Department of Energy and Climate Change: Communications Capability Review

Transcription

1 Department of Energy and Climate Change: Communications Capability Review 1

2 Management summary 1. The Communication Capability Review of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is one of a series across Whitehall. The review fieldwork took place in March Each review is carried out by a combination of peer and external reviewers. The reviewers were: Sara Moseley, Director of Communication at the Welsh Government; Phil Talbot, Director of Communication at the British Red Cross; Hilary Tuppen, Practice Partner at Tulchan Communications LLP. 3. The review methodology is based on interviews and examination of supplied materials. The reviewers evaluate capability against business requirements using an established assessment framework. This report contains their qualitative assessment of capability and provides recommendations for improvement. 4. Communication is a pan-organisational responsibility. The review s scope covers the breadth of DECC s external and internal communication, as well as the work of the Communications Directorate. 5. Interviewees included Ministers, officials, and communications professionals. The review also took external viewpoints into account, interviewing journalists and stakeholder organisations. Context 6. The Department of Energy and Climate Change was created in It is a relatively small department the second smallest in Whitehall with approximately 1,400 staff in London and Aberdeen. As a young organisation it is still developing to its ideal size, as a result of which the department did not undergo a wholesale restructuring process following the 2010 general election, as many other departments did. A new Permanent Secretary joined the department in February The department is now at a key stage in its development as it shifts from focusing on policy development to focusing on policy delivery. Implementation of consumer facing policies such as the Green Deal, Smart Meters and the Renewable Heat Incentive have either recently begun or will do so in the coming years. 8. The DECC Communications Directorate has reduced in size since 2010; there are now 27 FTE in the team, reduced from 47 (not including the Correspondence Unit). This reduction included the removal of all marketing staff responsible for campaign planning and contract management, for example those who had worked on the high profile Act On CO2 campaign. The central team is now press office dominated with small digital, internal communications, partnerships and stakeholder teams. There is very little 2

3 capacity within the team for proactive external communications or longer term planning. The department s Correspondence Unit is also based within Communications Directorate. There are a number of staff embedded in policy teams working on communications related activity, although only a small number of these are communication professionals. They do not have a direct reporting line to the Communications Directorate, although some have solid informal relationships. The directorate s budget on external spending has reduced from 21m in 2010/11 to 3.5m in 2012/ Since mid 2011 the department has not had a Director of Communication. The deputy directors responsible for News and Corporate Communications have been sharing leadership responsibilities since then; senior management within the department has been provided by the Director of Strategy. However, during the fieldwork for this review it was announced that a new Director of Communication would be recruited. It should also be noted that the Head of News, who is well respected and has been at DECC almost since its inception, will also be leaving and will need to be replaced. Overview 10. DECC has the smallest communication team of the Whitehall departments to be reviewed so far. It has a team of dedicated and skilled communicators who work flexibly and support each other to ensure that they are able to deliver what is asked of them, often at short notice. The structure of the department does not currently support them to deliver to best effect, but its small size overall means the team are currently managing the demands being made of them and are generally well regarded for their responsive work. 11. The department s shift from focusing on policy development to policy delivery necessitates some different skills and resources from those that have been required previously; this is particularly the case with communication skills. In particular there will be far greater requirement to communicate directly with consumers, and also with the investment community these are very different audiences and will require different approaches. This is a key point which should dictate much of the department s consideration of its communications operation. 12. Communication will also become more important for the department, and simply managing as they currently are will no longer be sufficient there is a need to increase the impact that the department makes through its communication activity. The department is under increased pressure at a time of rising energy bills with climate sceptic voices becoming more prominent and undermining the case for the need to decarbonise energy infrastructure and maintain security of supply. 13. The fact that the scale of the challenge facing the department s communications has grown significantly is widely recognised within DECC. There is also now a view that following the general election in May 2010 the communications headcount was reduced too heavily, given its future delivery requirements. Notwithstanding the considerable contribution the Heads of News and Corporate Communications and the Director of Strategy have made while managing the directorate over the past two years, in the altered circumstances that the department now faces the leadership and strategic view that a Director of Communication should provide is no longer something 3

