Issue 3, January - February 20163CommunicationReform Today

ISSU

E3It is amazing what can be achieved when like minded professionals come together with a common aim.

Today the goal of the CRG is to design a new government communications office that will deliver world class public sector communication that will improve the lives of people and communities in Ukraine, assist with the effective operation of public services by continuously delivering responsive and informative communications and help the peoples of other nations understand the realities and achievements of Ukraine today.

CABINET

On the 20th of January, after nearly 6 months of very intense work by the Communications Reform Group working in partnership with colleagues at the office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of

Information Policy and the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, the Cabinet formally endorsed and approved the concept of government communication reform. The Cabinet recognised that the existing communication system is simply not set up to handle the pressures of modern society and that fundamental reform is the only solution. CRG has passed the first stages of what is a long and complex road to reform as it is now essential to develop the appropriate legislation, launch and test the new system and develop the training modules.

After extensive research through a highly detailed audit of current ministerial communication resources and a study of the experience of communications departments of a number of

European governments a system was recommended that is based on the highly successful British and Dutch models. In the current system the primary focus is political agendas of state officials with the press teams spending an inordinate amount of time on fire fighting and satisfying short term objectives. The new system foresees a marked expansion of the role of communications in the process of government with a clear division between political and public communications.

The political news section will be handled by the Ministers press

GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATIONS

REFORMAPPROVES

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secretarial team whilst the work on public issues and the management of long term communication campaigns will be handled by a new civil service based Government Communications Office in conjunction with the communication departments in Ministries. Under the old system there was no system of continuity between governments; under the new system both the Government Communications Office and the communication departments in ministries will act as a service to whichever government is in power.

The highest positions in the new service will be Director of Government Communications, Director of Ministerial Communications and Special Communications Advisor to a Minister and the salary levels will be commensurate with both their status and market value. No longer will a career in government communications be a lowly paid existence as the service will need equitably paid professionals.

This conversion process however is going to take time and a great deal of patience and understanding will be needed in the interim.

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Setting up the system has also meant a new set of changes to the legislation to formalise communication as a strategic role within the governmental system and enable it to be properly funded.

The following key elements need to be reflected on a systemic level with in the legislation:

• Enshrine ‘communication’ and key related definitions in the law as the absence of the notion in law results in no responsibilities or budgeting;

• Improve the system of subordination of people employed in government communication;

• Introduce professional standards into the system of evaluation of state officials employed in government communications;

• Divide responsibilities of the National Agency of Ukraine on Civil Service and newly created Government Communication Office in the evaluation of professional level and employment of specialists in government communication.

The legal team at CRG have done a first class job in not only writing the detailed recommendations on the new legislation but also in creating the legal glossary of terminology effectively starting from a blank sheet of paper.

A main challenge in the future execution of the project is going to be the implementation of the recommendations and the creation of conditions for the implementation of entire concept.

forLEGISLATIVENEED CONTROL

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The audit also pointed out that there are no common standards of the skills and knowledge of government communication specialists within the existing system. For any system to work effectively there needs to be a common standard of understanding and common practices that meet governmental requirements particularly when the entire communications machine will, in the distant future, employ a couple of thousand people.

Here the team recruited Sue Wolstenholme, the former President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations in London and one of the world’s leading experts in communications training. As a result of their work they have

organised the training of 25 top professionals from the Ukrainian PR industry in teaching communications as a subject. These trainers will deliver a standard course in communication as part of the new career development system for government communications officers.

One of the challenges of the project will be to implement the designed training programme in higher educational establishments specialising in training public officers and organise the training system for all current government communication officers.

A separate important task is to create a new basic qualification of state communications officials as a mandatory requirement for any government communications officer in the future.

Professional

PROFESSIONAL

Growth

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In December a group of eight senior staff from The Cabinet of Ministers, the NSDC and the CRG went to London as guests of the UK Cabinet office to see government communications in action. It was a three day intensive emersion into how the UK government communication system works and why. Their entire system is based on having extremely well trained staff following clear and logical systems that deliver outcomes. In any one year the UK GCS handles approximately 150 public information campaigns on behalf of Ministries (that’s almost 3 new campaigns a week) ranging from health issues such as ‘obesity’ and ‘clean water’ to ‘safe driving’ and ‘pocket knives’.

Their role is to ensure that the public is properly informed and as such they are an instrument of change. Their tracking system enables them to understand almost on a day by day basis how the public are reacting to the campaign and whether it is affecting the desired social change. The political news emanates from all the Ministries under the direction of the No 10 Downing Street who set the political agenda and define the political strategy.

FROM

At the Foreign and Commonwealth office we were shown one of three crisis monitoring centres that track situations on a national, international and military perspective in real time so that if there is a threat to British nationals or British interests anywhere in the world the government is able to react at a few hours notice.

The visit, funded by the OSCE was a source of inspiration for further work on the development and implementation of a new concept of government communication system in Ukraine.

As with all reforms it is going to take time to fine tune the model but the end result should be one of the most effective government communications systems in Europe enabling Ukraine to communicate effectively both internally and externally.

LEARNINGTHE BESTinternational practices