Episoder
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We’re going to let you into a little secret:::::: MPs have very little influence at the local level, and sometimes may even make things worse, but you need to understand them to engage with them.
The syndicate is largely neutral around politics, this is very much from experience at the local level where collectively we have found Councillors tend to act similar, regardless of party. This is even more apparent when your find out how common it is for Councillors to swap parties so that they can have some power.
That said, for largely ideological reasons Conservative MPs maybe the least helpful on public sector, environmental and climate matters, so be extra sceptical about them.
MPs can be useful, but at the local level they can waste public service time by making organisations respond to enquiries when they could be delivering services. If you contact your MP about a local matter several things will happen; this is in order of what is most likely to happen:
1) The MPs researcher will just pass the enquiry onto the local public body and then just forward on the response they receive to you. You could have done this yourself.
2) The enquiry will mean that the Leader, Chair or Chief Executive of a body may hear about your issue. Again you could just email or write to them directly to do this yourself.
3) If the MP is from a different party to the one that leads the relevant local Council, the MP may just use your enquiry to score political points. If this is the case, it will most likely involve a tweet, perhaps a photo opportunity or something to include in a future election leaflet.
4) If the matter could score political points your MP may mention it in Parliament.
5) Your MP may associate with the matter and support you.
There are caveats to this
a. some MPs have additional roles such being on the Environmental Select Committee, or
b. if there is a debate coming up, they may raise your matter in the debate.
or
c. If you are careful you can get them on your side!
Your mission if you choose to accept it is to find out what your MP has actually done to support Climate and Environmental matters.
Here are some tips:
- Go to https://www.theyworkforyou.com to find out what they vote on. Register to receive email updates, it is a great way to find out what they say in debates and how they vote.
- Look at their website and read their newsletters
- Follow them on social media (facebook and Twitter)
- Setup a Google Alert (Search Google Alerts and follow the instructions)
Remember it is what your MP votes on that counts, there is no point critizing the Local Public Bodies if the MP doesn’t go on to vote to provide more funding, improve the law or actively support local schemes. But like anyone, the best way to engage with your MP is to understand them and unlike most people this is often on the public record.
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We’re going to let you into a little secret::::::How you talk to people matters more than anything. Now that you have found the mole within your organisation, you need to be careful how you interact with them to ensure they stay on your side.
Your mission if you chose to accept it, is to follow the engagement approach set out.
Here is our advice:
- Be nice to them at all times, they are your ally
- Get hold of their email address and even after you’ve talked, send them a nice email with everything set out.
- Remember; that you can say anything you want, but the officer cannot, this is the very reason for this podcast being secret. Be mindful that due to working in a political organisation they will be restricted in what they can say to you, even whether they can outwardly agree with your point of view.
- Share with them all your ideas, don’t be disillusioned into thinking that they are not listening. It is very likely they will be quietly delighted that you have given them some ideas.
- Provide data, reference legislation or examples from other similar public sector organisations are the best.
- Public bodies thrive on good PR, show how that organisation could either be the first to do something, or where they could be shamed into being late to the party.
Remember; Your ideas may not feature in a future report or programme, this could be for a range of reasons and not necessarily because the mole you are speaking to does not agree.
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Mangler du episoder?
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We’re going to let you into a little secret::::::People tend to work in the public sector as they care about the community and the environment. Your next mission, if you choose to accept it is to go out there and find the right find the right people within the target organisation you have selected.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a public organisation doesn’t care about the Climate or Environment. If you are speaking to someone and get the impression that they don’t care, you are either asking the wrong person, miss communicating or most likely you’ve been too negative and have got their backs up.
Our syndicate has come across several examples of groups lobbying for Council’s to “care about climate change”.. never take an adversarial approach like this, every public organisation is made up of a community of passionate people, first you need to find the right people.
Here are our tips to find the right people:
- Attend Public Events around the topic, this could be a planning event, consultation or community conference, there will be Council Officers there, if you can’t find them, ask someone to point you in their direction.
- Virtual Conferences are very open, sign up and attend events such as the Local Government Climate Conferences and speak to people.. most have a list of people attending, have a look at the names..
- Most Local Authorities and some public bodies use the same website format, go to the reports part of the organisations webpage and search for these terms.
o Climate Change
o Climate Emergency
o Environmental Manager
o Pollution
If you open a report at the bottom there will be the name of an officer who authored it, probably also including contact details.
- Attend a Cabinet meeting and ask to speak (you will have to request early).
- Go onto LinkedIn, look up an organisation and search for employees of a Public Body. If you have a profile ask to connect to them and message them, most likely they will be happy to speak to you.
Now remember, every public organisation is made up of a community of passionate people, never take an adversarial approach with them as it will not work in your interest.
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We’re going to let you into a little secret:::::: Public Bodies deliver a wide range of services, it can be a minefield working out which is the right one to engage with on a subject and you can ping pong between organsations. Often there can be more than one organisation responsible for a service, so it depends on your local democratic structure, plus a whole host of other things..
Your mission, if you choose to accept it is to go out and find out which organisation is in charge of the matter you would like to influence.
To give you a feel for the complexity of local government there are several tiers, we will elaborate as to what each can do in future episodes.
Parish or Town Councils – Mainly in Shire County areas of the UK, these are small elected bodies that run very local services, perhaps a community centre. They tend to own and look after local parks and can raise funding through Council Tax.
District or Borough (sometimes referred to as City or Town) – Usually in Suburban and Rural parts of the UK, if you have one of these they will likely run local leisure facilities, empty your bins and deal with litter and fly-tipping.
County – Again usually in Suburban and Rural parts of the UK, these Councils run social care and education, will be responsible for disposing of waste and deal with local roads.
Unitary – Usually these are centred around a large Urban area, these organisations deliver all the services that a District and County would usually do.
This podcast will cover a broad range of public bodies, we have contributors from Universities, NHS and a range of other bodies. Including what are known as Non-Departmental Organisations – Sometimes referred to as Quangos (Quasie semi autonomous non-governmental organisations).
These include:
Highways England
Natural England
The Environment Agency
Before contacting an organisation about a matter, look on their website to see what services they deliver.
Remember Public Bodies deliver a range of services and this can change from area to area, make sure you are contacting the right one before engaging with them.
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We’ve been expecting you, if you’ve found this podcast you have accepted your mission to do whatever it takes to get the public sector to respond to the climate emergency. To protect the identity of the environmental public sector syndicate, or EPSS, this podcast is voiced by an actor, you can call me Ethan.
We are going to let you into a little secret::::::
Public Sector organisations are amazing, and at all levels are filled with thousands of wonderful people doing brilliant things on the environment. This podcast and the associated range of social media posts have been designed to support people from within and outside the public sector to respond to the Climate, Ecological and other environmental emergencies.
Our guidance has been put together by a secret syndicate of people across a range of public sector organisations (Local Councils, Universities, Schools and the NHS)... the secrecy is purely to allow our members to share with you an honest view on matters and let you into tonnes of tips and secrets without jeopardising their privileged positions.. after all we don’t want to blow their cover and loose the ability to keep up the good fight.
Each week the Syndicate will release a new mission for you to carry out, these will cover:
- Finding a mole in the Council
- How to get your University to care about the Climate EmergencyNow remember; whatever you do, don’t subscribe to this podcast, we can’t risk having a trail leading back to you… and do not spread the word via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.. the last thing we want is this getting out and whole bunch of people joining our secret syndicate. Now delete this episode, carry out the mission and await your next instructions..
