Dundee Partnership
Communications Strategy
September 2015
Introduction
This Communications Strategy has been developed after communication being
identified as an area for improvement in the Self-Assessment carried out by the
Dundee Partnership Management Group (DPMG) in late 2014. It aims to
encourage and improve communications both internally between Partners, and
between Partners and other agencies, communities, the media and individual
residents.
The Strategy is intended to complement any existing Strategies that Partners
already have in place, including the Dundee City Council (DCC) Corporate
Communications Strategy 2014-17.
In essence, successful communications should contain a clear message, use
simple processes and use an appropriate channel or channels. They should be
accessible to all to whom they are relevant, without unnecessary barriers being
put in place that might stop Partners, other agencies or communities from
accessing and understanding the shared information.
The Strategy states how the Dundee Partnership plans to communicate better in
future and the purpose behind this.
Objectives
There are a number of objectives that this Strategy aims to achieve;
 Increase and improve communication of Partners with;
o Each other
o Other local agencies
o Dundee communities
o Local and national media
 Extend the range of communication channels used to keep people
informed of developments
 Encourage a more cohesive, open Partnership in which Partners are better
able to exchange ideas and challenge each other
 Increase the level of joint working between Partners
 Promote the Dundee Partnership’s key achievements and initiatives to
develop its positive reputation
 Increase engagement with Dundee residents, who will be better informed
about Partnership aims, objectives, and activities
 Assist in achieving the overall vision for Dundee contained in the Single
Outcome Agreement 2012-17
Principles
General Principles
Communications should;
 Be clear
 Use simple processes
 Use appropriate channels
Context
Communications have been identified as a recurring issue for improvement across
a range of activities, e.g. through staff surveys, Public Sector Improvement
Framework reviews, research work and feedback from communities.
Communications are crucial to ensuring that the Dundee Partnership’s operations,
priorities, objectives, values, ambitions and challenges are better understood.
From a Local Authority perspective, the Audit Commission has identified a
relationship between performance and effectiveness of communications, and this
is likely to also hold true for Partnerships such as ours. Successful organisations
align communications and customer feedback across all their work and so there is
a need to ensure that there is a commitment from all Partners to do this.
Developing technology allows new and varied methods of communication with
Partners, staff, and the wider world. How communications are made needs to be
regularly reviewed to ensure that the most effective method(s) are utilised. This
includes reviewing the appropriateness of not only the more traditional
communication methods such as emails and letters, but also websites, social
media, etc. There is a need to ensure that information is accessible in a nondiscriminatory way, in line with the Equality Act 2010.
Dundee Partnership Vision
Through Our Partnership, Dundee will:
 Have a strong and sustainable city economy that will provide jobs for the
people of Dundee, retain more graduates and make the city a magnet for new
talent
 Offer real choice and opportunity in a city that has tackled the root causes of
social and economic exclusion, creating a community which is healthy, safe,
confident, educated and empowered
 Be a vibrant and attractive city with an excellent quality of life where people
choose to live, learn, work and visit
Policies
There are a range of Corporate Plans, Visions, Priorities and Values that Partners
work to. These need to be taken into account as part of our efforts to improve
communication. This should include promotion of these items between Partners to
ensure that everyone is clear on the position held by Partner agencies.
The main policy focus of the Dundee Partnership is the Single Outcome
Agreement 2012-17 and its Action Plan. This includes the Dundee Partnership
Vision, strategic priorities and the top strategic deliverables.
Functions
In line with the DCC Communications Strategy, there are three main functions
that communication is central to. Comment on each of these functions from a
Dundee Partnership perspective is given below.
Information Exchange with the Partners and the Public
Much of the communication that occurs between Partners is effective in
progressing existing activities. It appears to be less effective in developing a
strategic approach to tackling issues across the city, as not all relevant Partners
are aware of the existing and future plans and activities of other Partners.
This could be improved through Partners taking a more inclusive, open view with
regard to communication, e.g. sharing ideas and plans earlier, and helping to
maintain a better general awareness of who is doing what across the Partnership.
While no hard data is available, it is likely that relatively few members of the
public are currently aware of the Dundee Partnership and its role within the city.
Future plans should incorporate better communications with the general public by
all Partners to help improve awareness of the Partnership and its activities. This
could be achieved in part through Local Community Planning Partnerships, the
Community Engagement Strategy, and the Community Learning & Development
Strategy (currently being developed for launch in late 2015).
Media Relations
At present individual Partners undertake their own media relations, with some
joint work on larger projects. Where appropriate the Partnership will make further
use of joint media messages.
A currently underused resource is the myriad of case studies that are used to
highlight success of a wide range of projects. At present these are largely
confined to reports that are predominantly viewed internally, but could be made
use of to promote the positive outcomes for individuals, groups and Partners via
local media and social media channels.
Communications with Staff
Communications from strategic management within any organisation can have a
high level of influence on staff. It is important, therefore, that any message that
the Partnership wishes to spread is done so effectively within each Partner
organisation. This could be done through regular Partnership briefings to all staff
(perhaps quarterly), in the same vein as Dundee City Council’s monthly Chief
Executive’s briefings, which highlight important changes taking place and ensure
that all staff receive accurate information on important items.
Communication is a two-way process, and so it is also important that staff are
able to provide feedback and make suggestions to the Partnership. A clear
mechanism to do this does not exist at the moment, but could be developed.
