Scottish Borders Local Association

Council falls short of keeping it simple

Published Date: 26 March 2009

By Andrew Keddie

"WE propose to maximise the capacity of our staff to work directly with children, young people and/or their families by distinguishing between these tasks which require to be undertaken by staff with a specific professional qualification and any which might be more efficiently or effectively undertaken by other professionally qualified staff, or indeed, non-professionally qualified staff."

Did you understand that sentence, taken from the online overview of Scottish Borders Council’s public consultation document on Transforming Children’s Services: the most radical shake-up of education undertaken in the region?

One parent for whom it made no sense was so concerned about the style and content of the language that she contacted the Plain English Campaign (PEC).

That organisation, which offers a range of professional services to public bodies, had previously worked with SBC’s revenues and benefits department to eradicate jargon and gobbledegook from its publications.

It had also conferred on SBC’s website in 2006 the award for the best use of plain English in the UK.

But of the TCS document with its many appendices, which appeared on the same website last autumn, the PEC was scathing.

“With this ridiculous piece of public consultation ... we have a council which has forgotten who it is serving,” said PEC press officer Marie Clair in response to the parent’s complaint.

At about the same time, Councillor Zandra Elliot of Hawick admitted she was struggling to understand some reports prepared by council officials.

And she persuaded SBC’s scrutiny panel of backbench councillors to review the potential benefits of the council participating in the PEC.

She said: “It was most gratyfying to know that I was not the only councillor struggling to get to grips with some of the reports we were receiving and being asked to make decisions on.

“As councillors we have ultimate responsibility for these decisions and if we foul up for whatever reason, the buck stops with us. I felt our ability to make sound judgments was being compromised by reports which were not written in plain English.”

Senior staff from all council departments have now attended a scrutiny session at which three members of the PEC – Ms Clair, company secretary Peter Griffiths and trainer Peter Holmes – gave a presentation on the benefits of improving the clarity of communications between officers, to elected members and, crucially, to the public.

Since 1979, the campaign has helped businesses and government departments make their documents, reports and publications clear and concise.

It now has 12,000 members in 80 countries, while 300 local councils now display the Crystal Mark, the PEC’s internationally-recognised seal of approval.

Corporate membership, which involves in-house training, costs £6,000 for the first year and £3,000 annually thereafter. An ad hoc editing service could cost nearly £2,000 for three documents of up to 4,500 words.

Councillors have instructed their head of communications Kathleen Travers to investigate what PEC services, if any, would be beneficial.

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