TranslateOur Approach
We want to make sure people have a clear understanding of North Ayrshire Council’s operations, priorities and challenges and recognise the Council as a reputable and innovative local authority.
We will communicate with those who matter the most - the people, partners and communities we serve, the people we employ and those we do business with. By facilitating conversations and actively encouraging feedback, we will help shape future service transformation and improve service delivery.
All our communications activities are fully aligned to support the delivery of the North Ayrshire Council Plan, ensuring our key audiences and stakeholders have a shared understanding of North Ayrshire Council’s vision, values, ambitions and performance.
Our Standards
The style and standard of our communications reflects the culture of our Council and reveal who we are, what we value and our direction of travel - these are detailed within our Media Protocol.
All communications issued by the Council – both internal and external – are:
- Open and honest – Plain talking and direct as well as truthful and factual.
- Timely – Up-to-date information communicated regularly, consistently and quickly.
- Clear and concise – Easy to understand and jargon free.
- Accessible – Easy to access through online and traditional channels.
- Relevant – Targeted at the needs of the intended audience.
- Inclusive – Designed to encourage and value discussion and feedback, with information available in formats suitable for people with disabilities and in a variety of languages.
Our Core Principles
We will be driven by the following principles which will frame how we work and prioritise what we do.
- Digital by default – placing the strongest emphasis of our work on digital and social media activity. This increases efficiency, reduces costs and is environmentally friendly. Acknowledging the diversity of our population, a range of communications methods are deployed to reach all our audiences, including those with limited or no digital access.
- Insight-driven – based on what we know our customers and stakeholders want.
- Focused on audiences rather than policies.
- Fully evaluated – so that we can tell what is working well and what needs to be improved.
- Innovative – continually reviewing and testing our approach to ensure we deliver the right message, at the right time, in the right format.
- Collaborative – working with internal and external partners to foster a culture of shared understanding and collective goals.
Our Corporate Communications offering
Marketing Campaigns
Our multi-media marketing campaigns are recognised for their visual impact, sharp design, clear and compelling messaging and plain language. They reinforce the Council’s vision and mission and align with Council Plan priorities. They build awareness of Council policy and decisions and promote Council services. Each strategic campaign is evaluated for impact against objectives, using a range of analytic tools, with the results fed back to services to inform future work.
We are committed to ensuring that corporate communications materials are inclusive and available in a variety of formats that meet the needs of the intended audiences.
Our team designs graphics for social media, web and print. We create engaging videos from storyboarding and script writing to filming, voice overs, editing and subtitling. We take high quality photography at media calls and other Council events. This multi-faceted service allows us to showcase the diversity of people and work that takes place in our area.
Our team is also the custodians of the Council brand and ensures all marketing and communication materials and channels maintain a consistent brand identity that reflects the council’s values, leadership role and tone of voice.
Social Media and Digital Communications
Our digital channels form the backbone of our communications offering. They are easily the most effective, economical, and efficient means of sharing information and engaging with wide audience groups. Since we began our social media journey in 2009, we have built up a substantial social media audience and now directly engage with over 60,000 users across our corporate X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and LinkedIn accounts.
We continue to diversify the platforms we use and are alert to the shifting social media landscape that we encounter. We will continue to review and monitor the performance of our channels and adapt our offering when necessary. Appendix 1 details our evidence-based Social Media Management Plan, which sets out how each of our six corporate channels delivers targeted messaging which meets the needs of our distinctive audience profiles.
We support Services to create their own accounts where there is a clear need and have created a strong family of social media accounts across the Council providing best practice, advice and guidance.
Media Relations
We have sound relations with the media, founded on the principles of fairness and honesty, which allow us to rigorously promote and protect the Council’s reputation. We provide a full proactive media service - producing a constant flow of media releases and photocalls for local, regional, national and sectoral/specialist media outlets.
And we also offer a full reactive media service - responding to incoming media inquiries, ensuring that they are answered accurately, factually and timeously, reflecting the Council’s position.
Our Team provides public relations services for the Ayrshire Growth Deal, Ayrshire Regional Economic Strategy and the 5G Innovation Regions programme, which includes writing partnership press releases, organising media calls, event and conference support, social media content including videography and photography and copywriting for brochures and web.