4 which can be done in addition to other roles. The reviewers therefore welcome the decision of the Permanent Secretary to recruit a new Director. 14..The Heads of News and Corporate Communications together with the Director of Strategy have already identified much of what needs to change, and there is a sense that the team is in a stronger position than it was two years ago. The directorate is very strong at self analysis and very few of the findings in this report will come as a surprise. They are also very open to change and improvement. Considerable time has already been put into thinking about the challenges and there are now steps in place to provide the framework by which they may be overcome in the future, such as a new communications strategy, a new core script and a dedicated stakeholder engagement team. These are thoroughly appropriate developments which put the department in a good position to improve further and should be built upon; there is no need to start from scratch. 15. The critical task now, and for the incoming Director of Communication, is to successfully deliver the new communications strategy and to make clear progress as quickly as possible. None of the issues identified are new to the department, and there has already been a great deal of thought dedicated to this work. It is now time for it to be acted upon. The arrival of a new Permanent Secretary and a new Director of Communication should provide the impetus to do this, but success will depend on a culture change across the whole department, and a consciously different approach to managing communications activity. 16. In order to change the way communications are approached and transform the Communications Directorate from being perceived as a service to being a strategic partner in everything the department does it will be necessary for the new Director of Communication to have sufficient access and authority to be able to influence decisions at the highest levels of the department. He/she will need to help prioritisation and ensure communications is more integrated in the work of the department. This change will not be achieved instantly. 4

5 Findings Current ways of working 17. The department is very largely reactive in its approach to communications currently. This is caused by a traditional approach focused on announcements and driven by policy team delivery timetables, combined with reduced resources. This is a frustration for the Communications Directorate staff as much as it is for the rest of the department. There has to date been little opportunity for a longer term view to be taken, nor to build a shared corporate view of what should be communicated. 18. This reactive approach is exacerbated by the department s complexity and silos, and by the lack of connecting narratives between different policy areas. One of the most consistent comments the review heard about the department overall was that it is not joined up and this impacts on the full breadth of the department s communication activity. 19. The decision to enable policy teams to recruit their own staff to work on communications activity requiring specific support and expertise has led to pockets of staff across the department, covering a range of communication responsibilities from specific marketing activity to stakeholder engagement. The communications experience and quality of these staff varies. There are reasonable working relationships between these teams and the Communications Directorate, but the reviewers feel that there needs to be strong central professional management to ensure consistency of standards, practice, messaging and value for money. While most acknowledge there are both advantages and disadvantages to an embedded communications model, it does complicate the department s communications activity currently, particularly with regard to consumer facing marketing activity. In the future there will be a number of policy areas marketing to consumers in addition to the current activity on the Green Deal, and an embedded approach with individual policy teams therefore risks duplication of skills and activity. The embedded structure also makes it more challenging for the department to corral resources for cross-whitehall working. The incoming Director of Communications will need to make a clear decision on whether the embedded structure is desirable and appropriate for the long term. A new communication strategy 20. Considerable work has been put into the development of a new draft communications strategy, which identifies some key objectives for the department s communications. The document sets out a clear direction and this is a positive development, although the communications objectives do not precisely mirror the objectives identified in the department s business plan for this parliament. There are therefore still some changes to be made, in particular to ensure that its language reflects the Secretary of State s communication priorities, and following the completion of the fieldwork the reviewers understand that this work is already under way. 21. It will need to be accompanied by a revised approach to short, medium, and long term forward planning. The communications objectives should not be regarded as overarching catch-alls for the department s activity, but 5

