Full cost of States Comms changes may not be known until 2020

Thursday 23 August 2018

It’s been a year of major changes to the States communications team – but the impact of that overhaul on the public purse may not be known until as late as 2020.

The government’s PR and communications unit has come under intense scrutiny in recent months, following the appointment of former Labour adviser and UK government communications executive Stephen Hardwick into the top Comms job.

Initially brought in as a member of new States Chief Charlie Parker’s temporary ‘Transition Team’ last year, Mr Hardwick was appointed to the role of Director of Communications in May on a top-tier salary of over £100,000.

He has been tasked with building a new ‘Communications Directorate’ set to have as many as 34 employees.

Once all posts have been filled, the unit will have more staff than the island has paramedics, fire crew commanders or police inspectors. It will also be larger than the entire External Relations team, which is handling Brexit.

Pictured: Stephen Hardwick, the States' new Director of Communications.

A mix of press officers, marketers and designers, the ‘directorate’ will be responsible for ensuring that the government communicates a unified message to the media and internally to the States' 6,000 staff.

But details around the exact cost of the new unit remain unclear. 

A request submitted under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Law and published yesterday asking how much the new department would cost was not met with a figure.

The response stated that it was not yet possible to provide a total, as recruitment for the new team was yet to be completed. However, it said that most positions were expected to be filled “by the end of the year”, with a full team in place in 2019. 

It added that the full cost of the unit would be included in the States of Jersey’s 2019 accounts, but that those won’t be compiled until 2020 – two years away.

Funding decisions signed off by the former Treasury Minister show that over £400,000 has already been spent on the operation.

In a Scrutiny Hearing last month, Mr Hardwick told a panel of States members that he expected communications costs might go up rather than down. However, he added that he hoped the changes would end up being “at least cost neutral”, stating that the new unit would be able to deliver more services than previously.

Mr Hardwick also hoped that there would be some “monetisable benefits” to enhanced States communications by “encouraging behaviour change through effective communications.” If islanders can be warned to get flu jabs or undertake smear tests, for example, he said that this could lead to Health Department savings.

60 recommendations for change were made in a States-wide audit of communications, which found what Mr Hardwick deemed to be serious flaws in how the team were previously operating. 

One of those reforms involved creating a database of government ‘lines’ – a bank of all answers given to media representatives to ensure that staff communicate the same message. 

Other moves to “reinforce the brand of the States of Jersey” were also suggested, including setting consistent computer backgrounds for staff which should be pre-approved by Mr Hardwick and ensuring that all States staff have consistent email footers.

But not all of the suggested changes have been warmly received. Around seven members of the States Comms team have left for new roles under what they described to Express as a “tightened” regime. 

Plans to allow communications staff to pre-approve ‘embarrassing’ FOI responses also drew public criticism. The team later said that they had u-turned on this decision.