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CIPR PRESIDENT'S REPORT Q2 2015

This quarter I have covered more than 2000 miles mainly by train, but once again my Irish trip required two flights.

I was honoured and delighted to welcome 700 people to the CIPR’s Excellence Awards at the gloriously sunny venue of Old Billingsgate Market. It was a great evening, demonstrating how we continue to innovate and develop. Only CIPR members could enter the individual categories, making it clear that they abide by the code of conduct and uphold the highest forms of professionalism. We developed an app, which was widely used on the night. We also published a booklet of case studies from the winners.

iProvision, the CIPR’s benevolent fund, celebrated its 50th anniversary and was also the beneficiary for all donations from Excellence.

I was delighted to join Russell Goldsmith for a recording of the CIPR Social Media Panel’s podcast, kindly provided by us by Markettirs4DC, where we discussed the use of social media in crisis. You can listen to it, along with all other podcasts here.

I gave the vote of thanks at the Maggie Nally Lecture, in the House of Lords to Bessie Lee, the inspirational Head of WPP for China.

I was also really honoured to be asked to judge the finals of Debating Matters. The CIPR has been involved in judging the regional heats, and I am very grateful to the chairs and members of the CIPR Corporate and Financial Group and the CIPR Public Affairs Group, who are both sponsoring our involvement. It reminded me again of the power of debate and how if we encourage our young people to think independently, read widely and communicate effectively we’ll build a great future for Public Relations.

Many thanks also to the CIPR Northern Ireland committee, the Public Relations Institute of Ireland and the Public Relations Consultants Association of Ireland for their very warm welcome in Belfast, for the CIPR NI Media Awards and in Dublin, for the PRII and PRCA Excellence in PR Awards.

As the sun shines through the window of my train, I hope it will be shining on the deck of the SS Great Britain, in Bristol on 13 July, where the CIPR will be holding its National AGM. I do hope to see many of you there.

............................................................WELCOME TO THE PRESIDENT’S SECOND QUARTER REPORT FOR 2015............................................................

// Debating Matters 2015

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CIPR PRESIDENT'S REPORT Q2 2015

Over the last three months the CIPR has taken a number of steps to make membership as relevant to the needs of working professionals as possible.

We have signed agreements with a number of large employers, bringing their public relations and communications staff into membership – including McDonalds, Home Retail Group, the Office of the Public Guardian, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, The Valuation Office Agency and Newcastle City Council.

To ensure that members know about the full range of benefits which come with joining the CIPR, a new flyer has been created, detailing all the benefits of membership. It is being sent out to members as their subscription comes up for renewal.

Many members have told us we’re sending too many emails, so in April we introduced new software to help us consolidate our outgoing messages. You will have started to receive emails in the new format, combining updates from your chosen Groups with news and information from the CIPR head office. As is often the case, there have been some teething troubles with the software, but I hope you are all now getting the correct communications.

We understand the importance of supporting members mid-career and I am delighted that we have now accepted a second cohort of twenty members into our Senior Practitioner Mentoring Scheme. Demand for this scheme continues to be very strong, with many of you offering to be mentors and many applying to be mentees, thank you. We will be expanding the scheme over the coming year.

............................................................MAKING MEMBERSHIP MORE MEANINGFUL TO CLIENTS AND EMPLOYERS............................................................

// CIPR Code of Conduct

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CIPR PRESIDENT'S REPORT Q2 2015

In May we decided to abolish a regulation dating back to a previous era, which meant that any CIPR member who declared themselves bankrupt automatically had their membership terminated. This seems unnecessarily harsh in the modern world, and in future, termination will only occur when it can be shown that the member acted outside our Code of Conduct.

It is vitally important that our training and qualifications reflect the needs of the profession, so earlier in the year we commissioned a piece of research from Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, into future skills needs in the PR profession. We have now received this study and it will guide the steps we take in reforming our syllabus and updating our programmes. In fact it is on the board’s agenda for this month.

In the coming quarter – we will be starting the syllabus review, introducing new student membership benefits and forming an editorial board for our new members’ magazine.

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Over the last couple of months we have spoken out to defend communications professionals working in both local government and in the police. Both were the subject of attacks by the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which placed stories arguing that communication with the public is a waste of money, diverting funds from front-line services.

We have also taken a stand on the principle of self-regulation of lobbying. Some years ago we formed the UK Public Affairs Council (UKPAC) together with the Public Relations Consultants’ Association (PRCA) and the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC). Both organisations have now withdrawn from UKPAC and both now operate registers only of their own members. The CIPR remains committed to the principle of a public register of lobbyists which is:

Ÿ universal - covers as many people engaged in lobbing as possibleŸ open - to lobbyists who are not CIPR membersŸ free - for lobbyists to register themselves and for the public to use

For these reasons we announced the launch of the UK Lobbying Register (UKLR, following the closure of UKPAC at the end of June.

I took part in the FutureComms 15 conference along with Past President Stephen Waddington and robustly disputed the notion that we are here to ‘tell a version of the truth’ not ‘the truth’. It was a shame that the conference did not live up to its name. But I was pleased to have the opportunity to hack the panel I was chairing and introduce a woman to an all-male line up. If you are putting on any talks or conferences, please work hard to have a gender balance. I have been delighted with the number of people who have come forward with ideas about how to respond to the future in PR and communications, more about that next quarter.

