is a fair description of many communities. We must utilise this innate goodwill in every town and village if we are to sustain the reputation of local government in difficult times.