VIP Visits and Corporate Events
Our team is responsible for providing communications support for all Council events, organising photocalls, issuing press releases, filming and photography and managing publicity and marketing materials for all Council services including the Provost’s Civic and Ceremonial events.
Filming requests
With a stunning coastline and breath taking scenery, North Ayrshire is one of the most scenic locations across Britain. As such, we welcome requests to film on land owned by the Council. These range from small scale student films to larger productions involving dozens of crew, actors and vehicles. Working alongside colleagues from services such as Legal, Estates, Roads and Streetscene, we make arrangements to allow the production to take place, bringing positive exposure to North Ayrshire. As part of the filming approval process, we ensure that the production will not damage the reputation of the Council or the area, while also ensuring minimum inconvenience for neighbours.
We have also introduced a trial charging schedule, with a sliding scale for commercial operators starting from £100, which covers the administrative costs of facilitating film crews. We will monitor this scheme, with a view to formalising this arrangement during 2026/2027.
Emergency Communications
Local authorities have a statutory duty to warn and inform the public during significant incidents such as severe weather. In times of crisis, it is vital that the public and staff are provided with timely information to minimise impacts and support recovery.
Our on-call media service operates around the clock every day of the year to provide crisis communications support in the event of emergency situations. This involves: liaising with journalists to ensure accurate information is provided to media outlets; posting news alerts on our social media channels and website to provide service updates: giving advice and signposting to partner agencies, providing Elected Member briefings; and issuing staff alerts to ensure employee safety.
Our ‘Civil Contingencies Media & Communications Plan’ sets out how we work with multi-agency partners to communicate with the public and other stakeholders during a major incident to provide information in a transparent and accountable way. It is designed to help ensure that co-ordinated, accurate, consistent and trusted information is provided at all times.
Internal Communications
Every member of staff must understand their role as representatives of the Council and how their interactions with our customers help form that person’s impression and opinion of the whole organisation, a task ever more important since the introduction of the ‘No Wrong Door’ approach.
Our workforce can only fulfil their responsibilities if they have a clear understanding of the Council’s plans and how their work contributes to these priorities.
That’s why we place such high importance on getting our internal communications with staff right. We have a suite of channels we use to regularly communicate with staff and elected members, which comprise:
- weekly News in Brief emails,
- quarterly Staff Talk e-magazine editions,
- our Staff News website, accessible for all employees whether in-office or based remotely
- North Ayrshire News, a dedicated quarterly newsletter for Elected Members ensuring they are kept up-to-date with service information and
- our weekly media round-up which allows elected members, chief officers and locality officers to see the local stories we have been promoting or press inquiries we have responded to. It also highlights the best performing social media posts.
Insight and Evaluation
We need to be able to show clear links between the communications activity we undertake and the difference this makes to the lives of North Ayrshire’s people and communities. This is why we monitor and evaluate all the work we carry out, sharing this intelligence with Services. This allows us to demonstrate impact and provides insight for continual improvement in the Communications offering we provide.
Highlights from 2024-2025
Corporate Social Media Platforms
Our corporate social media platforms continue to grow steadily and attract new followers:
- Over 8.2 million impressions across all corporate social media channels
- 5,674 new follows
- 423,180 engagements
Internal communications
Staff are kept informed through our Staff News website and via our weekly News in Brief update:
- 151,071 unique page views on Staff News
- 51,146 unique page views on News in Brief
- 6,949 unique page views on Staff Talk quarterly online magazine
Press and Media Inquiries
The Media and Internal Communications Team continue to provide an efficient media service:
- 310 proactive press releases
- 389 press inquiries
- 17 filming requests
Storm Eowyn
Our residents were kept informed and regular updates were shared on our social media channels and in the media.
- 82 posts
- 917,371 impressions
- 5,375 engagements
- 8 proactive press releases
- 24 press inquiries
Budget Engagement
There was extensive promotion of the budget engagement surveys which involved a combination of five online surveys with paper copies available in leisure facilities and libraries.
