As Gloria Gaynor once said (and my colleagues did on Monday)–you're back! Yes, I am (but not from outer space).

Thanks to Phil for looking after things while I was away–but I need to pick him up on one thing. He mentioned ‘HMS Communications’ when he should have known that we’re a ‘starship’.

Way back when (it’s ages ago) I started writing my captain’s log, we played on the Star Trek ‘theme’ and got in as many clichés as we could.

Hence that’s why we’re a starship and not a sailing ship.

You’ll recall that Phil talked about change–change that we’d like to make, or perhaps, given where we are now, change that we’ll have to make.

I’d like to continue that discussion today.

Before I go any further, I need to ask you–dear loyal reader–to brace yourself against a fixed object.

I’m about to say something that even I didn’t expect to.

Ready?

I acknowledge, with some understanding and appreciation, about what the Tax Payers Alliance has been saying in recent days about things like public spending and transparency.

No, you didn’t misunderstand that.

I can see where the TPA is coming from.

It, of course, is an organisation I have been fairly critical of in previous logs, especially over its use of the Freedom of Information Act.

But today, I can see why it takes a particular stance.

Here’s why.

Over the last few weeks the coalition government has been increasingly talking about the ‘pain’ that lies ahead with regard to spending on public services.

We already know about the plans to save £6 billion this year. For us at Leeds City Council it means we’ll be getting £15 million less than we’d budgeted for this year. Coupled with all the other financial pressures we face as a council this is going to be a serious challenge.

Last week, the most senior people in the organisation met for their regular corporate leadership team meeting to discuss how this might be achieved.

Let’s be honest–it’s not going to be easy.

We’ve found efficiencies of £100m over the last five years, so some might argue that we’re pretty lean already. But it’s clear that the future means some, perhaps many, difficult decisions are going to have to be made.

In his first media interview since taking over as leader, Councillor Wakefield was asked about what it is the council will have to stop doing.

Clearly the priority has to be protecting the most vulnerable in our great city.

Cllr Wakefield told me that we should be ‘talking things down rather than up’ and that we all have a role in managing people’s expectations about what services we may not be able to provide in future.

For us as communicators I think that we’re going to find ourselves talking more about the bad news and less about the good news over the coming months.

Sorry to be such a doom and gloom merchant, but we’ve got to be realistic.

I’m sorry to say that cuts are inevitable now.

On a slightly lighter note, I need to offer my thanks to the team of fantastic people in Civic Hall who keep the place sparkling and clean.

I say this because the lid on my fruit salad plastic carton flew open while I was walking back to the office yesterday and the contents ended up on the carpet in the antechamber.

The only thing left in the box was a lone strawberry.

OK, so I was disappointed that no one rushed to my aid and the one colleague who did walk past while my grapes were tumbling across the floor only stepped round them instead of offering to help.

However, hats off to the cleaners because all it took to restore my fruit salad to its original form was a quick rinse under the tap. There was no carpet fluff or other nasties to fish out first.

I suggest that’s down to the vigorous hoovering the carpet gets each day.

Finally, it seems I’ve been rumbled.

Robert from the youth offending service emails:

"Enlightening as ever, but I was amazed to see an apparent slip-up–particularly surprising in the light of Andy’s recent appearance on "The One Show" regarding plain English. So "Taking up the reigns" ??? "Reins", surely, unless Cat was ruling rather than steering! (It’ll come as no surprise to you that I’m well known for my pedantry)."

It’s a fair cop … (did you see what I did there? [what with Robert being from the youth offending team!])–yep, I got it wrong.

Thank you Robert for the gentle reprimand.

But as my mum tells me: ‘Andy you can’t expect to be amazingly brilliant all the time.’ And we all know that mums are always right!

I knew this moment would come at some point.

It's a council paying a member of staff a 'high' salary which suddenly gets the attention of the media and a certain Eric Pickles.

Oh, and throw in the Tax Payers Alliance for good measure and you've got a bugger of an issue to defend.

No surprise then that the salary isn't for a social worker, nope, it's for a ... head of communications.

Of course, the East Anglian Daily Times calls them a 'spin doctor' and the Tax Payers Alliance says they'll only be publishing news about how wonderful the council is.

Well, I say well done to Suffolk County Council for defending the need to have a well paid communications person, who far from spending time sending out stuff about how wonderful the council is, will actually be needed to help explain to the people of Suffolk about the 'pain' that lies ahead as the axe falls with regard to public spending.

