Pagoda View

Oh the shame of it

30 Jul 2010

So Communities Secretary Eric Pickles is to name and shame councils that use PR consultancies. Somehow the use of PR consultancies has fallen into the same category as spending money on foreign junckets or limos for councillors. It has come to represent lavish excess at a time of austerity.

Very often this is because PR is taken to mean profile building to satisfy the vanity of councillors and chief officers - or worse still - 'government lobbying government'.

Of course this approach entirely misses the point that the external consultancies can be used to identify ways of increasing cost effectiveness. The use of consultancies for short term project work allows councils to manage peaks and troughs of work, helping to ensure that in-house headcount is kept to affordable levels.

And as to the charge of government lobbying government, it is a fact that many councils lack the expertise to influence government decisions. Are we really expecting them to miss out on winning major projects for their areas for the sake of being 'consultant free'? This might be hard to justify when a project has been lost to another area.

Or maybe the aim is to cut back on PR spend altogether. Again there are huge risks, particularly in service areas where their viability depends on public awareness and participation - or where critical council decisions depend on effective community engagement.

As an industry, both in-house and consultancy, we can make a contribution to increasing public sector efficiency. But doing so means creating an understanding of PR that is harder edged and more in tune with current political realities.

Ian Coldwell