(i)

a presentation submitted to the Panel in March 2010 and a written update in September 2010 outlined issues and challenges affecting how the Council communicated with residents and staff;

(ii)

the Council’s communication with local residents affected their view of the Council as a whole;

(iii)

a considerable amount of effort had been made nationally in improving the reputation of the council in eyes of residents;

(iv)

the Local Government Association had been providing support to local councils in their communication strategies and was campaigning for stronger media management and effective publications;

(v)

the Council had the difficult task of trying to provide better communication for less money by making better use of the resources it currently had;

(vi)

internal Council publications were limited to four a year;

(vii)

the Internal and External Communication Strategy included five themed objectives including keeping residents better informed, delivering better value for money communications, providing fast and efficient online services, promoting resident involvement and supporting staff in delivering excellent communications;

(viii)

the Council was currently below the national average on keeping residents better informed;

(ix)

over the last three years the number of residents who of people getting info from council through media has fallen by 12 %;

(x)

it was important for the Council to promote a strong corporate identity;

(xi)

communications needed to be appropriate to meet the needs of the audience; it was considered that some publications did not have a clear purpose;

(xii)

it was integral for the Council to ‘e’ enable all of its services on the website to provide a better service to residents;

(xiii)

the opinion of local residents towards Plymouth City Council was 1% below the national average however this was an improvement upon previous years feedback;

(xiv)

officers were currently promoting different ways for local residents to contact the Council;

(xv)

the reputation campaign launched in 2010 highlighted that the Council needed to be more responsive to the community and better communicate the work of the council;

(xvi)

the Council had learnt from other authorities the importance of publicising money expenditure;

(xvii)

there was a discussion around proposals regarding an Invest to Save Project  in the Council’s website which would provide better technology;

(xix)

the Councillors personal website pages needed to be promoted to Members; currently there was a lack of understanding with regards to the promotion and use of the websites;

(xx)

the four new strategic objectives were not currently on the Council’s website however this would be updated;

(xxi)

hundreds of people took part in the Plymouth points of view survey;

(xxii)

a budget consultation online programme was to be set up to enable the council to explain to local residents the comprehensive spending review, the affect this would have on the council’s budget and allocation of resources; this programme would be promoted by local media.