But, this new head of communications will also have to make sure they can prove their worth (and that of his or her team), use evaluation, insight and intelligence to back up everything they do and never forget that they have as much to do to help the council save money as every other person that works there.

OK, I don't personally think that a head of communications for a local authority needs to be paid more than the Prime Minister, but it's pleasing to see that another council thinks there is a need to invest in communications right now, even if that means just rejigging existing resources.

At the recent LGcommunications national conference in Leeds, my new council leader Keith Wakefield recorded a video in which he acknowledged the need to 'invest in communications' which he told delegates is 'key part of democracy.'  You can watch the video here.

That's good to hear Councillor.

Here's how the Press Association is reporting the story above:

A Tory minister has criticised a Conservative Suffolk council's decision to pay a public relations manager between GBP2,000 and GBP3,500 a week.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said Suffolk County Council had not made a "compelling case" for offering its latest head of communications a "super salary".

The council, which in recent years has also been criticised for paying chief executive Andrea Hill more than GBP200,000 a year, defended the move and argued that taxpayers would benefit in the long run.

News of the deal emerged in local newspaper the East Anglian Daily Times. The new boss is due to start a six-month contract later this month.

"We are calling time on this reckless attitude to spending taxpayers' cash on super salaries," said Mr Pickles. Local government must wake up and realise the gravy train is on borrowed time.

"The days of taking the taxpayer for a ride are over. We must deliver value for money and I believe our plans to throw open the books of councils will put an end to wasteful spending. There may well be a compelling case for this salary but so far it hasn't been made."

The Taxpayers' Alliance, which campaigns for better use of public money, also criticised the council.

"Spending on public relations and communications at local council level is far too high already - GBP700 a day for six months will leave Suffolk taxpayers with an astronomical bill, all so that the local authority can tell residents how great they are.

"An age of austerity is coming and the county council should make do with the communications staff they already have. They could easily cut back on the work they do that is targeted at their own residents."

A Suffolk County Council spokesman said: "A temporary head of communications will start on June 14 and whose job will be to implement the recommendations of the recent communications and marketing review.  The review will deliver significant savings to the county."

I'm hopeless when it comes to relaxing - and I'm even worse if I try to do nothing after a really hectic period.

A 'hectic period' like the week I've just had.

It was the LGcommunications (Local Government Communications) annual conference and we were host city as it was happening in Leeds.

I think I had about 12 hours sleep in about four days and almost as soon as I had taken my seat on the train to come home on Friday afternoon, I nodded off.

Yesterday I was driving - 430 miles - to Norfolk and back, so I had to be alert.

But today has been so weird. I've not settled to anything. OK, I fixed the loo seat and did the washing up, but that's all. I've found myself wandering around the house and at one point I was tempted to sort through the tangled mess of all the audio/video cables I have in a box in the loft!

I suspect it's because the last month has been hectic: getting ready for this conference, the elections, preparing for a new political administration - the only time I've relaxed is when I've been asleep.

It feels like I've got nothing to worry, get stressed about or be distracted by all of a sudden.

But here's the problem ... I've now got two weeks off work as I'm taking my first bit of leave for probably eight months. If I was out of sorts today, can you imagine what I'm going to be like by the time I go back to work! There's only so many times you can do the hoovering or visit the National Railway Museum!

This is a copy of my weekly blog which I write for work and is published on the council's intranet.  The views I express in this log are my own, professional, views as the Head of Communications but do not necessarily reflect those of the authority itself.

There’s so much to talk about this week – the outcome of the discussions between politicians in Leeds – the One Show – more of your thoughts about internal communications and the tough times ahead.

Let’s start with politics.  Yesterday afternoon (Monday) the Labour group issued a press release saying that it had reached agreement with the two Leeds Green party councillors to form a minority administration to run the council.

As you will know, talks have been going on for several weeks now since the election results which meant no one party had a majority.

Of course, the agreement between Labour and Councillors Ann and David Blackburn is subject to a vote at next week’s full council meeting, but it looks like we may have a new political leadership.

Once the new executive board has been decided and councillors appointed, we will post an update on the intranet and portal.

May I apologise for the lack of updates on the ‘new’ administration up to now.

I’ve had a number of people commenting (some colleagues and a number of residents) saying they were ‘disappointed’ the website and intranet didn’t have details about ‘who had won the election’ and ‘who was now in charge’.

