Government Communications: what does the future hold?

Over the past 18 months the UK Government has used the expertise of some of the leading brains in the communications industry to challenge, assess and make recommendations on the performance of its 350 communications teams comprising some 4,400 communicators. The reviews showed that the Government needs more digital, united and skilled communications: strengthening the profession and integrating channels by moving from ‘press release by default’ to ‘digital by default’. And while there is great practice in pockets, it is not shared. So eleven major reforms have covered the whole range of activities from internal communications through to regional operations. These were scoped and delivered at pace to go from “good to great” - to match increasing expectations of public service communications by the public, by politicians and by the profession. The UK Cabinet, led by the UK Prime Minister David Cameron, endorsed the approach. They are now seen as increasing the visibility and value of communication as a profession well beyond the UK Government, including organisations across the wider public service, making it possible to chart a PR career from a Police press office, to a City hall campaign team, to Whitehall director of comms, by constantly improving skills and application. At the core of this path will be the professional requirement that if you can’t evaluate and prove the value of your work, you can’t progress in the profession. Russell Grossman has been closely connected with the UK Government reforms work since its inception in early 2013 and is himself leading one of the major strands, internal communications, due for delivery later in 2014. A highly experienced communications practitioner and presenter, Russell will discuss and explain the principles of the reforms programme and the rigorous approach taken to both project management, insight and evidence collection and pace of delivery.

In this session participants will learn:

- The make up and approach to the ‘capability reviews’ in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 which created the evidence base for this work

- The approach to successful buy in of the proposals across sceptical managers in communication departments

- Detail of the eleven strands which make up the government reforms programme, including an in-depth look at the internal communications strand

- The hope that this programme will become a model for international communications practice across large, complex, multi-faceted organisations

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Russell Grossman has been a communications practitioner for over thirty years in London, and has been Director (now Group Director) of Communications at the UK Government Department for Business since 2008 (www.gov.uk/bis). For two years prior to this he was Head of Internal and Change Communications at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), focusing especially on change and integration issues following the merger of the UK Inland Revenue with Customs and Excise. Before joining the Civil Service, Russell was Head of Internal Communications at the BBC for nearly seven years. He was closely connected there with the Corporation’s change programme ‘Make it Happen’, which won a number of industry awards. Russell’s other previous roles include being Director of Communications at Royal Mail London; Public Relations Manager for construction of the London Underground Jubilee Line Extension; and Senior Consultant at international engineering consultancy Nichols Associates. He worked for the London Docklands Development Corporation during the establishment of Canary Wharf and beyond, and began his career in Metropolitan Government. Russell has a strong practice interest in employee engagement and was a leading member of the UK Taskforce on Employee Engagement, set up by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2011, and is now a Director of the “Engage for Success” movement (www.engageforsuccess.org). Russell holds a Masters in Transport Engineering and Planning and the CAM Diploma in Public Relations and is one of just 1100 Internationally Accredited Business Communicators (ABC). He’s a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of the UK Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Russell is currently the International (2014 – 15) Chair of the International Association of Business 

Communicators (IABC). Headquartered in San Francisco and employing 22 staff, IABC is the largest global association for professional communicators with over 13,000 members in over 70 countries and over 100 chapters around the world.