............................................................STANDING UP FOR A PROFESSION CONFIDENT IN ITS HIGH STANDARDS AND ABLE TO DEMONSTRATE ITS VALUES............................................................

// FutureComms 15

CIPR PRESIDENT'S REPORT Q2 2015

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CIPR membership should represent a conscious choice by individuals identifying with our ethics and values. This is the foundation on which the future of our profession will be built. Therefore, from 1 April we have stopped requiring people to become CIPR members in order to study for our qualifications - it is now optional, as it always should be.

We’ve been thinking a lot about how our members’ work adds value to their clients and employers, and how our activities as a professional body support this value exchange. As a result we have published our first ever annual report set out on the principles of . This places Integrated Reportingthe CIPR among the earliest adopters of Integrated Reporting worldwide. It also makes us the first professional body in the UK outside the field of accountancy to produce an Integrated Report.

Finally, if you have received a new Membership Benefits leaflet in recent weeks, or seen the new qualifications brochure, or advertisements in the Independent, you may have noticed that we are introducing some new design elements into our brand. We believe this new look supports our energetic and forward-looking ethos. I hope you agree.

In the coming quarter I will be continuing my tour of the UK, visiting many groups in the summer and early autumn. I look forward to talking about ethics, professionalism and standards and to hearing from you.

CIPR PRESIDENT'S REPORT Q2 2015

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............................................................BUILDING TRUST IN OUR PRACTICE THROUGH THE CODE OF CONDUCT AND CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ............................................................

Our ambition for 2015 is to drive forward the number of members recording Continuous Professional Development (CPD), building on the steady progress we’ve made in recent years. We have made the simpler to use, as well as mobile-friendly so that members can CPD Ladder website easily record their learning on the way back from an event. Our national, regional and sector groups are enthusiastically supporting this drive for CPD and many are setting themselves ambitious targets to get more of their members recording CPD. I have been delighted with the number of groups who now have a CPD champion named on their committee.

We’ve continued to weave CPD into the fabric of our activities: from this year anyone wanting to judge the PRide Awards must be recording CPD to be eligible. We also recently amended our Regulations to make it a requirement in future for anyone applying to become a Fellow to be an Accredited Practitioner.

Last year we took part in Ethics Month, an initiative brought forward by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). We have now published the which were created as a result of the guidance notesround table meetings held at that time.

In parallel with taking over the lobbying register, we have recently produced detailed guidance on lobbying. Our Code of Conduct sets out generic principles for professional behaviour at a high level, and we intend to produce a number of more detailed pieces of supplementary guidance in the future. The lobbying guidance is the first of these.

In the coming quarter I am looking forward to holding an inaugural ‘Meet the President’ lunch for each winner of the PRide and Excellence Young Communicator of the Year awards since 2012. The initiative is the brainchild of Anne-Marie Bailey, winner of Young Communicator of the Year 2014 in the North East. She has proposed that we meet to talk about the challenges and opportunities for young communicators and to encourage them to get involved with CPD.

Finally, we are also preparing for the 2015 Ethics Month, which will takes place in September, and which I hope will involve activities from some of our national, regional and specialist sector groups.

// Anne-Marie Bailey, CIPR North East Young Communicator of the Year 2014

CIPR PRESIDENT'S REPORT Q2 2015

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As mentioned in my introduction, the CIPR is in its second year of sponsoring the highly successful national schools debating competition, Debating Matters, and a number of our members have been volunteering as judges in the regional rounds. I was involved in judging the National Finals at the British Library.

Our first Integrated Report has just been published and we have joined the steering group on training for Integrated Reporting, established by the . We are International Integrated Reporting Councilworking together with partners in other countries to develop a training programme to help other organisations transition to Integrated Reporting.

We have been involved in two initiatives to do with risk management. We supported a new publication on from Tomorrow’s Company, and we hosted a round table discussion with PARN on Risk Leadership Risk in Professional Bodies.

Adapting to technological change is another example of a cross industry issue. In May we hosted a cross-sector group of professional bodies who meet regularly in the Digital Leadership Forum. Our Chief Executive also presented a paper on behalf of the CIPR at the Ashridge International Research Conference on the impact of robotics on the working lives of professionals.

In April we commented on a report from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants on how companies need to value their intangible assets, and we are currently taking part in a benchmarking exercise with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

In June we also joined forces with the PRCA to protest against proposed changes to EU Copyright Law which will effectively end our freedom to take and distribute photographs of buildings for commercial use. Much of Europe already enjoys ‘Freedom of Panorama’ but if the proposals are not changed by the European parliament, they will hugely restrict how PR professionals can use photography in their work. We have been working to raise the alarm on this question with a broad coalition of interested parties, and are hopeful of securing a modification in the proposed law.

In the next quarter, we will be continuing to work with co-collaborators. I am delighted to be jointly hosting the CIPR/NUJ late summer garden party in the Cotswolds in partnership with Louise Tickle, a winner of the CIPR Education and Skills Journalist of the Year award and I am constantly encouraged by the number of other organisations, journalists and individuals who have come to us to ask for our advice, or comment on our work on gender pay, flexible working and agile working. In the coming quarter we will be continuing to use our expertise in these areas to start conversations with other bodies.

............................................................REACHING AUDIENCES BEYOND THE INDUSTRY............................................................

// Debating Matters judging

CIPR PRESIDENT'S REPORT Q2 2015