The General Teaching Council for Scotland turned 40 in 2005 and needs to look long and hard at communication and the challenges it poses for a regulatory body. Glenise Borthwick reports.
Professional Regulatory bodies do not make for good Press and are often only thought about by their membership when sensational stories hit the media.
Organisations such as the General Medical Council, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, or the General Teaching Councils do not make for “sexy” headlines and their day-to-day business of supporting and educating their membership is not exciting.
And that is what makes the whole issue of communication with a compulsory regulatory body so hard.
Most members pay their fees and have little understanding of what the organisation does on their behalf. Often the only points of contact are paying the annual fee, a change of address or a run in with the professional practice department through misconduct or a criminal conviction.
That is where the media steps in and that is how stories such as the Shipman case impacted so very hard on the General Medical Council. It eventually influenced not only members’ perceptions of their organisation but the very running and structure of that organisation.
No amount of perception audits, focus groups or interviews with key stakeholders will change the image that remains of professional bodies, an image we all have. Professional bodies exist to regulate. That is how standards in the professions are maintained and often enhanced because structures are in place that act as a gatekeeper to the profession, be it for a teacher a doctor or a dentist. It is just that sometimes a criminal can be a teacher or a dentist or a surveyor and sometimes, not often it has to be said, they let the profession down. The regulatory body cannot always prevent the behaviour.
Professional bodies do not exist only to award qualifications but to ensure that once a doctor or accountant is in employment they will maintain a standard, a code of conduct and a level of acceptability in their profession. It is a kite mark that patients or parents or customers can rely on.
So why then do members of these organisations react so badly to communications they receive from these organisations and what in fact should these communications look like? How do we sell a bad message?
How does the watchdog organisation improve its image? It is not easy but it can begin with a set of rules.
Then the organisation needs to think hard about its publications and messages.
Regulation is a serious business so the publications have to reflect that. The members’ magazine is vital for reaching all of members and telling them what the organisation does and why it does it. It is not a publication showing staff at events on behalf of the members, smiling at the camera with a glass of wine in their hand. Image is everything and it is important to think long and hard about what every picture in the magazine and on the website says about the organisation. Too flippant and there will be complaints, too serious and there will be concerns.
Everything starts and finishes with the word “regulation”.
Despite all the other good works, what a regulator does is the starting point. So for a communicator there is the need to emphasise the good, explain the difficult or the unpopular and make sure to hide nothing. There might be long sleepless nights worrying about an image for a leaflet on disciplinary procedures, or endless coffees while trying to write a Press release that reacts to a sensational headline in The Sun. And there will be headaches over trying to explain in the members’ magazine that not all teachers have relationships with under 16s and regulatory bodies keep their professions safe and respected.
Communication in the world of regulation is a challenge and that is why it’s exciting and different every day. Like every other job in communication it can be about talking to the membership about minutes and committees and meetings.
But the good days are when you can answer the difficult questions, convince your membership that there is a point to your organisation and attend an event when you meet your membership and you get talking about the things that matter, if you’re really lucky you’ll even get an article for your member’s magazine.
You’ll have interaction and contact and in the end that’s what matters. The organisation is talking to the membership and you begin to understand each other. Communication means just about everything, even for professional regulators.
After 40 years of regulation, the General Teaching Council for Scotland is still trying new ways to talk to its membership of 80,000 teachers and getting them to at least respect us even if they can never love us!
Regulators’ rules for communicating well
- Be open and accountable
- Have clear pathways of communication for members and the public
- Talk to the Press and respond quickly
- Give out good news stories, do not only react to the bad
- Get out and talk to the membership, do not hide behind paper and websites
- Put a face or faces to the organisation
- Do not hide the dirty linen. If someone is removed from the register publish it, be seen to clean up the profession
- Do not try to be something the organisation just cannot be, be a regulator and do it well
- Be supportive to members, inform them of the risks before they happen
- Tell what the organisation does and do it often
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