Public: Information + Features | Public

Social media: is it an election winner?

Tony Myers — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:25:50 GMT

The rise of social media or networking has presented problems for politicians on how to engage with a more informed public. Will the next election be won or lost in the blogosphere? No one seems to know, but what is certain is there are votes to be won out there

Can social media make or break an election? With a hung parliament predicted by many recent polls and political commentators, voting margins between the main parties may well be tight and there is a lot of talk of how social media could make a difference.

One aspect of this will be how political parties, particularly the party that forms the next government, engage with voters and potential voters through social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

At a timely social media summit in the heart of Whitehall, Conservative MP Jeremy Hunt, shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport, pointed out the importance of communications. He said previous elections had been won and lost through email, producing good literature and direct mail. "The internet changes relationship with voters," he said. MPs are now much more accountable and online media enables voters ask a lot more questions, "especially about my expenses," he quipped.

But Hunt welcomed the change - particularly the change to access to information, "There are no more political masters, voters are just as informed if not more informed than politicians. We must learn from constituents not just give views."

Television will play a significant role

Tom Watson, former parliamentary secretary to the Cabinet Office, was more sceptical about social media making or breaking the next election. He believed that television will play a significant role, especially with the much anticipated live debates between the leaders of the three main parties.

"Issues are still at the heart of the election," Watson said. While social media and the internet, might draw people in with narrow interests and allow personal freedom, the election would, again, be about television, he told the audience - but "social media will give the election more texture".

After the election, however, social media will help drive change, according to Watson, who added that he was unable to understand why more MPs are not on Facebook of Twitter, given the usefulness of these media as tools.

Paul Waugh, deputy political editor on London's Evening Standard newspaper, revealed that to be a serious blogger you have to post at least four times throughout the day - and then stay up to speed on Twitter. Hunt responded that this could mean ministers would be in danger of spending all their time communicating, with no time for policy.

Watson said that the other problem was that when a story breaks on the internet, on twitter feeds, blogs etc - ministers have to stay calm and in touch with their community. He said the chancellor Alistair Darling is a master at keeping a cool head and staying perfectly calm during a crisis.

The power of new media was best exemplified by one MP with email addresses for a quarter of his constituents, which posed a conundrum - should he go to the local paper with a story about cuts at his local hospital, or should he email his constituents and post direct to his blog?

Power of new media

The power of new media to affect public services was also highlighted at the event, particularly in the handling of the snowy conditions during the recent worst winter for 30 years. There were stories about how the public, instead of phoning their council and complaining about untreated roads, actively became involved in the operation and helped councils by 'tweeting' when they came across empty grit bins or untreated and dangerous roads and footpaths.

This is just one example of the scale of people power. Social media sites are able to corral individual actions into one homogenous campaign making a large amount of small voices more powerful. Users of public services expect transparency and efficiency when connecting with an organisation, and now they have a very powerful platform to air their views, by connecting with like-minded people who have experienced similar problems. In the face of such a campaign, public organisations can no longer brush off such complaints

The consensus of the event was that social media may not offer an assurance of immediate victory, but parties are definitely assured of defeat if they don't manage and engage with these forms of communications properly.

It promises to be a fascinating campaign.

Tony Myers

Audit Commission: Triangular approach to assessment is working

Jane Dudman — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:33:00 GMT

While it has come under fierce criticism from some authorities, and the Tories have already threatened to abolish it, comprehensive area assessments have boosted local accountability - says the Audit Commission

As we begin the countdown towards this year's general election, a growing number of battle lines are being drawn on the supposedly neutral territory of public services.

Last week, Jonathan Baume, secretary of the FDA union for senior civil servants, warned the government about using civil servants to cost opposition politics, and the scrutiny of local government performance is becoming increasingly politicised.

Next week, the chairman of the Audit Commission, Michael O'Higgins, will praise the impact of a "triangle" of local oversight at a conference on the first round of the watchdog's new comprehensive area assessment of councils, which the Conservative party has said it will abolish.

O'Higgins is set to tell delegates that the combination of area scrutiny, with the emphasis on outcomes, rather than the inner workings of councils, together with theOneplace website and the government's Total Place project to tot up spending across specific regions, has formed a triangle of initiatives that is boosting local accountability.

The speech is a strong defence of the CAA approach in the run-up to a general election. The commission's new website, Oneplace, which gives the results of the organisation's new scrutiny regime for local government, has notched up more than 1m hits since it was launched last month, but publication of the results led two Conservative-led councils, Wandsworth and Hammersmith and Fulham, criticising CAA for requiring excessive demands in terms of the councils' time and finances.

