CHAPTER 4
Communicating about local finance‘Local government has been historically weak at communicating with the public. Indeed, when MORI compared the communication’s performance of a wide range of public sector bodies in 1997, local government was singled out as the worst performer by some margin...Around Britain we know that many people know little about the services their authority delivers, who their councillors are, and often do not see local government as interesting, relevant or particularly important.’ MORI Review of Communications in Local Government, DETR, 2001
This sobering assessment suggests that communicating effectively with council taxpayers about what they are paying for and the choices that they face may present a real challenge for local authorities. If local government is not geared up to communicate effectively, consulting on a relatively complex and challenging issue such as local council tax would be a daunting task. This chapter addresses this challenge by:
identifying the scale and nature of the problem
laying out principles that can guide your communication strategy
indicating the choice about what to communicate about
and reviewing the resource implications of developing an effective communication strategy
IDENTIFYING THE PROBLEM
The public appear to think that local government is not very effective at providing information, reflecting a broader weakness across the public sector. Over twice as many feel that the public sector is worse, rather than better than the private sector at providing information (30% compared to 14%).[6]
The public sees councils as particularly poor information providers. A survey for the Post Office in 1997[7] showed that one in four people rated their local council as worst at providing information (24%). This reflects both low awareness of the many different activities councils are involved in, and a need for authorities to work harder at keeping residents’ informed about what they do. Over half did not feel well informed by their local council (53%).
The problem for local government is that people may indeed recognise and value services provided by the council but not view them as provided by the council. To put the issue in the management jargon, many local authorities have a weak corporate identity. Many people do not know to any depth what a local councils does, how it affects their lives and how to judge your performance. Research points to a correlation between how familiar people are with a product, service or location and how favourable they are towards it, demonstrating that promotion and communication to raise awareness can improve perceptions. If the knee jerk reaction that all public spending is prone to waste is going to be avoided, local authorities need to step up their communication capacity significantly.
It is probably true to say that more effort has been put into communication in the last few years, but equally it appears that there is a significant difference in the performance of councils in this area. There is a huge diversity of performance across local government in terms of communication, with differences of up to 35% between the best and the worst over the past few years. See the chart below.
Levels of Information: Comparisons The chart suggests there is no reason why communication by councils in general could not improve, if the worst performers learnt lessons from and shared the commitment of the best performers.
What is that the public want from the council? There is little evidence of a great enthusiasm to be part of a perpetually active political system, although as we noted in Chapter 1 there is evidence that people would like to be consulted about significant shifts in the level of council tax. The chart below, showing aggregated data from surveys for local authorities since 1998, indicates that over half of respondents prefer to continue taking a passive role in council activities, while around one in four want further involvement.
Crucially over half the population indicate that they would like more information about what their council is up to. Only 15 per cent say they are not interested in what the council does or performs.
Levels of Information: Comparisons Several surveys demonstrate that local residents are most likely to want more information on:
Reasons why decisions are made (ideally stating how local residents’ views were accounted for).
How the council spends its money (ie ‘where does my council tax go?’).
Improvements planned for services (although councils should take care when raising expectations).
Tangible targets.
How to get in touch (particularly relevant to larger authorities).
Information about local finance, planned improvements, targets and how their money is spent are key consideration for many residents. So in communicating more effectively about council tax and priorities for spending goes to the heart of what people want more information about.
PRINCIPLES TO GUIDE THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
So what are the key points in the development of an effective communication strategy. There is a lot to think through and this section provides an outline of the key tasks.
Being clear what is on offer: you are communicating, not only information but also, an implicit invitation to respond to that information. So there needs to be an opportunity to contact someone in the authority for more information to clarify queries that people may have. The communication of information is the start of a process, so think through what else you are going to make available to people both in terms of additional information and any consultation approaches that may follow.
Be ready for conflict: the information you communicate may be challenged by interest groups or political opponents that think your council should be spending more or less. The option for debate over such issues should be built into your communication strategy. You should try, in communicating about finance issues, to recognise that there are areas where opinions may differ and be careful to separate out statements of fact from judgements about policy choices.
Defining the audience: clearly not all communications about council tax will be relevant to all audiences. Service-specific information might be aimed at users, often reflecting life stage groupings (such as young people or those in need of child care or the elderly), while some corporate communications may be aimed towards harder-toreach groups who are less likely to be informed by generic campaigns. In short, be clear about the scope and spread of your communication target.
Recognise the mixed nature of your communication targets: as noted in Chapter 3 you need to have a variety of target audiences in mind from current partners or stakeholders to the general public and hard-to-reach groups. In addition, if your consultation strategy is likely to attract national level publicity as, for example, Milton Keynes, Croydon and Bristol found over their referenda, it is important to have the mechanisms in place to sustain your reputation and positively influence opinion formers.
Avoiding jargon: council communications then need to be targeted towards the intended audience(s). The wording, style, typeface, key messages and distribution channels should reflect the needs and preferences of this audience. Avoiding jargon is particularly important but certainly a significant challenge in the area of local finance.
Table 4.1: do’s and don’ts: ten steps to communication hell or heaven Ten steps to ensure that your citizens don’t show an interest in council tax
1. With the council tax bill, plan to include a leaflet that is produced without the help of a graphic designer and print it on poor quality paper.
2. Call the leaflet ‘A guide to COUNCIL TAX NATIONAL NON-DOMESTIC RATE and the FINANCES OF THE AUTHORITY’
3. Use 8 point text with 6 point for the notes
4. Use red text or pale green text or even blue text with a green textured tint
5. Make sure that any statement from the Leader of the Council has as few paragraph breaks or as little white space as possible.