That’s a fair point – but of course no one actually ‘won’ the election.  Obviously, there were winners and losers in individual wards, but the overall position has been subject to those talks between politicians which started almost as soon as the last ward (Moortown) was declared after a recount.

Besides, the current administration is in charge until the full council meeting next week anyway, so Councillors Carter and Brett remain joint leaders.

Having said all of that, we could have easily explained the situation with a short news item on the intranet, so I acknowledge we missed a trick there.  Sorry.

That brings me on to my next topic this week - internal communications.

Thank you for your continued feedback, which has been arriving by email.

Lisa from the health and wellbeing team sent this:

“This is only a small suggestion to solve the overall issue but please could we have location specific email lists?

“I work for NHS Leeds one day a week and all buildings have an email list of everyone who works in it, regardless of what department or service area they are from and these lists are on the internal address books so easy to find. It means that colleagues in the same building can be quickly and efficiently communicated with, e.g. to let them know that the coffee man has arrived, or that someone has left their car keys in meeting room C.

“The other day, myself and a couple of colleagues ran a mini health fair at St George’s Centre in Middleton. I had emailed a flyer to my contact there and naively assumed it would have been forwarded on around the building. But no, no-one knew we were there or what we were offering as it was impossible to email people in the building. Instead, some poor soul had to wander round all floors and tell people.

“I did some evaluation of communication channels following the wellbeing week I organised in September and whilst not the most robust of processes, it did indicate that most people found out about the events through email or the intranet. I had the best take up of activities where staff in a particular building with all the same directorate were blanket emailed, e.g. Leonardo House/Thoresby Building.

“Just my thoughts! Obviously doesn’t help at all with colleagues who are not desk-based or on leeds.gov.uk email system…

“I also find your log an effective comms mechanism – perhaps an equivalent from the new Chief Exec could work?”

Thanks Lisa – there’s loads to go on there.

One.  Who is this coffee man?  Is he like the Coka Cola man in the TV ads?  If so, there are a few of my colleagues who might like to meet him! (men included).

Two.  Being able to email a building (or maybe even a floor within a building, where it is shared with more than one team) seems sensible.  Graham Walker is the fantastic IT guru for my team, so I’ll ask him what’s possible.

Three.  Thanks for the nice feedback about this log. I’m glad you like it.

Four.  The aforementioned IT whizz Mr Walker tells me that there is some new ‘tech’ in the pipeline that will allow colleagues on different systems (the council, the learning network and Education Leeds) to be able to ‘switch’ between them.

Five.  I spoke to Tom Riordan only yesterday about his thoughts about internal communications and a blog is probably the least innovative thing he wants to do.  Videos and roadshows are just two of his exciting ideas!

The One Show next.

We were on last Thursday and dare I say it – the council came across well.  I thought the piece was very positive and although the film was shorter than we were led to believe it would be, it was still good.

It’s a shame they didn’t use the recording of my colleague Emma who was actually delivering the training, but I think viewers got the gist.

The film also made the city look good too.  There were shots of, and an interview, in the Nelson Mandela garden area and Arthur Smith did a piece to camera from Park Square which looked great in the sunshine.

If you missed the film, it’s on the BBC iPlayer and will be there until tomorrow night.  We are the last item, so you can skip forward to about 22 minutes.  Our film is after the piece about gorillas, the item about parking tickets and a feature on the speed of sound (don’t ask!).

Thank you to all of you who’ve mentioned to me that you thought it was good.

I include in that the man from the corporate property team (I’m sorry, but I don’t know your name) who is in charge of the secret toolbox.  Although he doesn’t possess a junior hacksaw (that’s a story for another time), he was very complimentary about us.

Finally, and to bring things down to earth with a bump – I was at a leadership forum event in the Town Hall on Friday where Paul Rogerson was speaking. 

He was talking us through his thoughts on the coming months and years and what challenges the council will face.  If you were labouring under the illusion that things were going to be rosy – you’d better reconsider.

Mr Rogerson used the word ‘austerity’ three times in about two minutes at one point, which kind of sums up what he was saying.  It’s going to be tough.  Very tough in fact, with some pretty big issues to deal with.

Sorry to end on a downer, but I promised long ago that my log would always be honest and open.

