CSR means local government communicators must prove their worth says Alastair Campbell
Alastair Campbell has advised public sector communicators that their biggest challenge is justifying their own existence in the current climate.
Campbell said: ‘The challenge is the need to explain the value of strategic communications. I suspect comms is going to be an easy target, when people say it’s not as important as the delivery of services. But comms is fundamental to the delivery of services.
‘Everyone is going to have to fight pretty hard to make the case for what they do. That’s no easy argument to make. The only way is to show why comms is a fundamental part of how we implement a strategy.’
On Wednesday, chancellor George Osborne outlined exactly where £80 billion of cuts would be found.
Campbell went on to suggest that heads of comms need to find multi-skilled comms workers who can handle a range of areas such as media relations, digital and advertising.
‘You need to find the people who can do that,’ he said at the CIPR Local Public Services Conference in Brighton yesterday.
