Policy Title: Communications functions
Department: DIRECTOR-GENERAL JUSTICE and COMMUNITIES
Group: COMMUNITIES SCOTLAND
Division: Com Scot - Corporate Strategy
Branch: Com Scot - Corporate Planning and Performance/Business Improvement Unit
| Aims of the Policy |
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| What is the purpose of the policy (or the changes made to the policy)? | The Communications department has a range of functions, which are the subject of this EQIA, rather than any particular policy. The role of the department is to promote and explain the work of Communities Scotland and Communities Ministers, both externally and internally. Our team includes professionals involved in media relations; the writing, designing and the layout of publications; internal communications; website management; photography, marketing and conference support.
We:
• support Scottish Ministers by demonstrating the delivery and results of the policies they have put in place, advising Ministers on media issues and accompanying them on visits related to Communities Scotland programmes;
• communicate the work of the agency itself, explaining its role and responsibilities;
• promote the work of the agency at local level;
• advise Ministers and senior managers on communications issues and advise and manage the handling of proactive and reactive situations;
• devise communications strategies for specific schemes managed by Communities Scotland, such as Homestake, Single Survey and Housing Act-related activities;
• Manage the agency’s internal communications programme by drafting an internal communications strategy which has been agreed by CMT and which uses a range of methods including the staff magazine, ‘Inside’, face-to-face sessions and the agency’s intranet.
• The department takes care to show a strong cross-section of the community in the images it uses in its work, and seeks opportunities to promote equalities in its communications activities.
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| Who is affected by the policy or who is intended to benefit from the proposed policy and how? | Again, it is important to state that we are a department with a range of functions, rather than a policy. Communications is a corporate function and our work helps the agency to deliver its objectives and Ministerial targets, therefore all of the audiences for the agency – the general public, stakeholder organisations, Ministers, other parts of the Executive and public, private and not-for-profit partners are affected by our work.
Our output is diverse and depends on the requirements of agency, Ministers, and our audiences, and on the advice we give to senior managers and Ministers.
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| How has the policy been, or will be put into practice, and who is or will be responsible for delivering it? | The functions of the Communications team support divisional and area networks with specialist guidance and advice, and a full range of communications activities including producing business documents, newsletters and magazines, working with national, local and specialist media, supporting the agency’s involvement in conferences and exhibitions, managing its website and creating and running publicity campaigns for specific initiatives.
In all of this we aim to demonstrate that Communities Scotland recognises and seeks to meet the diverse needs of the people and communities we work with.
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| How does the policy fit into the Scottish Executive's wider or related policy initiatives? | Communities Scotland is the housing and regeneration agency of the Scottish Executive, and Communications supports the work of the agency as a whole and its various teams.
The department has close working relations with colleagues on Media and Communications Group and with DD colleagues, and is always mindful of the broader environment in which we operate, either in making good cross-cutting links with other parts of the Executive and beyond which help us promote Ministerial and agency initiatives, or in sharing information with those colleagues in a reactive sense.
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| Have the resources for the policy been allocated? | Yes |
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