Building the reputation of a statistical office through effective communication Helena Rafalowska Director of Communication Office for National Statistics

Today’s session The context Our approach The issues

Reputation Based on trust and belief in an organisation’s good intentions and standards of behaviour Hard to build Easy to lose

Our role We help Government, business and the public to make sense of the world around them in order to make better decisions to improve life in Britain

Trust is central to the business we are in Collecting information and keeping it confidential Producing an accurate picture of what is going on in the world around us Providing robust evidence to inform decisions Enabling citizens to judge the performance of their government

Maintaining trust is getting more challenging Statistics, especially on government performance are becoming politicised The media, our main channel of communication is becoming more contentious The world is getting more complicated and harder to measure Statistics are playing a more important role in national life In a web world there is no hiding place

Building and maintaining reputation Integrity and political independence: National Statistics Code of Practice High standards for methods and quality Confidentiality of personal data Pre-announcement of publication dates Publication of pre-release access lists Timed release of market sensitive information

Issue management Senior level involvement Awareness of the potential for controversy Task force approach Honesty about acknowledging mistakes We always refute unfounded criticism

Reputational incidents in the national media

Openness and transparency Pre-announcement of publication dates Media access to statistical specialist Clear communication Direct, unmediated communication Liberal interpretation of Freedom of Information Act Errors and corrections published on web homepage

Web page

UK at a glance

Topic based summary

Media handling Straight news releases Good relations with journalists and commentators Increased emphasis on more trusted broadcast media Media monitoring and measuring Media and presentation training

Most frequent source of news Source:British Market Research Bureau International 2002

Most trusted source of news Source: British Market Research Bureau International 2002

Daily newspaper circulation February ,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 3,500,000 The Sun Daily Mail Daily Mirror Daily Telegraph Daily Express Daily Star Times Daily Record FT Guardian Independent Newspaper title Circulation Source: British Market Research Bureau International 2002

Television ratings Source: British Market Research Bureau International 2002

Launch of Census 2001 population figures

Family Spending

Media monitoring Total coverage Positive Neutral Negative

Issues Finding real measures of public trust Identifying the major influences on reputation Establishing a clear powerfully expressed brand identity Working with an innately conservative culture