Public Relations and Derbyshire County Council Rod Cook FCIPR Director of Communications Derbyshire County Council

The Derbyshire View Derbyshire County Council Our PR Team What the team says Case Study - Fostering Questions

Derbyshire County Council 750,000 residents 330,000 households 36,000 employees 64 councillors Managed by a council cabinet of councillors and team of chief officers

It’s big business £1.1 billion budget Children£680m Adult social services£270m Roads£62m Public transport£26m Rubbish disposal£27m Libraries£18m Public relations budget of £2.5 million

It’s All About People Support 419 schools. Run 54 children’s centres and supports 145 day nurseries. Support 425 foster carers, runs nine children’s homes and seven family support centres. Help more than 35,000 vulnerable and older people to live at home. Support over 3,500 people in residential care. Assist 1,850 people to arrange their own services through Direct Payments

It’s All About People Maintain 3,285 miles of roads, 1,082 bridges, 3,216 miles of public rights of way and over 89,000 street lights. Grit 1,500 miles of roads. Run 45 branch libraries, 11 mobile libraries, 1 museum and a record office and local studies library. Manage 5 country parks and 13 nature reserves.

It’s All About People Dispose of around 349,000 tonnes of rubbish a year % is recycled. Provide 233 school crossing patrols. Provide over 3,000 businesses with trading standards advice and support each year. Million page downloads and 150,000 unique visitors to our website every month. Respond to approximately 400 emergency incidents each year.

Communications – Key Functions Promote and publicise the council’s policies, services and achievements internally as well as externally Advise council and chief officers on communications Manage crisis communications Build a positive council reputation

Communications – Areas Of Activity Media relations Corporate publications Corporate publicity campaigns Online and social media Crisis communications Event management

Communications – Areas Of Activity Improve life for local people Use PR to deliver business objectives Use PR to add value and deliver savings Have ‘Big’ ideas – integrated multi channel campaigns Radical thinking Ethical PR – We are the conscience of the organisation We solve communications problems Have fun!

Award Winning Team 2012 Winners of 7 Campaign awards Winners of 2 Silver Awards Winners of 3 Highly Commended Awards Six Best PR Team Awards PRCA Public Sector In-house Team of the Year, 2011 and 2012 Finalists 21 times Over 100 PR awards in last 10 years

Award Winning Team 2012 Team of 29 communications staff Journalists, marketing and PR graduates Web ‘techies’

Award Winning Team 2012 They are all: Excellent writers Understand news Understand people and audiences Creative thinkers Have good ‘people skills’

What do they like about working in In-house PR? “I enjoy the variety and seeing the positive effects on people’s everyday lives” “Working with a dedicated team who want to get things right” “The people and the variety” “I love using different writing styles. There’s always something new to spread the word about” “Having a new idea and being told to run with it” “Every day is different and rewarding”

What’s most frustrating? “Projects don’t sometimes progress as quickly as I’d like” “People who choose not to take PR advice because it’s not what they want to hear” “Trying to counter people’s negative attitudes about public services” “Vanity publishing” “People who tell us how to do our job”

What’s advice would you give ? “If you haven’t got a sense of humour, get one” “Keep an open mind. Media is constantly evolving and so should you” “Think digital. It’s an essential tool” “Get some PR experience to see if you like it, and if you do, go for it!” “Invest time in managing relationships as well as projects” “Work to continuously improve your writing”

Producing an Award Winning Campaign Research Set campaign objectives and desired outcomes Agree strategy Deliver campaign Monitor and evaluate

Fostering Campaign

Fostering Campaign - Research We were short of at least 80 additional carers Spending £3.3 m a year on expensive foster care from independent providers Children were being placed be a long way away from their home area Less cash for preventative services which could stop children entering the care system in the first place. Independent placements cost £33,000 a year more than our own foster carers.

Fostering Campaign - Objectives Provide local homes for local kids Increase enquiries and expressions of interest from prospective Derbyshire carers. To make Derbyshire County Council the first and most popular choice for prospective carers. To improve the image and reputation of the county council as a provider of care for children.

Fostering Campaign - Strategy Modernise outdated and poorly targeted print adverts Place a new emphasis on fostering as a professional career Introduce a faster, friendlier and more efficient way of handling enquiries Develop a multi-media campaign to deliver key messages Carefully targeted television advertising was cost effective and reach our key audiences

Fostering Campaign - Delivery Print adverts – for use in local newspapers and key council corporate publications TV advertising – two 30 second commercials based on simple fostering stories Radio Advertising - we produced two 30 second and one 10 second adverts. Media relations - a series of news and feature articles were issued to prolong the exposure of the campaign.

Fostering Campaign - Delivery Posters – our print adverts were shaped into posters for display in libraries, GP surgeries, children’s centres Flyers – a series of flyers to promote the different fostering options – teenagers, disabled youngsters and family groups Digital and social media – promotion on our main website, jobs website and social media Simplified phone applications with social workers follow-up contact within five working days.

Fostering Campaign – Evaluation We increased the level of enquiries to our contact centre from a few a week to an average of 60 a month As a direct result of the campaign we recruited 40 new foster carers – 40 new local homes for local kids Saved the council up to £1.32m on our private fostering bill. We needed to recruit just four new foster carers to cover campaign costs of £110k

Public Relations and Derbyshire County Council Rod Cook FCIPR Director of Communications Derbyshire County Council