How does local government need to adapt to a digital and networked public?

The Networked Councillor

3 October 2014

Daniel Herrera (Assoc CIPD)Public-I

Learning and Organisational Development Manager

Why are we doing this?

Democratic participation is dropping.

Participation online is growing.

Findings from the

Networked CouncillorResearch Project & Report 2013

with East of England LGA

• Articulates the challenges and opportunities that face local politicians operating in an increasingly networked and digital society.

• Suggestion is that such a society requires a Networked Councillor embodying key qualities of: openness, digital culture and co-production, in order to reach and respond effectively.

• The research suggests that the emphasis should be on ensuring that elected representatives are deeply networked with their communities. Social media is an important part of this but networked councilors will be effectively working with online and offline networks.

Networked councillor Research & Report 2013

Networked Councillor Report 2013 http://tiny.cc/nc-report

• Many members we spoke to used social media outside of their political life

• There as a general acceptance that more digital methods were needed – but a difficulty in knowing where to start and what to say

• The pace of change is erratic and there are urban/rural differences

• The support they were getting from officers did not seem to meet their actual needs

• Members needed help in integrating the demands of online with their existing work

What did the Members tell us?

Networked Councillor Report 2013 http://tiny.cc/nc-report

• The officers we spoke to often admitted to discouraging members from going online – they saw the loss of control as a big issue

• There was consensus around the need to address the issues of training and support more seriously

• Networked and participatory models should be adopted offline as well as online

And the officers?

Networked Councillor Report 2013 http://tiny.cc/nc-report

How does this impact

Welsh local authorities?

Welsh Online & Offline Data

* Oxford Internet Survey 2014 calculation 71% of Welsh population are online with either a fixed or mobile broadband contract.

2,175,054

888,402

Population of Wales 3.1 Million

Estimated Online Population

Estimated Offline population

Local Authorities need a social media strategy to fully engage their online citizens.

Democratic Services Communications

Consultation and Policy Community Engagement

But who does this involve?

Welsh LGA Authority Member Twitter Followers Facebook LikesCardiff Council  29,800 -City and County of Swansea  18,500 5829Monmouthshire County Council  10,600 2,023Wrexham County Borough Council  10,400 3,437Vale of Glamorgan Council  9,103 4,893Gwynedd Council  8,419 3,167Pembrokeshire County Council  8,290 6,654Caerphilly County Borough Council  7,291 6780Torfaen County Borough Council  7,167 7,446Newport City Council  7,105 3,741Flintshire County Council  6,972 169Brecon Beacons National Park Authority 6,919 12,012Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council  6,838 3,533Powys County Council  5,951 903Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council  5,778 -Denbighshire County Council  5,409 1,188Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council 5065 3,108Conwy County Borough Council  4,895 719Bridgend County Borough Council  4465 434Isle of Anglesey County Council  3,778 3,337Carmarthenshire County Council  3,487 2521Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council  3,352 1,671Ceredigion County Council  3,008 2,668

Sum Total 182,592 76,233Average 7,939 3,630

Welsh LGA Council – Social Media Data

23 Welsh authority accounts Average: 3,600 likes. Total: 76,233

Typical council comms following

23 Welsh authority accounts Average: 8,000 followersTotal: 182,592

Top UK networked councillors average at 2,000 followers

What about the

elected representative?

1,264 elected Welsh networked councillors

Welsh Online Engagement Strategy

= Each councillor would only need

on average 1,721 followers to engage the whole Welsh

population in coproductive conversations

This is a whole system change but in a democratic system

the elected representatives are crucial

To make systemic change we need to look at all of the participants:

Citizen

Member

Officer

You can’t make significant change without effecting all parts of the system:

• Networked Councillor member development programme

• Work to connect and create Citizen Networks around targeted communities

• Parallel work with Officers to ensure they have the skills in place to support and extend the programme

Open by default: this is open not just in terms of information but also in terms of thinking and decision making

Digitally native: not in terms of age but in terms of the individual adopting the behaviours and social norms of the digital culture

Co-productive: an expectation that everyone in the conversation has power to act and the potential to be active in the outcome as well as the decision-making process

And as the name says, networked: able to be effective via networked as well as hierarchical power as a leader

The qualities of the Networked Councillor

The range of networked behaviours

Communicative Tell people what you have done

We have developed a model of networked councillor behaviours

Collaborative Discuss with people what you are doing

Co-productive Agree with people what you could do together

1 Tweet or Facebook post alerting 2000 local people

Increased traffic to live meetings: Members using their social networks to advise of new webcast meetings.

Disseminated decision making: citizens more likely to watch when specific decisions notified by the elected representative.

Improved behaviour in debates: when members are aware that their consituency are watching there is a marked improvement in behaviour

Networked Councillor’s Impact on Webcasting

=

Programme Structure

Sprint Title Outcome

Zero Preparing support & accounts

Skills Audit, matching officers & members.Social media 101

Draft programme overview

Two Creating and managing your network

An understanding of who their audience is online as well as techniques for meeting and managing that network

Three Exerting influence and dealing with conflict

Techniques to deal with conflict as well as skills to support viral content creation

Four What happens now?

Open discussion of impact of programme and changes needed (for example updated protocols etc.

One Curating your Digital Footprint

A comprehensive and manageable online presence

Elements of each module:

0.5 / 1 day workshop covering the core theme for that sprintFollow up coaching calls to bring ‘digital & coproduction’ into councillor’s

workflow121 meetings with officer support Regular email / online prompts for action

Sprint format

Each Sprint takes the same format however the first module ideally has time for a longer workshop

Who will be involved?

Members

Different models: Existing social media leaders Enthusiastic new comers Senior members

What degree of party political balance is needed?

Skills set?

Different approaches are possible:

Officers

Different models: Democratic Services Communications Pioneers ICT

Daniel Herreradaniel.herrera@public-i.info

Thank you for your time