Agenda item

The Chairman welcomed Emily Tofield, Executive Director of Corporate Communications and External Affairs and Kristy Sandino, Assistant Director of Corporate Affairs.

The Executive Director highlighted that she intended to provide an update in terms of progress on transformation, increased focus on strategic political engagement and alignment with Labour’s Financial Services policy which was something that this Committee had expressed an interest in and some key upcoming milestones and general election priorities. With regard to transformation work, the Executive Director referenced the update report recently shared with the Policy and Resources Committee and also circulated to all today. This provided a comprehensive update on all activity that had been taking place over a number of areas. Since the time of writing this update report, the Communications and Corporate Affairs Business Plan had now been approved by the Policy and Resources Committee. This set out the core workstreams which were now underway with a view to building the Corporation’s first Communications Strategy in a decade - something which members of the Communications and Corporate Affairs Sub-Committee in particular but also members of the wider Court had been engaged with and reached out on. It was reported that there were two reviews referenced within the Business Plan that were now underway and would inform the Communications Strategy – one of these was a Stakeholder Review, something which was being undertaken for the first time by the organisation and the other was the Branding Review. The Executive Director reported that a comprehensive Stakeholder Review seeking to map and understand how the organisation could best involve, engage with, communicate and hear from its stakeholders was critical given its complexity. It was highlighted that there would be a number of phases to the Review and that these would be reported to the Communications and Corporate Affairs Sub Committee and others. The Branding Review would incorporate the work being undertaken across the organisation in terms of communications and corporate affairs and seek to bring together and harmonise the various different websites and social media feeds which currently exited. It was hoped that this would achieve economies of scale, avoid duplication and any unnecessary confusion, better and more coherently presenting the work of the organisation as a whole.

It was reported that the Business Plan also captured core strands of strategic delivery, particularly around political engagement, something which the Communications and Corporate Affairs Team were leading on following the launch of the Vision for Economic Growth. Officers were also very conscious that this was a plan for a General Election year and there had therefore been equitable engagement across the political spectrum and outlining to all political parties the whole impact of what the City of London Corporation’s does in terms of Financial and Professional Services but also around Culture and Education as borne out within the Corporate Plan. In terms of policy influencing, the organisation had fed into a number of reviews such as the Labour Party’s Financial Services Review which had recently been published. A host of meetings with frontline political stakeholders had also been arranged for the Policy Chairman and others. The Committee were informed that the Fabian Society Conference had recently been held at the Guildhall for the first time and that they would be seeking to return in future years. The Labour Party’s Financing Growth Reception had also been hosted here and was attended by Rachel Reeves and the Shadow Treasury Team as well as key Chief Executives who had fed into the Labour Review and Financial Services stakeholders. The Guildhall School of Music and Drama had hosted Sir Keir Starmer and members of the shadow cabinet for the launch of Labour’s Creative and Cultural Strategy last week which had enabled the City to showcase its work here. The Centre for Policy Studies 50^th Anniversary Dinner had also been hosted at the Guildhall and Officers were now busy working with Onward on their upcoming dinner.

The Assistant Director reiterated the work of the team across the political spectrum and highlighted work undertaken with the government such as on the Transition Finance Review. In terms of engagement with the opposition, it was highlighted that there were a number of areas of alignment for the City within the Labour Finance for Growth piece to which the organisation had fed in informally. Labour had committed, for example, to enhancing the international competitiveness of the UK’s Financial Services Sector, leading the world in sustainable finance and there was also alignment with some of the City Corporation’s Capital Markets and Digitalisation work.

The Executive Director went on to speak on work around general election priorities and stated that the intention would be to pull together a priorities document which could be shared with Members in due course. Work was also underway on a ‘100 days’ piece of work being drafted alongside colleagues in Policy and the Remembrancer’s Department to ensure that the organisation could maximise its impact in the first 100 days of any new government and ensure that incoming civil servants and politicians alike had a sound understanding of what work the City had ongoing and what areas they might helpfully work alongside them on.

The Chairman thanked the Officers for their presentation and welcomed questions from the floor.

