Mixed signs from government

Budget cuts of 10-20% affecting Communications teams across the Public Sector have been announced by the Government’s Communications Chief, Matt Tee, at the Annual Healthcare Communicators Conference.

Addressing a packed hall of NHS Communications Officers at the AHC Conference in Cardiff, Matt Tee, the Permanent Secretary for Communications at the Cabinet Office, said that the Public Sector should expect imminent cuts of 10-20 per cent in communications budgets.

He spoke immediately after the NHS Director of Communications, Colin Douglas, who was more vague about how the economic recession and proposed cuts in NHS budgets overall would affect Communications teams.

They both offered encouraging words to Comms. Officers, praising their hard work, professionalism and commitment. There was even a promise of more professional development training and a chance to change roles within the Public Sector – from the NHS to a Government Department – to gain more experience and advance careers.

Fighting for his political life

Interestingly, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking the next day, denied that there would be cuts in the NHS – apparently going in the face of reported 2-3% cuts in NHS spending planned by NHS Chief Executive David Nicholson – which would shave up to £4-6 billion per year from current spending in the Health Service.

Speaking at a Press Conference immediately after the Local Government and European Elections last Friday, the Prime Minister categorically denied there would be spending cuts in the NHS – in response to a journalist question.

Fighting for his political life, he said that spending would continue to increase in the NHS, as it has done, year on year, since Labour first came to power in 1997.

So whom do we believe? The clue is probably in that phrase, “fighting for his political life”, which every political commentator has used over the last few days.

A lot of emphasis was placed by all the “official” speakers at the Healthcare Communicators Conference on working smarter and trying to get more bang for your bucks.

Our take on all of this, having worked with the Public Sector for twelve years specifically on developing good communications, is that there are no short cuts.

Essentially you get what you pay for.

If you want to preserve your good reputation, you have to invest in communications and that means properly trained, qualified people in Comms teams.

KPMG invests in 32 Communications Officers in the UK alone, managing the reputation of a company which employs 1000 staff and has a turnover of just over £1 billion per year.

One of our colleagues at this years Conference told us that there were only two Comms. personnel at his NHS Trust which employed 4,500 people and had a budget approaching KPMG’s.

We have just had the NHS 60th birthday celebrations and its reputation has been hard fought and hard won.

We need to preserve this reputation in the face of increasing pressures, political, economic and otherwise, and the only way is through proper investment in Reputation Management – ie Communications.

Political winds

The biggest threat facing this country today and over the next twelve months is the attack on public services and Public Sector jobs forced by the economic recession and political opportunism – from all parties.

On the one hand we have a Prime Minister saying that investment in public services will continue to rise, in spite of the recession. And on the other hand, we are being warned that a Conservative Government will make the most swingeing cuts in Public Services ever seen since the inception of the NHS.

Whichever way the political wind blows, these are crucial times for the NHS and the Public Sector as a whole.

We are preparing to pick up some of the slack – should it come to that.

We think you all know what we are talking about – outsourced PR and Communications – on the cheap – available to the lowest private sector bidder at the cheapest price.

What price the reputation of the NHS then?

We are planning for a worst case scenario – for NHS and Public Sector communications. Please let us know your thoughts.

Join the debate. Fight for your Public Services and the Public Sector.