Channels
Partnership Identity
A brand is more than just a logo. It is about an organisations values and beliefs,
and how it wants to be perceived. While the Dundee Partnership has a recognised
logo, the core values are less well conveyed to those external to the Partnership.
More use of Dundee Partnership branding could be made by Partners when
communicating information and promoting activities, which would help service
users and the general public to recognise information and publications that the
Partnership has contributed to.
Dundee Partnership Website
The Dundee Partnership website (http://www.dundeepartnership.co.uk) is an
important channel for effective communication with a range of target audiences.
The site holds information from the Dundee Partnership Management and
Coordinating Groups, the Dundee Forum, each of the Dundee Partnership Theme
Groups and Local Community Planning Partnerships. The Single Outcome
Agreement and Local Community Plans are also made available to public view on
the site, as are application forms for the Dundee Partnership Community
Regeneration Fund. The newly formed Fairness Commission will also have
information hosted on the site in the near future.
While some effort has been made to update the information held on the site and
make it more accessible, further work is needed on some areas and better
promotion of the site to Partners and communities is needed to increase its
effectiveness as a communication tool.
Printed Materials
Professional graphic design services were used in 2014 for the SOA Annual Report
2013-14 and accompanying summary. The professional design helps to promote
the report in a way that makes it more likely to be read, understood, and
importantly, acted upon. There is scope for standardisation of corporate branding
which, along with consistent use, would also enhance the Partnership identity as
outlined above. Advice on artwork for campaigns or advertising is also available
through the DCC Design Services.
Social Media
At present there is no centralised use of social media by the Partnership, though
some Partners individually make use of media such as Facebook and Twitter to
promote aspects of their services. The Partnership may want to consider a
cohesive approach from Partners, which would enable a greater degree of crosspromotion, one of the benefits of social media, as well as contributing to more
joined up working overall. The Dundee Partnership website could easily act as a
central point for links to Partners’ social media pages.
Procedures
Statutory Reporting Requirements
The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 gives Dundee City Council the duty to
report on its performance to stakeholders. The Single Outcome Agreement is a
key document on which to report and is shared with co-signatories within the
Dundee Partnership. The publication of an Annual Report on SOA activities fulfils
this duty, and also provides the opportunity to share information with both
stakeholders and communities.
Accessible Communications
There are a range of principles that will assist in making communications from the
Dundee Partnership more accessible. These include;
 Providing written information and advice in an ‘easy read’ format as
standard
 Ensuring that the Dundee Partnership website is fully accessible
 Training key frontline staff on communications needs and support
 Engaging constructively with community groups to ensure the
effectiveness of communication initiatives
Monitoring & Evaluation
There is no general consensus on the best tools or methodologies for monitoring
of communications. Dundee City Council makes use of its Employee Survey, the
Organisations Culture Survey, and the Citizen’s Survey as potential ways to
measure the value of its communications.
To ensure that an Outcomes focussed approach to improving communications is
taken, a number of actions have been identified and compiled into an action plan.
This will be regularly monitored and reported on to the Dundee Partnership
Management Group. This will provide evidence that the Dundee Partnership is
meeting its communications objectives.
The success of the Communications Strategy will be measured as part of the
ongoing improvement process taking place within the Partnership.
Action Plan
Item
Action
Lead Officer
Start Date
End Date
Communication of
progress on Partnership
key priorities
Decisions made at the DPMG are clearly
communicated to Partner organisations via
meeting minutes
Peter Allan / Paul
Davies
Ongoing
-
Produce an Annual SOA performance report and
summary report that is made available to the
general public
Peter Allan / Paul
Davies
June
(annually)
October
(annually)
All Partners Corporate Actions Plans include
explicit references to the SOA priorities
Per Partner
June 2015
April 2016
Senior Management within each Partner
organisation promote SOA priorities to staff
Per Partner
Ongoing
-
Middle management are made aware of any
actions required to progress SOA priorities
Per Partner
Ongoing
-
Middle Management to raise staff awareness of
their contribution to SOA priorities
Per Partner
Ongoing
-
Partners feed back to Strategic and Thematic
Groups on how SOA priorities are being handled
within their organisations
Thematic Group
Leads
Ongoing
-
Consideration given to the production of a regular
Partnership Bulletin, contributed to by all Partners
Paul Davies
January
2016
-
Develop opportunities and mechanisms for staff
feedback and suggestions in relation to
Partnership activities
Paul Davies
September
2015
April 2016
Partners communicate
SOA priorities internally
Item
Action
Lead Officer
Start Date
End Date
Dundee Partnership
Website
Maintain up to date online information relating to
the Dundee Partnership Strategic and Thematic
Groups
Paul Davies
Ongoing
-
Improve the structure and style of the DP website
so that information is easier to access
Paul Davies
Ongoing
-
Promotion of the website to increase awareness of
it, and its usefulness
Paul Davies
Ongoing
-
Identifying the need and
opportunities for
partnership working
Partners actively look for opportunities for
partnership working and suggest them to others
n/a
Ongoing
-
Improving awareness of
the Partnership within
communities
Consider how to increase awareness of the Dundee
Partnership within communities
Per agreed activity
Ongoing
-
Communications with the
Press / Local Media
Consideration given to how Partners can present a
more cohesive picture to the press / local media
tbc
Ongoing
-
Make better use of positive case studies by
submitting them to the press for publication
Per Partner
Ongoing
-
DPMG to give consideration to the use of social
media to help promote the Partnership (in addition
to individual Partner usage)
tbc
tbc
Social Media