An Alderman focused on the Communications Strategy referenced within the presentation recognising the real need for this to join-up the multiple channels of communication that currently existed across the organisation. He sought further detail as to the development of this Strategy and how Officers would ensure that this aligned with the Corporate Plan and KPIs/tangible deliverables. The Executive Director responded to assure the Committee that the Corporate Plan and the six strategic outcomes therein would be the starting point for this first Communications Strategy. It was reported that a new platform was now in place and would be going live in the coming weeks and that this would allow for greater insight into what was going on across the whole organisation and thereby allow for better strategic planning. It was also highlighted that both the Stakeholder and Brand Review were critical in terms of getting some basic processes in place. The outcomes of these would lead into recommendations around a Digital Review and what might be done in terms of harmonising the organisation’s numerous existing websites and social media feeds.

The Aldermen questioned what guidance might be offered to Members in terms of what their role should be when it came to communicating, promoting and articulating the work of the City of London Corporation and its aspirations within the Corporate Plan and how they might add value here. The Executive Director stated that it was her intention to offer training around this to Members in the coming months following work in the background to put together those processes and platforms required to enable this which had not existed previously, this included things such as a new Instagram channel and Flickr account from which Members could access and promote images through their own social media feeds. Further work was also underway regarding how elected Members might be more effectively used as spokespersons going forward.   

Another Alderman requested that the Court of Aldermen routinely be given the opportunity as a corporate body to feed into strategic documents such as the Corporate Plan and Communications Strategy in the same way that the Policy and Resources Committee were and that they also be invited to attend engagement meetings with politicians where appropriate going forward. The Executive Director undertook to reflect on how best the Court of Aldermen might be engaged on the Comms Strategy going forward.

An Alderman queried a bottom up approach and referenced individual Aldermen’s relationships with those policy makers in Westminster as an example. He queried whether these types of relationships should helpfully be flagged to the Executive Director and how any information in this respect might be gathered and used effectively to further the aims of the organisation. The Executive Director welcomed knowledge of any such relationships and also suggested that, with sufficient notice of any individual meetings, Officers might be able to provide Aldermen with a brief that may prove useful on particular City of London policy areas.

Another Alderman focused on brand and queried who Officers were working with on this piece. He also questioned timing on the Brand Review and how brand would eventually be rolled out and communicated. Lastly, he also questioned whether there were currently any early thoughts as to what that brand might look like and be articulated. The Executive Director stressed that work on the Brand Review had only just commenced and that, at present, there was no future operating model in place. The Committee were informed that two external branding experts (Martin Thomas and Chris Barraclough) were engaged in this piece of work to help move things forward at pace. The importance of brand was underlined in what was a general election year where it was crucial to foster an understanding and appreciation of the depth, breadth and impact of the work of the City Corporation. The Brand Review was therefore considered urgent and would feed into a Digital Review which was also considered critical.

In terms of communications more generally, an Alderman referred to Wardmotes being held later this week and flagged this as a prime opportunity to engage with and formally report to the electorate face to face. She queried the lack of any corporate briefing in the run up to these and asked if this was something that might be produced as standard each year by the Comms Team and shared with the Aldermen of each Ward. The Executive Director undertook to look into this and stressed that it should be possible to provide a briefing to all in the coming days to ensure that key corporate messages were clearly and consistently conveyed and that this continue on an annual basis.

An Alderman spoke specifically on the strength of the City’s offering in terms of Law and Regulation that was well recognised globally and clearly underpinned its Financial and Professional Services. The Executive Director recognised that the Stakeholder Review would be incredibly important in this respect and agreed that there were undoubtedly areas of synergy between the legal sector and financial and professional services where certain initiatives could be helpfully cross promoted. The Alderman requested that those on the Court with considerable legal experience be invited to engage with this work.

The Chairman, on behalf of the Committee, thanked both Emily Tofield and Kristy Sandrino for their time and helpful insight to the work continuing in this area. Given the extent of the appetite expressed today for engagement and support, it was recommended that they return for a further update in the Summer.