Comms strategy to address council trust

In a bid to combat negativity around cuts and service changes, Powys County Council is setting out a new communications strategy.

In recent months, residents have been unhappy about new recycling and waste collection routes, potholes in the roads and the conveyor belt of school closures, with many people annoyed that they are paying more Council Tax and getting worse services.

At a meeting of the council’s Liberal Democrat/Labour Cabinet on Tuesday, July 28, councillors will receive the draft document.

The paper said: “Effective communication is essential for delivering council services, engaging communities, and building trust.

“The communications strategy has been developed to ensure a consistent, accessible and outcome-focused approach across the whole organisation.

“The organisation faces increasing financial pressures, growing service demand, and heightened public expectations for transparency and engagement.

“A communications strategy will help build trust, reduce misinformation, support behaviour change and ensure compliance with legislation and Welsh language standards.”

The strategy has seven “key strategic” objectives.

These are: “Make the council easy to understand, promote confidence in the council, inform and engage the workforce, strengthen partnerships, use digital effectively, support transformation and change and be future-ready.”

The draft document itself highlights some issues that the strategy is supposed to deal with.

Loss of public trust will be countered with: “open, honest communication” and “clear explanations of decisions and financial pressures.”

Misinformation and rumours will be countered with: “proactive messaging, rapid response through trusted channels, media and social monitoring.”

The strategy will also attempt to explain “Sustainable Powys.”

Sustainable Powys is the council’s phrase for cuts and **for focusing council services on** five core towns in Powys, which are Brecon, Llandrindod Wells, Newtown, Welshpool and Ystradgynlais.

The document said: “We will develop a clear, consistent narrative for Sustainable Powys and major transformation programmes, explaining why change is needed, how delivery will change, and the intended impacts.

“We will use evidence, data, case studies and real-life stories to explain difficult choices and long-term challenges in an accessible way.”

Key performance indicators (KPIs) will be used by the department to measure how well communication campaigns are being received.

This includes monitoring website traffic generated by these campaigns, tracking whether they increase visitor numbers, noting how many residents change their behaviour on issues such as food recycling, and increasing the number of Powys County Council staff who take part in staff surveys.

Other aspects that will be monitored in campaigns include people’s understanding of and views on “service changes”, with the example being to: “reduce negative sentiment around service changes by 15 per cent within six months.”

With a local government election on the horizon in May next year, the strategy confirms that all communication activity is supposed to be “politically neutral.”

But the report highlights that a lack of staff could be a problem for the new approach.

The report said that the communications budget for this year is £404,000, and this includes £120,000 for grant-funded posts.

The report said: “The team is partly dependent on annual financial contributions from services, which introduces an element of risk.

“To fully deliver the strategy, the staff structure will need to be reviewed and re-costed.

“The outcome of the work will determine the level of support the team can provide and will be shaped by the resources available.”

Cabinet will be expected to rubber-stamp the strategy.

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service