The Performance Scrutiny Committee - Place and Corporate is scheduled to meet to discuss the Corporate Communications Performance Report, and to review actions arising from previous meetings, the forward work programme, and outcomes monitoring.

Corporate Communications Performance

The committee is scheduled to discuss the Corporate Communications Performance Report. The report provides an overview of the performance and key activities of the Corporate Communications Team, focusing on advancements made over the last two financial years, and plans for 2025/26, and longer-term objectives.

The Corporate Communications Team is part of the People, Policy and Transformation service area. According to the report, recent priorities have focused on enhancing the council's digital presence, strengthening engagement, and providing comprehensive support to service areas through a full-service communications approach.

The report states that the team's approach has supported the transition from a somewhat informal approach to communications to a full-service approach, developing comprehensive communications support tailored to the needs of the organisation and service areas, aligned with corporate priorities, including:

• Proactive and reactive communication
• Marketing and campaign management
• Design
• Web and digital communications

The report also notes that the team has sought to improve understanding across the authority of the importance of effective communication and raise awareness of how and when to engage with the service to ensure maximum effect.

The corporate communications team comprises several key areas:

• Communications: Media liaison, proactive PR campaigns, Newport Matters, crisis management and social media.
• Website and digital communications: Supporting the corporate website project and developing digital communications content.
• Content creation: Advancement of content creation for social media, and analysis of social media trends and performance.
• Marketing: Campaigns, advertising and marketing collateral.
• Graphic Design: Providing a full range of design services.
• Photography and filming services

The report also details how the communication team engages with other service areas, and the responsibilities of all service areas for facilitating timely communication.

The report states that key communication deliverables are detailed and reported on within the People, Policy and Transformation service plan, and that the team also report on a number of key performance indicators (KPIs) including social media followers and proactive output.

The report identifies key project focus areas for the department, including:

• Website: Moving to a purpose-designed platform with user experience-led design and future-ready features.
• Social media and content creation: A focus on a new digital content approach coupled with dedicated resource and upskilling of the team has resulted in improved reach and impact via social media channels.
• Campaigns and marketing: Major campaigns include the Food Festival, Newport Music Trail, Festive Newport, waste and recycling and carbon reduction initiatives.
• Embedding communications in the organisation's approach and structure: Ensuring communications representation on key project groups and boards, partnerships and initiatives, to ensure all opportunities for communication and maximised.

The report also identifies opportunities and challenges for the department, and notes that there are opportunities to take a fresh approach to communications as demonstrated in the recent advancements in content creation and web development, which also align with the council's aspirations within the corporate plan¹, digital strategy and customer contact review action plan.

The committee may consider how the department measures whether communication projects are achieving their intended goals, and in what ways feedback from performance reviews influence planning and improvement efforts.

Councillor Emma Stowell-Corten, Cabinet Member for Communications, Rhys Cornwall, Strategic Director – Transformation and Corporate, Tracy McKim, Head of People, Policy and Transformation, Kate Osment, Strategic Communication Manager and Janice Dent, Policy and Partnership Manager have been invited to attend for this item.

Scrutiny Adviser Report

Neil Barnett, Scrutiny Adviser, is scheduled to present a report to the committee, which includes:

Action Plan

The committee is asked to note the responses for the actions, determine if any further information or action is required, and agree to receive an update on outstanding issues at the next meeting.

The Action Sheet includes updates on actions from previous meetings. Actions that do not have a response will be included on the Action Sheet at the next meeting.

Some of the outstanding actions include:

• Updates on how the riverfront and wider river assets are being utilised within the Placemaking Plan², and whether partnerships with local organisations such as sailing clubs, are being actively developed and involved in future planning.
• Additional dates for Member visits to the Transporter Bridge Visitor Centre.
• Clarification on the definition of a resolved case for anti-social behaviour (ASB) and further performance measures on case resolution and response times.
• A review of street cleaning operations in areas with high vehicle density and whether smaller equipment can be deployed more effectively in tight spaces.
• Officers to review the marking of incomplete actions (due by March 2025) that are currently marked as green in the report and ensure accurate status updates are in place.
• Detailed information on the financial support and resources currently allocated to footway maintenance and improvement, especially in rural areas.
• A review investment criteria to expand active travel funding beyond parks, creating more safe, accessible spaces for cycling and walking, and improve coordination of existing cycling schemes to enhance and encourage safety.

Forward Work Programme

The committee is asked to consider the Draft Forward Work Programme for the year 2025-26, and asked whether there are any amendments to the topics scheduled to be considered at the next committee meeting, whether there are any additional invitees that the committee requires to fully consider the topics, and whether there is any additional information that the committee would like to request.

Outcomes Monitoring

The committee is asked to note the responses given by Officers and Cabinet Members to recommendations made by the committee.

The Outcomes Monitoring table is being presented as part of this monitoring process.

The following process is in place for recommendations and outcomes monitoring activity:

• Recommendations are made by the committee and presented to Officers and Cabinet Members.
• Officers and Cabinet Members provide responses to the recommendations made by the committee
• The responses are collected by the Scrutiny Advisor and presented to committee as soon as possible.

Some of the recommendations include:

• Clearer guidance on expected response times for fly-tipping and ASB incidents to reduce perceived delays.
• Improving flexibility within the household waste booking system, such as allowing users to edit bookings once they have already been made, and that the My Newport team are made aware of issues, such as when bookings do not show up on the devices of staff at the Civic Amenity Site³.
• Greater promotion of successful enforcement actions, such as littering and fly tipping fines, to improve public confidence, and guidance for ward councillors on how to share and highlight these results locally.
• Further coordination between Wastesavers⁴ and Cleansing teams to align bin collection and street cleaning to reduce residual litter.
• A citywide review of traffic calming measures, noting recurring issues in some areas, proposing a consultation process involving ward councillors and residents to identify local priorities, potentially through a task force or structured feedback approach.
• That the action to develop a feedback mechanism for the Registrar's Office should be listed as a separate action in the Service Plan, and progress on this should be reported at the Mid -Year Review, as the feedback mechanism for the Coroner's Service is complete but the Registrar's webpage is still outstanding.
• That the Members' training programme action be marked as complete (green), as the programme has been devised, consultation carried out, and only the final report is outstanding.
• That the Recruitment and Retention Update report from People Policy and Transformation for the 16th February 2026 committee meeting include a breakdown of staff turnover reasons by service areas, supported by data from exit interviews.
• Providing regular updates and more detailed information about green spaces and parks on the Council website, beyond just event listings.
• Using a clearer metric for measuring apprenticeships in future reports, specifically the number of apprentices per 1,000 employees.
• That, given the direction of travel in Asset Management, consideration should be given to clarify the resources required to deliver against the asset management objectives.