When I’m working with senior leaders and councillors I’m often asked how do I know that we are doing a good job with our communications. Equally Heads of Comms may know that professionally they are doing all the right things but they want to see how their performance matches up to others.

This is a particular issue for councils and fire authorities as budgets and audiences are very different from commercial sector. So being able to compare key metrics and approaches is critical and to do that you need the data collected across the sector in a systematic way.

For over 20 years this has been carried out first by Public PR and now by Seashell Communications on behalf of the LG Best Practice benchmarking club.

The Public Sector Benchmarking Survey 2022 is now open to all UK local authorities and fire and rescue authorities. It takes 20 min and looks at both strategic and tactical communications.

The survey is free to Heads of Communication to take part and in return you will receive a summary report of the findings. If you would like the full report please email to discuss joining the benchmarking club.

All responses will be treated confidentially. Information will be aggregated and anonymised in any public reports and processed in line with our privacy policy.