4,471 responses were received and this is the highest number of responses received for a budget engagement exercise.
EQUAL Bike Upcycling Programme
The boke initiative was promoted on social media to encourage people to donate unwanted bikes so that they could be serviced, cleaned up and offered for free to members of the community who cannot afford to buy their own.
- 55 enquiries were received from people who needed a bike or wanted to donate.
- 110 bikes have been donated.
- 30 bikes have been handed out to within the community.
Key activities for 2024-2025
Our Communications activity has been aligned to support the delivery of the Council Plan and its four priorities. The sections below set out our strategic communications activities for the year and how we aim to position the Council’s priorities with our key stakeholders.
To achieve net-zero by 2030.
Key Communications Activity
Develop a programme of case studies which highlight the work undertaken to deliver the Climate Change priority focussing on energy, nature, transport, waste and adaptation – ongoing update of project work including schools and carbon literacy training
Promote the launch of power generation at Nethermains and Shewalton solar PV farms. Continue to promote the Community Renewable Energy Generation fund in assisting community groups develop their own green energy and support the introduction of locality Community Climate Action Plans.
In partnership with Zero Waste Scotland promote the impact of the Islands Net Zero Accelerator in helping island businesses embrace new technology and reduce their environmental impact, ensuring alignment with the ambitions of the refreshed Islands Plans.
Support and promote the implementation of a Household Waste Recycling Centre booking system and the separate arrangements for the kerbside collection of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) such as sofas.
Communicate the importance that nature and biodiversity play in climate change. Promote the progress of North Ayrshire’s Nature Network and our Tree Planting Strategy.
Promote the benefits of our growing active travel network, the expansion of the EV charging network and progress towards decarbonisation of the Council fleet.
Ensure Community Wealth Building is embedded in all communications so there is a clear line of sight between our economic approach and achieving a just and fair energy transition towards a wellbeing economy.
Promote awareness of a new pilot project to develop a battery storage scheme in non-domestic buildings to maximise the use of existing roof mounted solar PV, helping support local energy networks.
Continued promotion of domestic energy efficiency projects such as Area Based Scheme, Energy Smart and Eco4 Flex.
Support and promote the implementation of the Local Coastal Change Adaptation Plans in addressing the impacts caused by coastal processes and how we manage future risk.
Promotion of the journey to become a circular economy where we maximise reuse, recycle, repair and recovery of resources. Promote the introduction of the new Litter, Dog Fouling and Fly tipping Strategy including North Ayrshire’s successful LitterLotto prize draw.
Report on climate change policy decisions, milestone moments in project delivery, promote support schemes to tackle fuel poverty and help with energy efficiency and promote changes to service delivery, including schools and carbon literacy training.
What Climate Change looks like for us
- Engaged communities and businesses playing their part in contributing to the Council’s journey to become net zero.
- Public awareness of the activities and actions the Council is carrying out to reduce its carbon emissions.
- Residents informed about how to access help and support to become greener and alleviate fuel poverty.
- Encouraging behaviour change for businesses and communities to make active and informed choices about reducing waste, minimising carbon footprints and becoming nature positive.
- Showcasing civic leadership in helping to drive down area-wide emissions such as delivering a sustainable construction programme, building green and active transport networks and supporting climate conscious communities.
To transition to a wellbeing economy, delivery prosperity, wellbeing, and resilience for local people.
Key Communications Activity
Promotion of the capital investment programme comprising:
- the educational estate including the delivery of the new Ardrossan Community Campus
- the Council’s ambitious house building and improvement programme
- infrastructure projects including i3 phase 2, roads, street lighting, flood protection works, bridges and active travel projects and
- investment into open spaces including play parks, cemeteries, war memorials, playing fields, residential greenspace, promenades and beaches.
Develop a programme of case studies which highlight the work undertaken to deliver the Wellbeing priority.
Continue to highlight cost-of-living supports including the work to tackle child poverty and support the uptake of benefits and financial advice.
Support and promote the work of the Collaborating for Health Equity in Scotland (CHES) programme in its aim to accelerate action to improve Scotland’s health, increase wellbeing and reduce health inequalities.
