Transcription
Communication andEngagement Strategy2019 - 2022
2Swan Hill Rural City Council
ContentsIntroduction . 4Guiding principles . 5Our audience . 6How we communicate and engage now. 6How are we performing now? . 8Informing this strategy . 10Action PlanObjective 1Effectively engage our community in local decision-making . 16Objective 2Use a variety of communication tools to reach all in our community . 18Objective 3Tailor communication and engagement to key community sectors . 22Communication and Engagement Strategy 2019-20223
IntroductionBackgroundCommunity engagement is one of the five pillars inSwan Hill Rural City Council’s values.Actions from Council’s Communication Strategy2015-2018 are almost all complete.Our Council Plan 2017-2021 sets an aim that we willchampion a culture that values strong communityengagement.The Swan Hill Rural City Council Plan 2017-2021,under its strategic initiative ‘Developing opencommunity relationships’, also identifies the needto ‘Review and implement actions from Council'sCommunication Strategy’.And our Council Plan has a strong focus on usingnew and established methods to communicate andconsult with our community.This Strategy will guide Council’s communication andengagement activities over the coming four years tohelp us achieve all this, and more.Related Councildocuments Council Plan 2017-21Media Policy, Directive and ProcedureSocial Media Policy, Directive and ProcedurePublic Participation Policy and Procedure(including Public Participation Plan)Swan Hill Region Economic DevelopmentStrategy 2017-2022Aboriginal Community PartnershipCommunity Access and InclusionCreative StrategyYouth StrategyIn developing this new strategy, we soughtcommunity input through a survey, and discussedcommunication challenges and opportunities withCouncillors and key Council staff.We also drew communication and engagementinitiatives from other adopted Council strategies,including the Economic Development, AboriginalCommunity Partnership, Community Access andInclusion, Creative and Youth strategies.This Communication and Engagement Strategy2019-2022 includes new and achievable initiativesto improve communication and engagement withour community. It also lists the extensivecommunication actions that take place acrossCouncil regularly, as part of our core business.Delivering these new initiatives and ongoingactions will be the responsibility of a variety ofCouncil departments and employees, and in manycases will require co-operation from a number ofdepartments.The strategy will be reviewed to ensure actionsfrom the initiatives are being addressed. A reporton the strategy’s progress will be provided to theExecutive Leadership Team every 12 months, andto the Council as needed.The Communication and Engagement Strategy willbe fully reviewed every four years.4Swan Hill Rural City Council
Guiding principlesCouncil has a Public Participation Policy andProcedure, and is guided by the InternationalAssociation for Public Participation (IAP2) spectrumof public participation.The IAP2 spectrum is considered best practice andprovides a guide on the five levels of publicparticipation, from informing to empowering, and thetypes of communication suitable for each.Many of the actions in this strategy will assist Councilstaff to adhere to this spectrum.Levels of public participationExamplesFact sheetsTo provide the community with information to assist them in understanding Newslettersthe problems, alternatives and/or solutions; to keep the community informed Websiteof the issue and decision.Open housesIncreasing level of community engagementInformConsultTo obtain input on issues, draft documents and/or decisions; to acknowledge and consider public concerns.InvolveTo work directly with the community to determine public concerns and opinions and ensure that these are directly reflected in the alternatives developed and the decision made.CollaborateTo work in partnership with the community on each aspect of the decisionmaking process, including understanding of the issues, development alternatives and identifying the solution.EmpowerTo fuller delegate control of the decision making process to the community;Council participates in this process as one of the stakeholders and workswith the community to implement the decision.Communication and Engagement Strategy 2019-2022Public commentFocus groupSurveyComment formWorkshopsWorld cafeDeliberate pollingCommunitiesadvisory groupParticipatorydecision makingCitizen juriesBallotsTown representativegroups5
Our audienceOur community RatepayersResidentsBusinesses and industryCommunity, sporting and social clubsTown representative groupsVisitorsPotential residentsVolunteersKey service users like young people, families,elderlyHow we communicateand engage nowUsing traditional media Councillors and employees MayorCouncillorsExecutive Leadership TeamLeadership TeamEmployees Other key stakeholders State and Federal government agenciesLocal Members of ParliamentMediaContractorsConsultantsIndustry associations, like Murray River Groupof Councils, MAVNeighbouring municipalities, both in Victoriaand New South Wales 6Distribute media releases to local and othermedia, and liaise with journalists as needed.Co-ordinate monthly radio interviews on3SH/MixxFM and ABC Mildura Swan Hill withthe Mayor.Publish fortnightly Mayor column in TheGuardian and The Sentinel.Publish program-specific columns in localmedia – including those for the Art Galleryand Library.Distribute Swan Hill Rural City News twiceper year.Distribute the monthly email EconomicDevelopment News.Distribute other e-newsletters and printnewsletters as needed, including forprograms like Community Grants, Family DayCare, HACC, Art Gallery and Library.Produce the Annual Report and AnnualBudget and make it available on Council’swebsite.Mailouts to households for individualprojects.Translation service via phone.Advertising and submissions process forkey Council documents and activitiesincluding the Council Plan, Budget andPlanning Scheme amendments.Project-based consultation and informationsessions.Various direct communication throughtelephone, email and conventional mail.Distribute weekly internal newsletter toCouncillors and staff.Distribute regular staff newsletter to all staff.Distribute all staff/Councillor emails and/ormemos for important messages.Swan Hill Rural City Council
