The National Cross Council Revenue Group has been operating for over a decade; sharing income generation best practice and ideas among members. However, with the budgetary pressures of recent years the drive to generate revenue and commercialise council operations has become ever more pressing.
The context
The Cross Council Revenue Group (CCRG) has been operating for over a decade; sharing income generation best practice and ideas amongst its members. However, with the budgetary pressures of recent years the drive to generate revenue and commercialise council operations has become ever more pressing. The group is administered through Knowledge Hub, the UK's largest public sector information sharing platform. Members are typically officers working in marketing, communications, sponsorship and advertising roles. West Sussex County Council’s took over the role as chair of the CCRG a little over a year ago and set out to increase the Group’s reach and impact. This included the ambition to bolster return on investment rates and value for money of UK councils responding to the challenges of austerity. A fundamental element of this was the desire to improve collaborative opportunities, grow business minded innovation and entrepreneurial thinking.
The plan
The strategic goals of the CCRG were, and remain, to help councils nationwide achieve better commercial outcomes. The plan to increase the reach of the group through growing the membership was a central tenet of this, with an ambitious 100% membership increase target for the first 18 months. The aim was also to extend and improve the group’s commercial style bi-annual conference as well as develop regional groups. As with any activity of this type, the more members there are the more ideas and knowledge is brought to the table.
The execution
In order to extend the group’s membership the benefits of becoming a member were promoted via a number of communications channels. Existing members were tasked with the goal of promoting the group to their organisation and wider networks. In order to keep engagement high, regular bulletins regarding upcoming events and salient topics are circulated amongst members. This collaborative approach also extends to organising the conferences. Knowledge Hub polls are utilised to allow the group to vote on topical subjects, and to decide upon the presenters and agenda format that they feel will add the most value at the conference.
In addition to this, in order to tease out the maximum revenue generation information possible from the group, periodic questionnaires are disseminated to the group, covering a number of topics. These range from broader brush questions about general revenue generating ideas to deep dives into member’s activity in areas such as outdoor media or priority marketing initiatives. In practise this not only results in greater collaboration opportunities, it also allows group activity to be captured in a robust evidential format.
The impact
Through the effective implementation of the strategy outlined above, the group has achieved a growth in membership of over 120% in a little over a year. There has been recognition of the increased influence of the CCRG and we have collaborated with the LGA and the various enterprise and commercialism programmes they operate such as the LGA’s Advanced Commercial Group; feedback from the ever growing membership remains positive. With challenging times ahead, and continuous improvement plans being implemented, the Group’s influence seems set to continue to grow.
Why it worked
There was clarity from the beginning about what the Group needed in order to continue to improve its offering to members as well as a continuing focus and drive to assist council officers to find the commercial solutions that will allow their authority to thrive amidst the continuing squeeze on local government budgets.
A wide range of success has been achieved for many members including greater knowledge of framework opportunities, beneficial problem solving ideas as well as jointly developing commercial training packages and new income initiatives
Lessons learned
Despite the progress made so far there are a number of lessons learned; one of these is the crucial role communication plays in group engagement. By improving the framing of group announcements and interactions, engagement has been improved and many councils have benefited from new income ideas.
Want to know more?
For more information contact Angela Redman (Tel: 03302222404).