Your Custom Text Here
Does this sound like your usual day? Challenges coming thick and fast. No time to have a minute to stop and think. Increasing demand versus reducing resource. If you’re attending Comms Academy in Leeds there’s a workshop just for you.
by Emma Rodgers
Read more
Leading a team can be tough, lonely and thankless. It can also remind you why you got into the profession in the first place. This very honest review of two years spent as a head of communicates will resonate with many.
By GUEST EDITOR Emma Rodgers
Read more
It used to be easy communicating the annual budget. A quick press release about a public meeting or two and the job was done. Today, communicating the budget in a world of cuts, efficiencies and savings is a far bigger task. Feedback from residents can help shape final decisions. LGComms have a project. Can you help?
GUEST EDITOR by Emma Rodgers
When I first joined Local Government Communications (LGcommunications), I was really keen to make sure that I could do everything I could to provide help and support to public sector communications colleagues up and down the country.
And having become vice chair in May of this year, I was even more determined to make it so as I know fellow board members were.
I'd love a chance to appear on the TV Show Room 101, although I'd struggle to narrow it down to just five choices. But what would your 'Comms 101' choices be?
by GUEST EDITOR Emma Rodgers 
I have been lucky recently to get to a couple of top-notch learning events – the LG Communications Digital seminar in Coventry and the comms2point0 Campaign Masterclass in Birmingham.
Instead of doing a blog on all the things I learnt from the event (of which there were many), I’ve instead opted for a post that will hopefully act as a little bit of therapy for comms peeps. It certainly did for us anyway at the time.
I’m all for sharing and while I’m generally always focussed on what the good things are to share. This time when pitching on both days, I was keen to take a different tact. It was a sharing, cathartic session whereby anyone who came along could get it out as to what was annoying them the most to do with digital at the LG Comms session, and what was annoying them most to do with campaigns at the masterclass event.
Over the past few weeks and months, there has been an emerging trend in local government communications – this trend has seen a number of really, really good people leave the sector and go onto other very impressive things...
by GUEST EDITOR Emma Rodgers 
Now that has probably been a brilliant thing for those people individually but it got me thinking. What do we do when all the good people are gone? How do we attract new talent into local government communications at one of the most challenging times in it’s history? I’m not sure yet of the answer and it would be arrogant of me to think that I could come up with that solution alone. What I did decide though is that I would write down my top five reasons why I believe local government communications is a good place to be and here’s that list. I’m hoping it will spark some views and debate.
Future Leaders, now in its second year, is giving talented public sector comms people the chance to expand their leadership skills. In the days of zero training budgets this is a timely initiative by LGcomms.
by GUEST EDITOR Emma Rodgers 
When was the last time you got time away from the office to think about how you spend your time at work, how effective your leadership style is and what to do to build your own personal credibility?
Now that the dust has settled on a very successful LGcomms Academy in Cardiff it's a good time to reflect on the many lessons to spin out of a packed second day.
by Emma Rodgers
DAY 2 at the LGCommunications conference brought sunshine and even more quality speakers. Some attendees argued it was even better than day 1 and with a diverse agenda ranging from measles, moving to your next comms job to a slot from the top man in government communications Alex Aiken, it was a pretty good mix.
Think you know everything there is to know about Twitter? It might just be time to think again. 
by Guest Editor Emma Rodgers
I’ve always used Twitter primarily for work. It helps me to get ideas, find out news, meet new people and speak with like minded people often doing similar jobs across the UK and beyond. But a crossover as to who’s using it seems to be taking place. Sorry to all those who already knew this but it seems to me that Twitter has become the new Facebook for teenagers. And I find that fascinating.
So, what happens when services are done by other people? Do you stop communicating? Actually, no. You keep at it. But the role of the corporate comms team will change.
by Emma Rodgers
Across the country, local government is all under the same strain – to save money and improve services. Some of the action taken has seen traditional salami slicing and others have taken a more radical approach.
And as a result more councils are deciding to commission services, moving away from traditional provision for obvious reasons.
In Staffordshire, we’ve put in place a new way of working - one which is focussed on commissioning the right service in the right place at the right time.
So what are the implications for communications?
Everyone knows higher resident satisfaction directly links to feeling informed. Knowing what services are on offer, what the council is doing for me and making sure you’re giving me value for money are the reasons quoted when residents say what helps them to feel informed.