Using social and online platforms Post information, links and photos onCouncil’s social media platforms, includingplatforms for Council, Library, Performing Arts,Gallery, Youth Inc and Pioneer Settlement.Update Council websites regularly withmedia releases, public notices, Councilagendas and minutes, significant reports andstrategies, job opportunities, and tenderadvertisements. Conduct a dedicated sixmonthly review of website content.Conduct consultation online via the HaveYour Say section of Council’s website.Via internal and external meetings Monthly Ordinary Council meetings,including public question time.Weekly Council Assembly meetingsWeekly Executive Leadership Teammeetings at various Council locations.Monthly Leadership Team meetings atvarious Council locations.Provide Councillor or senior employeerepresentation on industry groups likeMurray River Group of Councils and theMunicipal Association of Victoria.Attend the annual Australian LocalGovernment Association conference.Through the Youth Co-ordinator, distributeinformation through primary and secondaryschools in the area, including through regularattendance at school assemblies.Targeted and timetabled meetings withelected State and Federal representatives.Face-to-face Other ways we communicate andengage Communication and Engagement Strategy 2019-2022Councillors attend community events andfunctions, welcoming guests and speaking onbehalf of Council.Conduct monthly visits to Robinvale for theMayor and CEO to meet with communitymembers and local media.Regular business networking events inSwan Hill and Robinvale.Provide senior Council representation oncommunity groups.A continued commitment and resourceallocation to Community Planning andproject delivery.Project-based consultation for new projectsand programs across the municipality –communicated via traditional and onlinechannels.Continue to facilitate an active and diverseYouth Council.Participate in the Annual State GovernmentCommunity Satisfaction Survey.Regular staff training in communication,consultation and customer service.Continue to support, as appropriate, variousmulticultural programs.Deliver the Aboriginal Employment Strategyin partnership with external stakeholders.Promote and facilitate the Help for SmallBusiness program in the region.Attend careers forums to promote Council toyoung people.Use Council’s corporate templates to presentprofessional and consistent documents.Use of plain English as much as possible.7
How are we performing now?We have used three measures to evaluateCouncil’s performance in the areas ofcommunication and engagement. The 2018 Community Satisfaction Survey A Council-run Communication andEngagement Survey Social media monitoringThe 2018 Community Satisfaction Survey - a StateGovernment mandated annual survey - highlightedthat “good communication and transparency withresidents about decisions the Council has made inthe Swan Hill community’s interest, improvedcommunity consultation and engagement ” askey areas for Council to focus on.“While not significant declines, performancedecreased on the measures of communityconsultation and engagement (index score of 55),and overall council direction (index score of 54) butare still rated similarly to State-wide and LargeRural group council averages.”“Another area Council should pay attention to iscommunity consultation and engagement (indexscore of 55) which exhibited the largest decreaseof any measure in 2018 (down three points). Whilenot a significant decline, Council should look toshore up performance in this area.”This survey was undertaken in February 2018, with400 people surveyed across the municipality.It showed that more than half (56%) of Swan HillRural City Council residents had recent contactwith Council.While this is not significantly higher than 2017(51%), it represents the highest level of contactsince 2015, increasing after its downward trendfrom 2015 to 2017.Do you feel like you received adequate feedbackon the outcomes of the consultation?57.76%YesNo42.24%Have you had direct contact with Swan Hill RuralCity Council in the past 12 months?66.17%YesNo33.83%Swan Hill Rural City Council Communication andEngagement survey July 2018This survey also presented mixed results when itcame to community satisfaction with ourcommunication and engagement.More than 75 per cent of people said they felt veryinformed or somewhat informed about Councildecisions, projects and activities.A majority agreed that they felt like they had thechance to comment on Council projects, but theirviews on Council’s ability to consider that feedbackwas less clear.A survey undertaken in July 2018 specifically toinform this strategy showed that 66.17% ofresidents had had direct contact with Council in theprevious 12 months.8Swan Hill Rural City Council
While results from these two surveys show that wecan improve our performance in communicationand engagement, some survey respondentsacknowledged the challenges of communicating tosuch a diverse audience.“It's hard because so many people are apatheticeven if it's something they care about. They think‘someone else will do it’. I don't know how youwould convince more and better participation.”We can also measure our performance on socialmedia.Council’s Facebook page now has 2105 page likes(5 December 2018) with growing reach andengagement. Posts reach up to 4500 people at atime, with a mix of organic (free) and paid content.Examples of social media presence of otherCouncil services include: Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery has 979Facebook likes with a reach of up to 2000,and 428 Instagram followers. Swan Hill Town Hall has 1809 Facebooklikes and 332 Instagram followers. Swan Hill Regional Library has 1352Facebook likes. Pioneer Settlement has 3432 Facebooklikes and 535 Instagram followers. Youth Inc has 1355 Facebook likes and654 Instagram followers, with 486 followerson its Youth Arts Festival feed.How has Council performed on ‘community consultation and engagement’ over the last 12 months?Local Government Community Satisfaction Survey 2018Communication and Engagement Strategy 2019-20229
Informing this strategyIn July 2018, a community survey asked localpeople how they want to communicate and hearfrom Council, and how they want to get involved inlocal decision-making.The survey was advertised online, in newspapers,on radio, at Council offices and Councillors took tothe CBDs of Swan Hill and Robinvale oneweekend to discuss with local people.We received 212 survey responses, offeringinsights into what works now and how we canimprove. Responses were received from acrossthe municipality, and all age groups were wellrepresented.Importantly, we received some clear messagesfrom our community. Our community wants to: Have face-to-face communication in informaland relaxed settings. Be heard on projects and issues that areimportan
types of communication suitable for each. Many of the actions in this strategy will assist Council staff to adhere to this spectrum. Levels of public participation . Examples . Inform . To provide the community with information to assist them in understanding the problems, alternatives and/or solutions; to keep the community informed of the issue and decision. Fact sheets . Newsletters .
