by Daniel Lombard
In my four years as a journalist I've become accustomed to the full arsenal of PR weapons used by communications professionals to 'sell' their messages to the media.
It usually starts with the charm offensive, followed by the threat of withdrawing advertising contracts, and if all else fails, full-blown harassment.
I've heard complaints from PR professionals about how rude, unreliable and patronising journalists can be in response to their calls (forget whatever you've heard, I've always remained calm and courteous).
But last week the boot was on the other foot.
I spent a couple of afternoons ringing round local authority communications teams, trying to persuade them to take part in our survey about the role of local government in promoting social work, and suddenly realised how frustrating your job can be when you're totally reliant on others to deliver what you want.
In this case it was people's time as we sent invitations to complete the survey to the 206 local authorities of England, Wales and Scotland, and the five health and social care trusts of Northern Ireland. In the latest stage of our Stand Up Now for Social Work campaign we are seeking people's views on the strategies and challenges in effective and proactive PR for social work - a key strand in our efforts to improve the profession's overall image.
For this we got 44 responses - a pretty disappointing 21% response rate. So a colleague and I took to the phones to chase people up, and were met with a variety of responses.
The timing was unfortunate as lots of people were on holiday, but the comms officers who were in the office ranged from friendly and accommodating to irritable and bored. The most obvious lack of interest came from stressed-out press officers in large city authorities. Take one man's considered response: "How long does it take to complete? Twenty minutes? Forget it" (or words to that effect). Then there was the woman from a London borough whose curt tone told me to abandon all hope when I explained I had sent it to her communications team's generic email address. "We receive hundreds of emails each week in that inbox," she snapped, as if it had been ludicrous of me to expect anyone to deal with it. She asked me to re-send the invitation to one of her colleagues. Needless to say, they didn't reply.
On the other hand there were lots of detailed, enthusiastic responses from other press officers who specialise in social care for which I was very grateful.
A round-up of the responses will be featured in next week's magazine. The early findings are that few communications teams approach social workers for comment, which may be explained by the fact that only 44% of councils allow them to engage with the media as a general rule, with or without the oversight of communications professionals. Many communications professionals described social workers as reluctant to engage with the media, which is the subject of strong debate on CareSpace.
I will also be presenting an analysis of the results at the Chartered Institute for Public Relations' Local Public Services Communications Conference in Edinburgh, which runs from 14 - 16 October 2009, while the Association of Social Care Communicators will touch on similar issues at their forthcoming round of regional conferences (Dundee, 11 September; Derby, 28 September; and Bournemouth, 19 October). Later this year we will produce an information pack for all local authorities to share examples of good practice in working with the media.
Hi Daniel
Several years ago
Can't even remember when with all the stuff I have been doing for no financial gain
I went along to a conference for LA PR people.
They said I could come if I paid and thought it would be a good investment as at the time I was thinking of doing a doctorate looking at the relationship between social work and the media.
I think it was probably in 2002 when I started pushing with all the MP's about how to improve our relationship but really can't remember.
It cost me £350 I think plus the accomodation and I found that I was the only one paying for myself everyone else was paid by their LA.
I was pretty innocent about all this stuff then and hadn't met any Journalists not through trying but just not getting anywhere.
I was treated well but wondered what half of these people were doing but I suppose they just thought it was a job
Frankly I was jealous because I thought of all the things that I could do if I had their job.
So I went once and came away okish about it all and waited another 6 years until community care decided to have another go with all of this.
Your first was well back in the 80's I think
I rang the Sun one day about a couple of years ago and was laughed at by a Journalist who said ' we don't do stories about social work' so I feel for poor old Deidre who has been plodding away for 29 years and started in a room in her house.
And hey what's happened to the Guardian. I thought they were supposed to be interested in us but I've never got anywhere with them
Would be great to see you at Wolgarston High School one day Daniel easy journey to Stafford from London, will pick you up from the station