6 campaigns that need to be delivered using the most appropriate information at their disposal. It has already been recognised that this needs resourcing and the Permanent Secretary has agreed that a number of staff should be recruited to do this. This is welcome, and an encouraging sign of the seriousness with which communication is now being taken. 22. Implementation of the strategy will however require a considerable shift in behaviours across the department in policy teams as well as in Communications Directorate. In particular, clear prioritisation will be required to bring an end to the cycle of announcement-driven work that currently fills the press office s time. Clear messages will also need to be developed further and used consistently, and a more coherent approach to audience identification and targeting will need to be taken. 23. As part of the strategy document, consideration has already been given to a governance structure that shares responsibility for delivery across the department; it is important that accountability through these structures is upheld. Working with policy teams 24. Policy teams are aware of the need to communicate as part of the policy development and delivery process, which is positive. However, there are two issues which limit the effectiveness of activity currently. 25. Firstly, policy teams tend to focus on their local areas of work. As mentioned earlier, there is not enough coordination across the department. There is a need for greater awareness of the corporate requirements for communication, the interdependencies that exist and the need for shared messaging across different policy areas. With the new Director of Communication providing leadership, policy teams will need to reconsider the currently predominant approach which is focused on announcements and publications, and recognise how their work links to the organisation s communication strategy as a whole. 26. Secondly, there is a lack of clarity as to how best to work with Communication Directorate and therefore how to achieve the greatest benefit from their communication work. Some were unclear on the support they could expect and who is responsible for which parts of planning and delivery. The establishment of the new communications strategy is an opportunity to reaffirm relationships and ways of operating. 6

7 Stakeholder engagement 27. There is a large amount of engagement activity taking place across the department, and there are examples of impressive and innovative work. However, there is a need for greater co-ordination to ensure that a consistent face is being presented to stakeholders. The recently created Strategic Stakeholder Engagement team within the Communications Directorate is working to build this co-ordination and to ensure there is recognition of the different requirements of each audience, but it will require policy teams across the department to be willing to change the way they work in order to take more consideration of the corporate requirements of DECC, as well as their own policy area. Greater control and scrutiny of stakeholder engagement is rarely a popular or straightforward idea, as evidenced by the number of customer relationship management systems which fail due to lack of adoption, but more coordinated communication to stakeholders will benefit the department overall. The new team needs to be supported by senior management to ensure that their work is successful. 28. Given the shift in the department s focus and the need to secure private sector investment for infrastructure development, capability in investor relations is a particular gap. A theoretical team of four based within the Commercial team currently only has one member of staff in place, and there are concerns about the department s wider capability in this area. Consistency of message, as explored above, is particularly important to delivering a professional approach to potential investors. 29. While DECC does engage with the partner departments in its hub (DfT, DCLG and Defra) there is currently a lack of clear coordination with departments such as the Treasury and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on the key elements of DECC s messaging. Communication from these departments has a clear influence on DECC, and the lack of coordination makes it particularly challenging to establish a clear narrative for energy and climate change. A closer working relationship with these departments could be advantageous. Recommendations 30. The review s overarching recommendation is for the department to build on the thinking and other work already done to shift the communications function to become a strategic partner across all of the department s work. This will be a task for the whole department and policy teams will need to change their approach to communications as much as the Communications Directorate. The task falls into two main categories: delivering the communications strategy, and increasing the integration of communications across the department. A. Delivering the communications strategy 31. The newly developed communications strategy is certainly a step in the right direction in terms of ensuring that the department takes a more planned 7

