Agenda item

The Committee received the draft final report of the Communications Task and Finish Group.

The Chair explained that, if accepted by the Committee, the Task and Finish Group’s reports would be forwarded to the Executive Committee meeting of Wednesday, the 23rd of April. The Chair clarified that the O&S Committee was to decide on a course of action when considering each report.  If only minor changes were required, such as changes to grammar or phrasing, then these could be accepted by the Chair of the Group.  However, if the Committee proposed major alterations or further work, then the Task and Finish Group in question would need to reconvene to undertake the necessary work and report back to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at a later date.  

The Chair of the Communications Task and Finish Group presented the recommendations of the Group to the Committee.  The Chair began by thanking the members of the Group and Officers that had participated in the exercise.  The Chair of the Group commented that one potential recommendation of the Group was that the Communications Team should be reviewed.  However, whilst undertaking the exercise, Officers had informed the Group that they were in the process of conducting a separate service review of the Communications Team.  Officers informed the Committee that there would be some changes to the staffing structure of the Communications Team which would result in additional resources being directed to the Team. 

The Chair of the Group explained that the recommendations were grouped under seven key themes.  Under the theme of “Prioritising Communications”, Members agreed that the wording of recommendation 1a) should be changed to read “the Council adopt communications as an underpinning principle of the key priorities of the Council”.    Members also agreed that reference to the “five” key messages should be omitted and only referred to as”key messages”. 

The Chair suggested that recommendation 1c) relating to the Council website should be clarified to include reference to a specific timeframe for the Council website to be updated.  Members agreed this suggestion.  Members also agreed that recommendation 1d) relating to the review of progress of recommendations should be removed.  Members suggested stating, in the body of the report, that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee would review the recommendations of the review in twelve months. 

Members suggested that an additional recommendation should be made under the theme of “corporate branding”.  Members felt that an additional recommendation proposing the introduction of staff briefings on the Council’s corporate brand and how employees convey this when dealing with customers should be made.  It was agreed that this recommendation should acknowledge the Council’s existing customer contact standards.

Under the theme of “media relations”, Members felt that recommendation 7c) regarding comments on press releases should be rephrased to refer to obtaining comments from the relevant “spokesperson”.

RESOLVED that

1)     the wording of recommendation 1a be changed to read “the Council adopt communications as an underpinning principle of the key priorities of the Council”;

2)     recommendation 1c) relating to the updating of the Council website be clarified to include a timescale within which the Council website should be updated;

3)     recommendation 1d) regarding the review of recommendations made by the Task and Finish Group in twelve months be removed;

4)     a recommendation be added under the theme of “corporate branding” recommending the introduction of staff briefings on the Council’s corporate brand and how staff convey this when dealing with customers;

5)     recommendation 7c) relating to spokesperson comments on press releases be rephrased to refer to obtaining comments from the relevant “spokesperson”; and a sentence be added to explain that, where comments are requested from Portfolio Holders they should have 24 hours to provide a response; and

6)     the Executive Committee be asked to consider the recommendations of the Communications Task and Finish Group, as amended by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and as detailed in the resolutions above.