Agenda item

6.1  The Chair welcomed the Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement while highlighting the need for openness and transparency in the work of scrutiny, observing that the virtual meetings during pandemic have allowed scrutiny to reach a wider audience.

6.2.1  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement opened by expressing the hope was to bring a full communication strategy to Scrutiny Panel earlier in the year which hasn’t been possible due Covid-19, and that her team has been concerned with communicating the council’s response to Covid-19.

6.2.2  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement echoed that virtual meetings has provided opportunities for scrutiny commissions to share their important work.

6.2.3  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that Scrutiny is currently advertised through Hackney Today and Hackney Life publications sent to residents in the borough.

6.2.4  The Director of Communications pointed out that prior to the pandemic, the publications had a low number of subscribers but now they have more than 6,000 subscribers.  These are increasingly having less Covid-19 content. The live streaming is also a tool for promotion and this has seen an increase in the numbers watching live.  The current record in for live viewers has been 312.

6.2.5  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that the role of the corporate communications team has been to promote the meetings via the available channels, but also to promote calls for evidence or resident participation. The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that the scrutiny team’s counterpart role is to keep the communications team informed about upcoming meetings, and to convey the key priorities. The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement went further to say that the responsibility of Chairs is to maintain communications with their link communications officer and raising any requests for additional support through those channels and promoting the meetings through their own channels like social media.

6.2.6  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that it is important for scrutiny’s work to be transparent and for it to be clear that the corporate communications team doesn’t influence the content of that work. That challenge goes beyond a service that promotes meetings The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement expressed that she welcomed discussion with the chairs about the best way to do this.

6.3  The Chair thanked the Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement and her team for their work during the pandemic.

Questions, Comments and Discussion

6.4  Members asked how the accessibility of virtual meetings can be maintained once face-to-face meetings resume.  The Members highlighted there was a lack of clarity on the Hackney YouTube channel’s layout calling for a separate section for scrutiny, and suggested that either the link communications officer or scrutiny officers be able to cut highlight clips from meetings in order for chairs to share them. Members acknowledged this role needed training for officers to carry it out.

6.5  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement stated that there is no reason why scrutiny officers could not be trained to extract edited highlights but noted that the process can be fiddly and time-consuming. The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement also stated that her team is responsible for the YouTube channel but is unaware how easy it would be to give scrutiny its own section on the uploads page. 

6.6  Members commented if something noteworthy or remarkable does happen at a scrutiny meeting, the ability to put that clip in a social media post would be useful to attract a wider audience, and called for increasing targeted publicity. Members also expressed an interest in media training.

6.7  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that the online content needs to be maintained and that training can be examined.  The officer also advised Members that the chairs must maintain relationships with their communications officer, stressing that chairs can provide nuance that the agendas alone cannot.

6.8  Members asked about the interplay between the council’s communications networks and the personal communications of Members particularly when it comes to controversial content and whether the edited highlight function would be available for content to appear on personal promotional channels. Members also requested further clarification on whether Members had to seek permission from communications officers before publishing scrutiny content.

6.9  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that cabinet members are expected to work with the communications team on their communication pieces because they’re seen as the executive voice, but for non-executive Members they can use their own channels in whatever way they see fit. The necessity to work with communications begins where the corporate channels are utilised. In terms of controversial content, the Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that she will seek further clarification but that a conversation about the issue would be appropriate.

6.10  Members commented the communications would be in their role as chairs rather than simply a non-executive Member.

6.11  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised this was still acceptable if done so away from the corporate channel, but if using the corporate channel this would require collaboration.

6.12  The Chair posed a question about what information is possible to gather from YouTube analytics.

6.13  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement advised that colleagues on the communications team are in a better position to comment, but that there isn’t a great level of detail available in terms of geographical analytics.

6.14  Members asked if the feedback form attached could be expanded to include scrutiny videos.

6.15  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement said she would find out if that was possible.

6.16  Members commented that time codes are being used key points in scrutiny commission meetings.  These could be utilised for retweeting specific excerpts allowing viewers to skip to bits that relate to them. One Member questioned the future of minutes asking whether they needed to be so detailed, particularly if they transition to recorded meetings.

6.17  The Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement agreed and noted that different chairs would have different styles when it comes to excerpt content.

6.18  The Chair thanked the Director of Communications, Culture, and Engagement and commented that the future of minutes would be useful to be discussed further and suggested a refresh of the scrutiny webpage.

6.19  The Chair pointed out that media training for Members would be useful, training for scrutiny officers in video editing would be useful, and that chairs need to continue to have responsibility in promoting meetings.

6.20  The Chair drew the agenda item to a close.