The people of Essex, our businesses, our partners, our communities and the local organisations within them are at the heart of everything we do. Our role is to engage with all these audiences, communicating, informing, listening and inspiring, and helping to bring about positive change.
We also help our staff understand how the work they do benefits Essex.
Our team:
- is strategic and will prioritise work that helps people in Essex to prosper
- lead and guide communications across the council and public services
- use digital channels because they are effective and efficient - we will not use them at the expense of doing what works
- maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of our own channels - we will also make effective use of others
- use insights and evidence to help guide and improve our work
- work in dynamic, agile project teams, providing excellent advice and guidance
- encourage and support services to create content - they know what works best for residents
Public affairs
Our public affairs strategy seeks to engage UK Government on issues pertinent to Essex, with the ambition to influence policy. Thereby enhancing the reputation of the council and county.
It will showcase innovative work streams, such as our climate action activity, to influence government policy.
We will work with Essex’s MP on communications which support the links between local priorities and the national agenda.
Our strategy for 2022 to 2025
Where we are: structure and delivery
We are a balanced, semi-devolved model characterised by a strong corporate team and embedded (devolved) resources in functions. We have specialists in different communications disciplines within the corporate team. We provide strategic direction and guidance and support to ensure consistent standards among service-based colleagues. No other council provides strategic and professional support within communications to this level.
We work to our well defined corporate strategy, Everyone’s Essex, using it to prioritise and resource activity.
Strategic priorities
- Improving our impact – working to a defined workplan, segmenting and targeting audiences and using effective, engaging tools and processes, to ensure consistently high standards of delivery.
- Raising professional standards – improving and embedding a consistent training and development offer.
- Using resources well – ensuring the right levels and type of resource are in the right areas of the business.
- Offering strategic communications and marketing leadership on a whole-system basis.
Operational priorities
- Improving engagement and reach using insight/primary and secondary research and data.
- Ensuring balanced strategic (Everyone’s Essex) and business as usual communications.
- ‘One programme’ of fully integrated functional communications (development, planning, execution and evaluation), aligned to Everyone’s Essex.
- Prioritising support for consultation and engagement, demonstrating outcomes and that the council has listened.
- Developing approaches to internal engagement.
- Punching our weight in terms of our ability to influence in Westminster, with MPs and Government.
Our challenges
Distrust
Society’s default is now distrust, fuelled by a lack of faith and trust in media and government. Reputation management and increasing brand resilience is crucial.
Key statistics from the Office of National Statistics (July 2022) include:
- 35% of the UK population stated that they trusted the national government, which is lower than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average (41%).
- 42% of the population reported that they trusted local government and 55% trusted the Civil Service.
- Trust in public services was higher than trust in the national or local governments, with the NHS the most trusted public service (80%), followed by the courts and legal system (68%).
Clarity
Making sure messages ‘cut through’ and land in an increasingly busy and largely digital communications environment is critical.
Reaching all audiences
We broadcast less and target communications more. The mainstream media is still important, but news values are now driven by what is likely to generate clicks and engagement. This limits our opportunities.
An aging society means using platforms which appeal to older demographics and equally understanding communication preferences for younger people who are most likely to be disengaged from corporate narratives and leaders.
Technology and digital
Ever-evolving digital channels bring the need to ensure inclusion and invest in development of systems and skills.
Skills
We need to consider a whole raft of professional disciplines and activities – campaigns, digital, insight, engagement, public affairs, design and creative as well as traditional PR.
Engagement
Our residents, businesses and employees expect two-way communication, relevant to them, on platforms and channels they are consuming. We need to be outward focussed and understand needs.
Our operating model
At the centre is a corporate department of Communications and Marketing specialists, also operating as an internal consultancy to support service-based Communications and Marketing colleagues. This model also supports a programme of professional learning and development throughout the council.
We have a whole system approach to communications through the Essex Communications Group (public sector communications professionals throughout Essex), aligning activity with county-wide priorities.
We aim to:
- Build professional excellence.
- Inform residents, businesses and all other audiences through providing easy to access and understand information via a variety of channels (Paid, Earned, Shared and Owned).
- Influence and change behaviours across audiences through campaigning activity, with success measured against tangible targets.
- Engage communities to enable them to influence decision making and the council’s priorities and policies, and; enhance the council’s brand and reputation.
People and resources
The corporate team has a budget of £1.7m (operating spend, staffing and non-staffing) and a full-time equivalent employee complement of 25.
Teams of service-based colleagues are responsible for managing and delivering a Communications and Marketing activities, including service-specific campaigns.
We are responsible for ensuring standards and efficiency of communications and marketing across the council, although not directly responsible for the people and resources across the services. We will ensure efficient and effective use of people and financial resources associated with communications and marketing activity, through mini-peer reviews led by the Communications and Marketing Leadership team.
Objectives for our communications
We aim to:
- Inform residents, businesses and all other audiences
- Influence and change behaviours across audiences
- Engage communities to enable them to influence decision making
- Enhance the council’s brand and reputation
- Build professional excellence.
Investing in our teams
Developing & sharing talent
We will deliver a learning and development programme which will be available to all communications and marketing colleagues across the organisation. Utilising our own in-house skills, specialists from our Communications and Marketing framework suppliers and/or bespoke training programmes and providers. This will cover individual development requirements and those of specialist teams.
The expansion of service-based C&M colleagues means we are now able to consider how we are able to grow, develop and share talent more easily. Over the last few months' individuals have moved between teams or moved into more specialist roles. We are aiming to develop a culture and programme to enable more of this. We will work with key hiring managers to understand Communications and Marketing capabilities across the organisation and consider new approaches to allow for the sharing of resources in a more responsive and effective way (e.g. resource pools).
Implementation – Planful, audience-led
Our Communications and Marketing Workplan provides an organisation-wide grid of key activity, set against Everyone’s Essex. Audience led approaches are critical to ensure our content is reaching people where they are, tailored to their needs and preferences and ultimately ensuring that people respond to the content in the desired way. This approach will further embed data and citizen insight into the work of communications and marketing.
This approach is supported by:
- desk research: review of existing data and research available including our own insights; corporate information sources; industry research
- commissioning of primary research: consideration of commissioning primary research if required
- channels and platform audits: audits of our own channels and platforms across the council, as well as key partner and external channels, where relevant
- channel strategy: development of a comprehensive channel strategy, ensuring we have relevant touch points with all segments of our population, both directly and indirectly
- bringing variety to content: using voices of community leaders and subject matter experts alongside those of our cabinet members, to increase trust and build confidence; consider long and short form content, increased film and photography use and leveraging new channels and formats eg essex.gov and intranet
- implementation and test and learns: implement new approaches, taking a test and learn approach initially.
The Essex Communications Group – whole system approach and leadership of communications
The benefits of the Essex Communications Group includes:
- linking with local capacity and knowledge across public services to land messages and engage with audiences across communities and across agencies
- linking with cities, boroughs and districts to manage engagement and briefing with MPs
- developing an approach which is controlled but devolved, mirroring the strategic aims of councils and wider public services
- using networks and channels established during the pandemic to ensure partners are kept up to date and can amplify campaigns and other comms.
Evaluation and measurement
We were the first local authority to adopt the Government Communications Service framework for evaluating its activities. This was introduced in 2016 and is used across the whole council.