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 are several things I want to ponder this week.

Firstly, lots of news organisations pride themselves on the ‘speed and accuracy’ of their journalism – in fact that’s the central mission statement of BBC News, which of course also includes the word ‘impartiality’.

But it seems the ethos of accuracy certainly isn’t alive at the Independent newspaper.  My colleague spotted its very interesting front-page lead story last week which declared that 20,000 public sector jobs were going.

The article highlighted Leeds City Council as one of the local authorities which was supposedly cutting 650 jobs.  It also talked about Birmingham, which of course was in the news earlier this month over its plans to lose 2000 workers.

We were very alarmed about this news – mainly because it was the first we’d heard of it.  Up to that point we certainly weren’t aware of plans to cut any jobs at Leeds.  We racked our brains about this.  Was the figure in an executive board report that we hadn’t read?  Was someone on ‘the inside’ briefing the newspaper about our jobs situation?  Clearly, the Independent had good sources.

Umm, well actually no.  It didn’t.  It seems the paper just made up the figure.

Yep, you heard right.  Made.  It.  Up.  And, in doing so, gave no regard to the consequences of any one of us reading this on the way to work.

The reason we’ve arrived at this conclusion is because there is no record of the paper having contacted our press office to check the facts.  You won’t be surprised to learn that we log every query we deal with and having checked our records, no call was ever made to us.

Of course, it goes without saying that we rang the paper to discuss this apparent inaccuracy with them.  My colleague, who put in the call, tells me that they’ve not been able to explain the 650 figure that they’ve quoted and so far the reporter concerned has not returned our call.  No surprise there then.

Leading on from that, our colleague David Reid from regeneration services is rather concerned about comments made by the MP Sir Nicholas Winterton in the last few days.  Mr Winterton was complaining that members of parliament ‘weren’t allowed to travel first class any longer’.  His comments made many news bulletins and filled a number of column inches.  He highlighted the fact that ‘local councillors and local council officers travelled first class’.

David – like most of us – knows this isn’t true and – like most of us – is annoyed that many news outlets reported this inaccuracy as a matter of fact.

Yet another example, perhaps, where someone goes unchallenged and an untruth ‘becomes’ a truth because of the media failing to do its job properly.  This is exactly the point Nick Davies makes in his book ‘Flat Earth News’.

In ‘other news’ this week, it seems there is now a realisation across public sector communications professionals that we need to be a bit more joined up in future.

My colleague Ann Clayton, who’s the director of communications at West Yorkshire Police, is going to chair a meeting involving all five West Yorkshire local authorities, the fire and rescue and ambulance service about whether, and how, we should pool our resources and expertise.

It makes perfect sense and I’m excited by the opportunities that this could present.  At the same time, I acknowledge there are some significant challenges to overcome as well – but that’s no reason not to try.

Frankly we need to be brave.  And radical too perhaps.

The same applies to our own organisation.  I took part in a really interesting workshop yesterday to look at what common processes the council has (admin, data capture, workforce planning, financial management systems etc).

The project is called DECATS and it’s all about getting rid of unnecessary duplication, therefore streamlining the way we work.

We all had to come up with our own ideas for streamlining or a process we’d change.  It’s perhaps no surprise that several people had similar ideas and that common themes developed.

One was about how we record and then use information and data, another was getting rid of the internal charges system and a third was around what functions could be rationalised or merged into a single team.

All great ideas and I imagine there is merit in many of them.

The danger is that we don’t do anything about it or with them.  Yes, I can see that there are challenges ahead, some tough decisions would have to be taken and some difficult conversations would have to be had.

However – we cannot do nothing.

We need to be brave in our decision making and we also need to be a bit radical in our thinking across the whole of the public sector.  It would be a crying shame if in two years time I get called to another workshop and we say exactly the same things as we did yesterday.

Finally, I’m returning to my old college on Thursday to do a lecture to 100 or so communications, media and business students about my transition from the light to the dark side (you know, journalism to PR).  I’m combining it with some leave so I can see my mum and sister too.

It means I won’t be here next week – so I’m handing the Log over to my colleague Catherine Gray who’ll be writing the weekly entry on my behalf.

Be gentle with her please.

[Right Scotty, fire up the warp drives and get me to Winchester pronto please …]