Lack of a communications plan means siloed departmental working and uninformed public

Source of power:

Knowledge

Space of power:

GOVERNANCE, FUNDING AND VISION

Description:

A participant noted the lack of a comprehensive plan in Derby for communications between organisations and with the public. They gave an example of a recent "outstanding" health report containing lots of useful information which lacked a dissemination plan. They also reported that the serious violence strategic group has a "joined up" strategy for serious violence in Derby, but that despite this, efforts to address exploitation, alcohol and serious violence "are still done in silos". They felt this issue of how learnings are communicated "sits in the centre" of Derby's systems map, and noted the importance of communicating "with" rather than "to" people. They felt the council operates in terms of "place-based risk" but that teams and divisions still work in isolation without an understanding of what other teams are doing. They felt the council should communicate with the public beyond just involving them in consultations, and questioned whether the public really know what work the council are doing and what might change as a result.

Quotes from participants:

~ "...the serious violence strategic group... although we have got a joined up approach, things are still done in silos… whether that’s exploitation… whether that’s alcohol... there’s always a boundary drawn..."
~ "...it almost sits in the centre, within your map… if we’re going to move this forward how are we going to communicate to share some of this learning."
~ "...we [the council] operate very place-based risk... whether that’s contextual safeguarding… place-based economy… but within different elements it’s still in silos without understanding what one arm’s doing the other… the other part of it is, do we as collective communicate with the public, apart from when we’re doing consultation and asking for their specific [input] on that… Do they know we’re doing this work, do they know what might change from that… how do we communicate wider?"”