Next week is the Local Government Communications annual conference, which is taking place in Leeds.  As we’re the ‘host city’ I’m going to be rather busy and closely involved in the event.

That means I’m handing over to a guest logger and my colleague Cat Milburn (the newest member of my team) will be on the bridge guiding the good ship communications through the galaxy.

Please be gentle with her.

My LG Communications executive committee colleague, and director of communications at Westmister City Council, Alex Aiken (picture below) has written this piece for the latest edition of PR Week which I thought worth sharing.  I agree with everything he says.

This week, a new era will start for public service communications. A new government which will face an unprecedented battle for public support to deliver spending cuts which will inevitably mean retrenching communications spending.

Alex Aiken: public service comms needs to change

This is a copy of my weekly blog which I write for work and is published on the council's intranet.  The views I express in this log are my own, professional, views as the Head of Communications but do not necessarily reflect those of the authority itself.

I asked one of my colleagues a few weeks back about what he found frustrating about me and my leadership style.

'Not a lot' was the answer (which is encouraging) but he did say that he felt I did too much 'doing' sometimes and got involved in some issues when perhaps I should be taking a wider view about communications and what the team does.

I suspect that means I need to be a bit more strategic - you know - like the foreman of the works who supervises and gives direction but probably doesn't actually pick up a shovel.

I've been trying to do that since those comments were made and I hope my colleague has noticed.

However, when the chief executive called on Thursday morning to ask me to 'sort out the issue of a scaffold pole and a rather stressed BBC director' (don't ask) at the election count venue, I had to go back into 'doing' mode.

A few phone calls later and the BBC man was less concerned about the scaffold pole.

And as I was in 'doing mode' I was unable to resist the call to help move the Portaloos into place outside the main count building.  Despite the Portaloo delivery driver's doubts we did manage to shift three tonnes of toilet into place fairly swiftly.

Who says communications people can't multi-task!

Talking of elections - six days on and it seems we've finally got some clarity about who's going to be in charge of the country in future, even if we're still waiting for news here in Leeds.

Having spoken to a number of senior politicians over the last 24 hours I know that there is a lot of talking going on.  Let's hope that the clarity we need is forthcoming very soon.

Witnessing events first hand last Thursday night and Friday morning was fascinating.  The media scrum was a bit embarrassing to be honest and it was interesting to hear journalists tell me that they were really only there to watch a certain national politician 'do a walk of shame' as he lost his seat ... which of course he didn't in the end.

One media organisation rocked up with about a dozen members of staff and another just sent one.  In contrast, the local election on Friday attracted hardly any interest at all.

Then, there were those very misleading pictures filmed by the BBC of a queue outside Boar Lane polling station.  It was reported that 'people had been turned away from voting' and the pictures were used to illustrate it.

What the BBC failed to point out was the fact it recorded the film almost 40 minutes before polls closed.  As far as we know there were and have been no complaints from voters at Boar Lane and the presiding officer there has reported no issues either.

We complained in the strongest terms to the BBC about this and it altered the script but continued to use the misleading images.

This caused a great deal of discussion on many social media channels because people assumed the BBC's inaccurate representation of the story was considered to be fact.  Again, we did our best to correct this, but were then accused by several 'tweeters' of being 'uber defensive' and trying to cover something up!

I think it would be helpful if people weren't so trusting of their chosen source of news!

Right - back to some of the issues from previous logs, namely internal communications.

Thanks for the additional comments you've been sending in.  Ben, from environmental services, emailed:

“In terms of internal communications, I have always thought it would be a good idea to have a [question and answers] Q & A facility for staff to ask questions to get an 'official response'.

“This could be done at directorate level or even at corporate level where a [directorate leadership team] DLT or even [corporate leadership team] CLT could receive questions from staff and then an official response could be presented to staff.

“This may benefit the authority as it may lead to (i) more staff asking questions or suggesting ideas; perhaps even those staff who don't normally express views at meetings etc or feel that they have a 'say' and (ii) will assist senior managers and CLT being more visible to staff on the front line.”

Great idea Ben – I want to do this ‘live’ on the intranet, over say a lunchtime with colleagues able to pose questions there and then as well as submitting them via email etc.

And Fiona, from the libraries team sent me this:

“Just a note to say how much I'm enjoying reading your captain's log, and it's making me laugh!!”

[Excellent – that’s good to hear!]

“On Ena's point – 'Ena in the land charges team emailed: [On] improving internal communications, how about setting up a discussion forum accessible only to @leeds.gov.uk email addresses?’