Fighting for Hertfordshire

This month, another attack on the new regime came from Robert Gordon, the leader of Conservative-led Hertfordshire county council, in a message to the county's residents. Overall, says Gordon, the commission's report on the county is "very positive", but it concludes that Hertfordshire is not doing enough to plan for additional housing in the county. Gordon's response? "If fighting for Hertfordshire's character and the well-being of residents results in a ticking-off from the Audit Commission, then so be it," he writes. "We're here to stand up for the people and communities of Hertfordshire."

Gareth Davies, the Audit Commission's managing director for local government, says some form of political attack over CAA is "inevitable, particularly given where we are in the cycle", but says that overall there has been a varied set of reactions to the new regime and support from a wide range of local authorities, including Conservative-led Westminster.

"The question is whether this [CAA] is in the public interest, what it costs and how it can be developed so that we can get more and more out of it," comments Davies.

"Anything that poses a challenge to the existing way of delivering services is potentially a challenge to those leading such services, but we think the big breakthrough here is the public accessibility to information.

"We have had a lot of interest that suggests there is a public appetite for this. I'm not claiming we have got everything right in all aspects this first time, but we are adjusting the system all the time and we are listening to what people are saying, so we are not in defensive mode. We think this is a big step forward."

Jane Dudman

Honours for public servants from all walks of life

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:15:52 GMT

NHS chief executive David Nicholson becomes a knight as public sector workers are also recognised in New Year's Honours list

Among the senior public managers recognised in the New Year honours list, David Nicholson, the chief executive of the NHS, becomes a knight and Natalie Ceeney, the chief executive of the National Archives, receives a CBE.

Managers in all areas of public service also received recognition in this year's list, from the arts to less glamorous areas. Those receiving CBs include:

Christopher Bolt, arbiter, London Underground Public Private Partnership Agreements and lately chair, Office of Rail Regulation, Department for Transport.

Lawrence Conway, Formerly director, Department of the First Minister, Welsh Assembly Government.

Gloria Linda Craig, director, International Security Policy, Ministry of Defence.

Elizabeth Anne Jackson, director, child wellbeing, Children and Families Directorate, Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Helen Kilpatrick, director-general, Financial and Commercial, Home Office.

William Francis Sebastian Rickett, director-general of Energy, Department for Energy and Climate Change

Health, social care and charity professionals are prominent in the
list; Clare Tickell, chief executive of charity, Action for Children, and Margaret Eaton chair of the Local Government Association, both become Dames.

In the totting up of honours, commentators have noted the absence of politicians and bankers on this year's list.

The state sector – army officers, civil servants and diplomats – gets 13% of the total.

Six per cent of recipients come from ethnic minority communities – including Judge Mota Singh QC, one of 20 new knights and six new dames, among them Claire Bertschinger, the nurse made famous during the 1984 Ethiopian famine.

About 11% of honours go to education, including 19 headteachers, and 12% to industry and the economy, including key players in the bank rescue operation.

There is also an article by the cabinet secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, in today's Guardian praising the contribution of "ordinary people" to public services.

Mixed messages for ethnic minorities

Jo Adetunji — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:22:44 GMT

Government is not communicating properly with communities and should design campaigns with ethnic and minority groups from the start by taking into account issues such as health and cultural issues, writes Jo Adetunji

It is two years until the next UK census but in the intervening years since the last survey was carried out in 2001, Britain's ethnic minority landscape has evolved significantly.

But according to COI Cultural Diversity, a division set up to provide best practice advice across government on how to reach culturally diverse audiences, research suggests that mainstream communications are still not effectively engaging with ethnic minorities.

"Understanding the communication needs of these communities and knowing how to engage them is imperative for successful public information campaigns," the group says. "Translating into multiple languages is not the answer to effective engagement."

"It should be part of the communications planning process," says Patricia Macauley, head of cultural diversity at COI. "Government has a responsibility to speak to the community at large and should be considering all their audiences. In some instances culture or faith doesn't make much difference, but in others - health issues especially – there are big differences."

Take the Change4Life campaign that aims to tackle the worrying rise in obesity in Britain for example. According to Macauley, focus groups showed minority ethnic groups didn't see themselves as a target audience.

"Statistics show that Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Nigerian groups, for example, are most at risk of being obese, suffering diabetes, stroke and coronary heart disease. We have to understand different cultural practices, attitudes and behaviours and how they perceive diet. For example, the thought process that 'big is beautiful' and its association with status, wealth and achievement. How do we overcome these and communicate the long-term effects from living this lifestyle?"

A branch of the campaign, using the same creative brand but with tailored messages aimed at BME groups launches in the new year.

