Case study 2: North Tyneside Borough Council

Securing proactive positive publicity about the standards committee and its role.

Background

North Tyneside Council is a borough that is recognised nationally for its rate of improvement to its services and the benefits it is delivering to borough communities and residents.

From a position of being rated the lowest in the country in its corporate assessment in 2002, it is now a three-star authority that is improving well.

It has established a sound financial footing and achieved more than £46million efficiency savings to increase investment in frontline services in a three-year programme.

It is leading best practice nationally with involvement in national pathfinder projects and has levered in £0.7 billion of additional benefit for residents.

However, the council’s corporate assessment has previously identified that while political and managerial leadership is strong at a senior level, the behaviour of a minority of councillors of all political parties distracts energy from the improvements and has a detrimental impact on the external reputation of the council.

Communications approach

As part of its response to the Audit Commission findings North Tyneside Council has taken up the opportunity, set out in national legislation, to implement a strengthened local standards committee.

However, it was recognised from an early stage that a contributing factor to its success, was not just ensuring awareness among members of the standards process, but the understanding among the wider public of the process and their ability to raise concerns about member behaviour.

Improving external and internal communications – and the profile of the standards committee – was acknowledged from the outset as a key project. In a climate where distrust of public figures is promoted by the media it was acknowledged that a ‘small but often’ approach to information across a broad range of information sources was the best approach.

The communications strategy was to use a wide range of methods – the council’s independent residents survey confirmed the council’s residents’ magazine is the most popular source for information for 84% of North Tyneside residents, but acknowledged that the local media were key in getting the message across.

The recruitment of three new independent members to the committee provided the ideal opportunity to launch the proactive communications campaign at no cost.

Close working between the council’s communications team and its monitoring officer produced a press release targeted at the community via local media, promoting the council’s search for three independent ‘standards guardians’, and inviting the public to apply for further information and an application pack.

The success of this approach lead to wide circulation and coverage – including an item on local television breakfast news – and produced 69 requests for the application pack – compared to the two applications attracted in the previous campaigns for new members. This resulted in 34 completed applications for the three posts.

Just as importantly, it established the standards committee in the public spotlight with short articles about the committee, its members and their role.

Once all the members were appointed, the council used it as another proactive media opportunity to publicise the new membership make-up – six independent members and six councillors.

The new chair of the committee was closely involved in the discussions on the approach and was keen to ensure that the public were reminded of the role of the committee and provided quotes and interviews.

The press release was an opportunity to reiterate the ten principles of public life which a member of North Tyneside Council must sign up as well as the Code of Conduct. It explained the process implemented by the standards committee and the consequences for members found at fault.

All information gathered for the media approach has been redrafted to create articles for the residents’ magazine and internal publications for staff – 70% of whom live in the borough, and for the council’s intranet and website.

Evaluation

• The co-ordinated approach has ensured the standards committee, its role and membership has been in the public spotlight over a six month period through media coverage (in printed media and TV), our residents’ magazine, staff magazine and on the website.
• It has promoted the human face and independence of the committee.
• It has informed local media representatives about the standards committee process.
• It has helped establish the new standards committee and promoted their new role.

Further details from Jeanette Hedley, Senior Communications Manager on 0191 643 5077 or email Jeanette.Hedley@northtyneside.gov.uk.