8 approach to its communication. However, there is still work to do to ensure it fits with ministerial priorities, and there is therefore a need for a clear dialogue with ministers and special advisers to establish agreement over the objectives and the activity outlined. 32. There is a need for a standard operating model for all communications activity delivered as part of the strategy. This will ensure the planning process is approached in a structured and systematic way. It will also provide policy teams who currently approach communications as a task to be completed with a means of ensuring they are doing the right things in a strategic context. It should also incorporate appropriate engagement with the Customer Insight and Engagement team, and should provide greater clarity of roles and service expectations. In particular, the reviewers have identified four areas where there should be specific focus: Effective objective setting. It is crucial that clear, measurable outcomes are established for every piece of activity, which can be evaluated against more robustly. The communications KPIs should contribute to policy outcomes. Example evaluation considerations could include message penetration among key audiences, attitudes and how they are influenced by the department s activity. Audience identification and planning. Given the limited resource that the department has been able to commit to strategic planning there has been little attention focused on the range of communication activity which is required from opinion forming at one end of the spectrum to mass market education at the other. It is suggested that DECC could benefit from a programme aimed at key opinion formers and consumer / specialist media. Messaging. Appropriate messaging for each audience group should be identified. In particular, there is a need to identify and deliver top level strategic messaging for the department, which explains the narrative for energy and for climate change, and also for the role that this plays for the economy and for consumers. This needs to be a specific focus for the department. This should be co-ordinated with the Treasury and BIS to ensure consistency with these departments as they exert significant influence on DECC s policy remit. Channels. The department focuses heavily on traditional methods of communicating news and should instead think more broadly than print media alone. The department has a range of stakeholders and whilst a consistent message should be delivered to every audience, it needs to be communicated through the appropriate channels and with the appropriate level of information. Hand in glove with a greater focus on strategic messaging should be the identification of the most effective methods of delivering the message across all media formats including digital and third party owned channels. In particular, a digital by default approach that sees digital considered as a potential solution to all challenges, rather than an add-on, should be applied throughout. 33. Available resourcing will need to match the ambition for the strategy. Approval has been given by the new Permanent Secretary for four new posts to boost 8

9 the strategic planning capacity of the directorate. There are several options for how these might be deployed, but the reviewers preference is for them to operate as part of a central unit, rather than as extra resource within the press office with clear responsibilities for managing flexibly resourced crossdiscipline activity on the pillars of the communications strategy. This would enable them to be aligned flexibly to strategic and delivery priorities and to be involved at all appropriate stages in planning and delivering as well as coordinating messaging and approaches to audiences across programmes. They should work across the whole range of owned, earned and paid for channels, ensuring they are aligned. Finally, evaluation and improvement of effectiveness needs to be a key part of the work of this team. 34. In order to deliver this, communications activity will need to be better integrated into the department so communicators are involved from the start of policy development. This will enable them to understand the background to the policy, challenge if it is not sufficiently developed and thus create and develop better communications plans. 35. The incoming Director of Communication will therefore need clear access to the highest levels of the department. The role should have a position on the Executive Committee, with a direct reporting line to the Permanent Secretary. The support of the senior leadership of the department in making the necessary changes to the culture of the department and its overall strategic approach and direction will be critical to the chances of success; simply appointing a new Director will not on its own guarantee improvement. B. Increasing the integration of communications across the department 36. The incoming Director of Communication should strongly consider absorbing the embedded communication teams into the Communications Directorate. The key consideration is whether the embedded teams represent an effective model that is in the long term interests of the department or whether they impede integration, prioritisation and cohesion of communication activity. The reviewers lean towards the latter view, but recognise that the incoming Director of Communication will have their own opinion. 37. The Communications Directorate should bring together the various sources of audience and stakeholder insight and understanding which are currently being held locally by individual teams, to ensure that the whole department can benefit from it. 38. The department should fully support the work of the Strategic Stakeholder Engagement team to ensure that there is consistent understanding of key elements of the department s policies through a cohesive and integrated approach to all stakeholders. This will also require close working with internal communications. 39. Internal communications should be used to drive further knowledge and understanding of policies across the department. The team will also need to be prepared to change the way in which they work to also provide support to the upcoming change management programme. They will need to work closely with the newly appointed Directors of Corporate Strategy and Change, will need to be able to offer advice and support around message development, and should not just be used as a delivery function. 9