"Nine out of 10 children in 2050 will be obese. With this campaign we want them to think that's me, that's my family," Macauley adds.

According to 2006 projections from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), ethnic minority groups now make up around 13% of the population in England, and more than 30% in London. ONS figures also estimate that migration to the UK is likely to account for over two-thirds of Britain's projected population increase in 2011.

As the make-up of the British community changes and evolves, government, too, will need to react and respond to these new audiences. One change is to design campaigns that take ethnic minority groups into account from the very start of the planning process. Another is to avoid a 'one-size-fits-all' approach – believing that BME groups "think, act and behave the same way."

The strategy for one Defra BME campaign aimed at raising awareness of the regulations surrounding personal food imports and reducing the number of seizures made at UK borders, has continually been adapted, recognising that target audiences can change significantly. In this case from West African and Indian groups in 2004-6 to Chinese groups in 2008.

Changes in programming

There are signs that organisations in both the private and public sectors are thinking more seriously about ethnic minority audiences. It was recently reported that managers at BBC Radio 4 were preparing changes to programming to address the serious lack of black and Asian listeners after criticism it was "too white." Plans include a documentary on the rise of "multi-cultural London English."

The challenge for government, the COI says, will be to keep account of changing patterns and look ahead to emerging and significant audiences of the future.

Young people for example. According to ONS estimates, over 37% of adults aged 20-29 are currently from an ethnic minority background.

"Government is in danger of not communicating with these audiences – what it does now affects how these audiences think in future," says Macauley. "Young people are often thought to be assimilated with the mainstream but with friends and family it's different. From a communications point of view, they tend to dip in and dip out."

A huge rise in specialist media created for young people from BME groups, from magazines to radio stations, are outlets that could be better utilised.

"Government has been relying on the 2001 census but these figures are no more reflective of society. Ahead of the next census, now is a key time to think more about these audiences - they aren't going away."

Jo Adetunji

Oneplace has it all

Jane Dudman — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:30:12 GMT

As local government watchdog the Audit Commission prepares to release results of its comprehensive area assessments, inspection now encompasses not just councils but police authorities, primary care trusts and fire and rescue services

In three weeks' time, the day before the chancellor announces his much-anticipated pre-budget report, outlining public sector spending for the next three years, we will see the first results of a major change in local government scrutiny.

On 9 December local government watchdog the Audit Commission, along with five other inspectorates, will bring out the first results of its comprehensive area assessment (CAA) – now known catchily as Oneplace.

This is the system of assessing what is happening in local areas that replaces the watchdog's former comprehensive performance assessment, a regime under which local authorities were assessed on how they rated against performance objectives.

As elsewhere in government, the problem with this system was two-fold: councils were capable of meeting the targets, but missing the point – their internal workings could be four-star, but the services they were actually delivering might fall well short of excellence; and looking only at how councils run leaves out the wider picture of how public services are both perceived and delivered on the ground.

This year, all that has changed. Oneplace, which has its own new website, accessible from the inspectorates' own sites, but also from the Directgov central government website, assesses not just councils, but also police authorities, primary care trusts and fire and rescue services. The output is not a league table or star system, but a "narrative in plain English" of the priorities that areas have themselves set.

It is not just the output that has changed. Inspection is no longer a matter of the Audit Commission, Ofsted-like, descending onto a council for one or two weeks, grabbing information and going away to write a report.

"It's now a more mature dialogue," comments Steve Barnett, who leads the Audit Commission's CAA inspection process in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, and who has been with the commission for almost 10 years, so has seen a number of different inspection regimes. "It's far harder to put a gloss on things and it helps us get to the key issues."

Barnett says the process is iterative and begins at an early stage. "We have to share our views with the partnerships and what issues we think are significant," he says.

"We will then refine our views and look at all the information we have."

Some might wonder if there is a danger, through this process of dialogue and sharing, of inspectors getting too close to the bodies they inspect. But Barnett believes the process is robust enough to withstand inspectors being "leaned on".

He points out that many local partnerships will already have a clear idea of local problems and challenges. "Our list is very often the same as theirs and that means we are able to talk about those issues rather than finding they are being put to one side, as can happen in a two-week inspection process," he says.

Flagging up problems

When the new judgments are published on 152 areas of England covered by Local Area Agreements, there will have been a long process of this kind of to and fro. A flag system will be used – green for good, red for bad – to signal examples of particularly good or bad practice.

It's new for local areas and it's new for the Audit Commission and the other five inspectorates. But will it get closer to what the public perceive as good value for money local public services?