6. Try printing text over photographs of your services.
7. Using an aerial photograph of your civic office on the cover is usually found to be dull enough, clip-art is sure to be.
8. Passive sentences should be used.
9. Employ multi-clausal sentences that are constructed with inexplicable and superfluous polysyllabic vocabulary, particularly arithmetical and antique terminology, that are further burdened with tautology to which the addition and inclusion of numerous pairings of parentheses (brackets) completely (and comprehensively) obfuscates.
10. Use quotations from Acts of Parliament to illustrate a point.
Ten ways councils can engage the reader in council tax
1. Use a designer
2. Publish two sets of information – one on council tax and the other on national non-domestic rates and send with every bill only relevant information.
3. Use a 12 point font
4. Use clear print techniques
5. Use plain language
6. Explain any jargon used – for example ‘poundage’ and ‘precepting’
7. Use colour and diagrams
8. Provide information in community languages and accessible formats
9. Offer sources of further information
10. Ask for feedback on the information supplied
Piloting can ensure success: it is important for councils to remember all staff within their organisation are atypical of the wider local community in terms of their levels of awareness and understanding of local governance and local public services. It is therefore important to pilot any potential council communications on local residents who are not related to the council to ensure language used is understandable and creates interest.
Use a variety of outlets: there is a range of ways that people get information about your council from your own in-house communications, through the local media and through all your staff. There are opportunities provided by activities through which you are already communicating the public, such as the information provided with council tax bills (see Table 4.2). It would seem wise to mix and match the outlets that you use and consider them all as potential resources in the campaign of communication that you develop.
Table 4.2: Council Tax Bills: An Opportunity? In March/early April, billing authorities send out their annual council tax bills, along with certain financial information and a Best Value summary. This is an obvious vehicle for engaging with their taxpayers early in the financial year.
Whilst the various leaflets may be discarded unread, this is still an opportunity. A number of authorities have sought to be innovative with the information they send with council tax bills, despite the constraints of regulations that prescribe information which must be included.
To further encourage and enable greater innovation, the Department has said it is looking to give authorities more flexibility on the information they send with bills.
However, the annual billing round should form an integral part of an authorities’ communication strategy, rather than be the sole time when the authority reaches out to its taxpayers. It can be both backward and forward looking – explaining how money has been spent in the previous year and what the current bill will fund.
There will be groups of people who will not face a direct council tax liability and will not receive a bill, such as sub-tenants and lodgers, people in care homes and hostels and so on. Steps will need to be taken to inform these groups of people as well.
Corporate commitment: council communications will benefit from the full backing and support of the corporate core of the authority. Corporate co-ordination will be important to ensure marketing and communications activities are effectively managed across the authority (avoiding duplication and encouraging economies of scale), relevant partner agencies are more readily available, and a corporate brand is promoted.
COMMUNICATING ABOUT WHAT?
There are two streams to the communication strategy you could adopt in relation to local finance. The first is to try and explain the terms and nature of the local finance system. Table 4.3 provides one example of how to do this using a diagram.
Table 4.3: Kirklees’ diagram explaining local government finance Such communication is perhaps best reserved if the aim is to set up a detailed deliberative exchange about local finance issues with an invited audience. For communicating to the general public or hard-to-reach groups most councils will set themselves the task of making clear some of the key choices that they are going to face over the budget. It is not necessary to provide people with detailed information about a complex local government system, but instead give them a choice of options and priorities relating to spending and taxation that could make a difference to their lives. The London Borough of Croydon chose to present financial information to their residents in the form of a shopping list in their local community magazine – see Table 4.4 below.
Table 4.4: Croydon shopping list PROVIDING RESOURCES FOR COMMUNICATION
Some internal research at MORI has shown that resourcing the central communications function within an authority appears to have a beneficial impact on how well local residents feel informed by that authority. This pattern seems to correlate well to a certain point, when there is a levelling out and, after which, increasing the number of staff does not have such a notable impact. This consideration is worth mentioning because the cost of effective communication is a barrier that is identified by many authorities to not only communication but also developing a commitment to participation.
In research conducted for the then DETR, Lowndes and colleagues8 found that of a number of drawbacks to developing participation strategies identified by local authorities, the resources required figured prominently.
Top of most lists is the crucial dichotomy between justifying expenditure on democratic activities when specific services are still in need of resources. Similarly, the tension between introducing real democratic enhancements and achieving efficient and effective service delivery remains. As participation becomes more entrenched in the culture of local government so these problems and dilemmas will become more pressing.
The dilemma is of course particularly acute given a focus on budget-setting. Should money be spent on services or telling/asking people about them?
Table 4.5: Further guidance on communication strategies From 3 July 2002, the Connecting with Communities Toolkit, will be available at www.idea.gov.uk/knowledge – this on-line toolkit will provide practical communications support for local authorities.
Advice about how to present charts and tables is provided by British Standard 7581:1992
Communication with the public provides a number of benefits, but does incur costs. It is necessary to consider expenditure on communication as an investment because it is only with the understanding and support of taxpayers that public services can be sustained. They have the right to know what they are getting for their money and the choices that their local council faces over future funding options. Involving the public in information and decision-making goes to the heart of what makes a public service public. Accountability is one of the distinctive features of public service and for that accountability to operate effectively requires reasonable spending on communication.
[6] People’s Panel on behalf of the Cabinet Office, MORI, 1998
[7] Post Office Communications Survey, MORI, 1997
[8] Lowndes, V , Pratchett, L and Stoker, G ( 2001) ‘Trends in public participation: Part 1 – local Government Perspectives’ Public Administration, Vol.79, No 1, p214-5
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Published 4 July 2002
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