“I agree that would be another good tool to help us wrestle with the long standing communications challenges we all face, however is it worth pointing out that many of us especially in the Leeds library and information service world, are on the Leeds Learning network email system (like myself) and can't access leeds.gov.uk? I would think that many of us (or at least some) would like the opportunity to be included if a discussion forum was established.”

Yep – all taken on board.  None of our communications (messages or channels) should exclude, so the technical aspects are something we would clearly have to overcome.

Thank you, as ever, for your feedback.

Finally, some late BREAKING NEWS: Watch the One Show tomorrow (Thursday).  The film about our plain English work is going to be shown.

This is a copy of my weekly blog which I write for work and is published on the council's intranet.  The views I express in this log are my own, professional, views as the Head of Communications but do not necessarily reflect those of the authority itself.

As they used to say in Star Wars … may the fourth be with you.

I’ve been waiting all year to use that ‘gag’.  May 4 is a cause for celebration in our office as it’s my colleague Mike’s birthday, so many happy returns to him.

You know Mike – he’s the one who sparked ‘pantsgate’ when he brought his under crackers into the office to dry on the radiator.

Anyway, enough said about that.

So, here we are then.  The campaigning is almost over.  No doubt many hundreds of innocent babies have been kissed and even more rosettes have been displayed proudly on puffed-out chests.

We’ve watched the leaders debates with interest (well, I’m sure some of us have) and we’ve seen how the three would-be Prime Ministers have performed in front of the cameras.

It means we’re down to the point in the election where (as Cilla Black’s voice over man Graham used to say) ... ‘the decision is yours!’

Well, ‘ours’ I guess really.

For me, this week is of great excitement and great importance.  Hopefully, within just a few days we will have clarity on who will provide political leadership nationally.  And, again hopefully, we will also have the same clarity for this great city of ours too.  I think that brings new opportunity – hence my excitement - but it’s also likely to bring uncertainty too.

The country is in a bit of a financial muddle (to say the least) and we know that reductions in public sector spending will be required to bring the deficit down.  That means the amount of cash we get is going to be squeezed even further.  If you thought the belt seemed a bit snug already – prepare for it to be tightened by a notch or two further.

For our political leaders (whether they are new or old) I suspect it isn’t going to be smooth ride.  They are going to have to take some tough decisions and you and I are going to have to support them throughout.

That means communications (and I’m not trying to ‘big-up’ my role or sound self important) is going to be vital.  On two fronts.   There are some very important messages to get across to our colleagues as potentially the ‘business’ that is the council has to change and adapt.  But there are also many equally important messages to get out to the people of Leeds to help them better understand what's happening and why.

I’m working on Thursday night into Friday morning as we’re expecting there will be quite a few reporters and journalists to chaperone around the John Charles centre – but even if I wasn’t working, I’d still want to be there to see what happens.

My excitement is most likely because this is the first big election I have worked from ‘this’ side of the fence.  I’ve reported on many when I worked as a journalist, but being where I am now is fascinating.

No doubt many of you – loyal readers – have been here before and have a great deal more experience of elections from a council perspective than I do and perhaps have got so used to them they simply pass you by.  So, apologies if I come across as an excited puppy and you don’t understand what all the fuss is about!

Right, onto the One Show now.

You’ll remember from last week’s log, I mentioned the fact that Arthur Smith and a film crew were coming to take a look at our plain English work.

I’m pleased to report that it all went really well. Mr Smith even caused some excitement on the 4th floor of Civic Hall when he arrived to record a sequence of him supposedly hunting for dodgy language.

The One Show’s interest in our work even came up during a discussion in a meeting of cabinet when it was mentioned by Cllr Brett.

I’m told that the film will be transmitted in a few weeks time.  I’ll let you know when once the BBC has confirmed the details.

Finally, some of your feedback from last week when I asked for comments about internal communications.  Several of you took the time to respond.

Ena in the land charges team emailed: “[On] improving internal communications, how about setting up a discussion forum accessible only to @leeds.gov.uk email addresses?”

Great idea – and there’s some tech in the pipeline from IT that would help us do that.

And Veronicka in city development sent a message suggesting we use the results of the staff survey to influence our thinking on internal communications.

It seems great minds think alike Veronicka – we’re onto that already!

More next week – once the election dust has settled.