That is a harder question to answer. Without a single, standardised national measurement, whatever its faults, it will be harder to compare councils; but there's a different challenge here too. The Audit Commission identifies many of the common themes facing local authorities; they include health inequalities, housing, protecting vulnerable people, crime and anti-social behaviour, and so on.

The problem here may be one that comes to the surface from this week's results from the Public Services Trust 2020 on contributions and benefits into and out of our welfare system: in times of lean public spending, will more local citizens be asking, not whether their local authority is meeting the priorities it has set itself, but what it is doing, directly, for them?

Those are two very different questions; and answering them will be a major test of local politics.

Jane Dudman

Whose data is it anyway?

Tony Myers — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:25:48 GMT

With cloud computing, social networking and an array of new devices and technological innovation, information is entering a brave new world which is exciting for users, but what about those involved in data security?

Where do the risks lie when it comes to information security in the public sector?

This was the theme of a one-day conference, organised by Kable, in London this week aimed at public sector professionals involved in safeguarding information security.

The chair of the conference, Gerry O'Neil, said that after the recent bad press surrounding data losses in the public sector - the HMRC disk debacle was cited often during the day - the emphasis is now on trying to restore public confidence in the way government manages our data.

O'Neil, who is also chief executive of the institute of Information Security Professionals, told delegates that new initiatives are being instigated by government with new standards, and the organisational structure of government departments is changing. But at the same time, he said, with new technology, mobile devices, business models, data migrating to new public cloud platforms and new partnerships with the private sector, the question being asked was where do the risks lie in this brave new world?

Clive Blackwell, a researcher on information security at Royal Holloway Univeristy of London, informed the conference that data leaks are getting worse and the problem for public sector is the enormous amount of data bases in use of varying quality - and worringly some still in operation from the 1970s.

The central theme of the conference, held at the Inmarsat Centre in central London, was all about restoring trust and the plain fact that government information security must improve if the public's trust in its data handling is to recover.

Cases and instances such as the Baby P scandal - where data was not used correctly - to the HMRC debacle and the more recent prisoner records coming into the public domain have all served to question the government's integrity on using our data responsibility.

The Audit Commission's report, Nothing but the Truth, said the mishandling of data can and does weaken frontline services (the Baby P case and its effect on social services). Delegates were told that trust is built on honesty and integrity ,it takes time to develop and seconds to destroy. The key is keeping open communications with everyone - and that includes 'data subjects' or service users.

With shared services, data is also shared across more departments, organisations and the waters are becoming muddied on where responsibility for information security lies. Then there is the issue 'clouds' where data such as email accounts are being offloaded by organisations to public and private clouds such as Google.

Cloud computing offers unlimiting scaling, lower costs and is not dependent on machines or physical servers stuck in the basement. But in such a system, who monitors or audits government data and is it segregated from other information floating around in the sky?

Other questions posed at the conference included what type of government data should be outsourced to private companies such as Google or Amazon; how citizens can physically access their data if their don't know where it is; and how to control privileged user and third-party access.

What can be done to improve information security?

It's all down to accountability, said John Colley, a director of ISC(2) a non-profit organisation for IT professionals and a former head of risk security at Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland. There has to be recognition that security is paramount and the risk to reputational loss through data leakage is just as great as financial loss. He said responsibility should not solely be down to IT departments, but HR, through employee contracts, legal departments checking outsourcing contracts etc all play a part in the way a business functions, understands and is therefore able to manage risk.

Colley concluded that security skills should be built into business functions, with someone responsible for assessing and managing risks and delegating accountability. Organisations should create an environment where policy is followed not ignored, and creates an environment where people thrive rather than are hindered by it.

Of course, one of the main flaws involved around data leakage is the human element, whether it is the then housing minister Caroline Flint walking into Downing Street with policy papers in view of press cameras - or staff at the DVLA centre in Swansea walking out with data on external devices such as memory sticks.

The new information commissioner Christopher Graham said one of the main threats is human weakness or error - there is a huge demand from private investigators for data on individuals for all sorts of reasons and such informations is a valuable commodity, especially for relatively low-paid staff working in call centres or other sensitive areas.

Professor Sadie Creese, director of e-security at the University of Warwick, said proper training is crucial and detecting malicious staff is also important to protect data within an organisation.

Risk is tangible, she said, in the real world you close your front door, lock your car and so on, but in the virtual world most of us don't behave as responsible and data subjects are just as lax at protecting their own identity on social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter.

O'Neill ended the day by putting the success of information security into a very simple ABC model, where all stakeholders are involved with data integrity. Administration (ie government) business (private partnerships) and the customer, consumer or citizen.

Tony Myers