The winners of the 2010 Good Communication Awards, sponsored by Polycom, were revealed at the Emirates Stadium on the evening of 15th July. BBC newscaster Nicholas Owen announced which projects were successful in four areas of council communication - Public Relations, Print, IT and Telecoms.
LOCAL AUTHORITY OF THE YEARsponsored by POLYCOM Winner: Westminster City Council This award examines all areas of council communications, including print, PR, IT & Telecoms, and is made using a scoring mechanism based on all entries. The quality of communications in Westminster stands out as an example of best practice.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATOR OF THE YEARsponsored by POLYCOM Winner: Amanda Aviss, West Sussex County Council Since being appointed to the role of Head of Communications some ten years ago, Amanda Aviss has managed and developed a dynamic team fit to meet the challenges of the 21st Century.
STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGNsponsored by POLYCOM Winner: City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council - b someone education campaign Bradford's campaign was designed to encourage a particular sector to take responsibility for their own educational attainment and skills development. It used local celebrities to get its message across. An independent evaluation of the project demonstrated that it had raised awareness, and increased aspirations.
COUNCIL PUBLICATION OF THE YEAR sponsored by ST IVES GROUP Winner: Westminster City Council - Westminster Reporter The popularity of Westminster's Reporter has never been higher, thanks to a much improved distribution model and a radical overhaul of content and design, which brings it in line with private sector publications rather than traditional council magazines.
COUNCIL PUBLICATION JOURNALISM sponsored by ST IVES GROUP Winner: East Riding of Yorkshire Council - East Riding News East Riding News is produced every month and acts as a vehicle for the council to inform residents without bombarding them with mailshots. Despite being financed by advertising revenue, the publication manages to cram its pages with an incredible amount of news for the benefit of its residents.
COUNCIL PUBLICATION DESIGN sponsored by ST IVES GROUP Winner: West Sussex County Council - Taste West Sussex Produced by the Council Communications team, Taste West Sussex acts as a showcase for local producers and gives residents vital information about the goods and services available locally. It has proved to be a successful demonstration of the way the council is working to support the rural economy during tough financial times. PRINT INNOVATION AWARD sponsored by ST IVES GROUP Winner: Harrow Council - Have You Heard? Council Tax booklet Harrow took a publication which is usually executed in a traditional and often boring manner and instead produced a creative, informative and, most importantly, useful guide to council services.
LOCAL AUTHORITY PR TEAM OF THE YEAR sponsored by POLYCOM Winner: West Sussex County Council In the past two years, the press office team at West Sussex has developed into a dynamic, multi-media unit, which produces a range of high quality publications. Through advertising and working with local businesses, many of these are self financing.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS AWARD Winner: Ministry of Justice - Insight Staff Magazine Insight is an internal publication which provides a 360-degree view of the MoJ, using a mixture of news and features to illustrate its purpose and priorities. A new design needed to attract readers without alienating the faithful, and without giving the impression that money was being lavished on glossy internal communications in a time of recession.
GOVERNMENT TO CITIZEN COMMUNICATION AWARD Winner: City of Edinburgh Council - Scottish Youth Parliament Campaign The winning projects’ aim was to increase the number of citizens participating in Local Democracy. Incorporating design, print, radio, and social networking, the campaign was a huge success, and was completed on a very tight budget.
MIXED MEDIA CAMPAIGN AWARD Winner: Lambeth Council - Your borough, Your budget, Your choice campaign Lambeth Council gave community groups the opportunity to vote on which project they thought should win funding from the Authority. The campaign used multimedia tools, and in particular, video, to motivate residents to act.
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY AWARD sponsored by VODAFONE Winner: Aylesbury Vale District Council - information by sms Having researched and carried out a short pilot, the winning authority used mobile technology to successfully engage with young people – a sector traditionally considered difficult to reach. CONTACT CENTRE TECHNOLOGY AWARD sponsored by CLEMENT CLARKE COMMUNICATIONS Winner: London Borough of Hillingdon The use of technology by Hillingdon was pivotal in building staff capacity without increasing head count. The result is an impressive increase in performance and efficiency.
CONTACT CENTRE TRAINING AWARD sponsored by ISV SOFTWARE Winner: Kent County Council Acknowledging that each individual works at a different pace, Kent CC employs a variety of training methods, which include classroom based learning, role plays, task books, coaching, buddying, nursery environments, site visits, volunteering days, video coaching and 'on the job' exercises.
CONTACT CENTRE OF THE YEAR AWARD sponsored by INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE Winner: London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames Five years ago, Richmond launched a customer service programme focused on improving call centre standards and delivering greater value for money. A new contact centre and web self-service platform were introduced, and in a mystery shopping exercise conducted in March this year, residents gave the centre a 96 per cent satisfaction rating.
TELECOMS INNOVATION AWARD sponsored by VODAFONE Winner: Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council Solihull has implemented a remote working system for field workers, where all the data becomes available in a central system in ‘near real time’. This innovative application has the potential to deliver huge benefits both for council inspectors and for the environment of residents.
IT PARTNERSHIP AWARD Winner: Hertfordshire County Council/Connect Digitally - Online School Admissions Online School Admissions started life as one of the several National Projects designed to increase take up in council services online. With full utilisation by its 152 partners, predicted additional savings of around £21m are possible. Partnership working and the transference of solutions have been critical to its success.
WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY AWARD sponsored by ADAPT-IT Winner: London Borough of Hillingdon The winning authority aims to provide information and services to as much of the community as possible, including harder to reach groups. To do this, it provides additional online tools which aim to promote and provide greater access to its online services.
LOCAL AUTHORITY WEBSITE OF THE YEAR sponsored by MEDIA CITIZENS and QUATROSYSTEM Winner: Salford City Council During 2009, the winning authority looked to improve the standard of content, and pruned a considerable amount in an attempt to simplify its website. Stricter workflow controls ensure that content meets corporate grammar guidelines, and in 2009, unique visitor numbers increased by 17% over the previous calendar year. The winner of the 2010 Local Authority Website of the Year Award is IT PROJECT INNOVATION AWARD sponsored by H20 NETWORKS Winner: North Yorkshire County Council for NYnet Broadband As well as delivering a massively improved service to schools, care centres and libraries, the fruit of this years winning project will be offered to nearly 330,000 households and 50,000 SMEs. It has the potential to deliver community benefits on a massive scale.