Highlight the work of the Fairer Futures Partnership.
Support the Financial Inclusion Partnership in developing a communications plan for 2025 to promote North Ayrshire Financial Inclusion services.
Lead strategic communications across Ayrshire in promoting the Ayrshire Growth Deal. Refine communications plans to ensure alignment with the programme review and continue to promote milestone moments for North Ayrshire’s Growth Deal projects.
Showcase the achievements of the Community Wealth Building programme as funding concludes in March and continue to champion this approach in delivering a wellbeing economy.
Lead strategic communications for the Ayrshire Regional Economic Strategy including support for the delivery of an annual RES economic conference and bespoke website.
Promote the pan Ayrshire opportunities presented by the 5G Innovations Regions programme.
Support and promote the delivery of a consultation on a proposed Visitor Levy.
Support and deliver place promotion including North Ayrshire’s inward investment offering, develop visitor and tourism campaigns showcasing the area’s attractions and featuring local businesses.
Promote the refreshed This is North Ayrshire website which includes a new property section listing the Council’s available commercial space and land for let.
Promote the employability supports in place for businesses and ensure North Ayrshire is recognised as a fair work economy.
Promote the achievements and attainments of our young people and the pathways into sustained positive destinations. Continue to promote the work of MCR Pathways in mentoring our young people
Highlight the opportunities offered through lifelong learning and skills training pipelines.
Provide communications support for the Health and Social Care Partnership to ensure information is provided to those in most need.
What Wellbeing looks like for us
- Pioneers of Community Wealth Building.
- Advocates for an inclusive, wellbeing economy which works for people and planet.
- The place where businesses are supported to grow and prosper. Attractive places and spaces for companies, communities, and visitors.
- Delivering a £331M capital investment programme which drives forward regeneration of our communities and creates the right conditions for sustainable economic growth and a wellbeing economy.
- Championing a lifelong learning approach with clear career pathways and positive destinations where everyone has the opportunity to play their part in building a prosperous North Ayrshire.
- Clear signposting routes are promoted to encourage the uptake of entitlements and benefit supports available to alleviate cost-of-living pressures.
- Residents most in need of support have clear routes to access health and wellbeing services.
We will have active, inclusive and resilient communities.
Key Communications Activity
Following the review of Locality Planning, support the launch of a refreshed community planning approach ensuring residents and partners understand the benefits and opportunities this offers communities. Support the Community Planning Partnership conference.
Expand and embed the No Wrong Door approach across the Council and Community Planning Partners.
Support work which reinforces safety messaging and showcases the work being carried out to protect our communities in relation to trading standards, antisocial behaviour, gender-based violence, road safety, fire safety and the Safer Shores summer safety campaign.
Continue to raise awareness of the array of work being undertaken by Council services to tackle child poverty and the cost-of-living, revealing the impact this work delivers to communities. Promote the virtual community directory which supports residents in crisis. Continue the Council’s active support of Challenge Poverty Week.
Continue to support the principle and process of Community Asset Transfers and the benefits of locally-based community ownership showcasing achievements and successes.
Support the five year refresh of the Arran and Cumbrae Island Plans promoting the actions and outcomes.
Support the Scottish Parliamentary Islands Economy Showcase event to highlight the best of our island businesses.
Provide event, media and marketing support for the COHIE conference.
Continue to promote the wide range of arts, cultural and heritage experiences North Ayrshire has to offer residents and visitors.
Develop a programme of case studies which highlight the work undertaken to deliver the Community and Local Democracy priority.
Promote the variety of place-based community funding opportunities including the Community Investment Fund and Participatory Budgeting (including youth PB), to maximise uptake and further empower communities to grasp the opportunity of doing things for themselves and their communities.
Ensure our communications are inclusive and actively support all residents including our young people, care experienced, new Scots, refugees, elderly, vulnerable and those with protected characteristics.
Continue our commitment to the UNCRC, working across all services to ensure young people’s rights, youth voice and participation are at the forefront of everything we do.
Highlight the ongoing progress in delivering the Community Learning and Development Plan 2024-2027.
What Communities and Local Democracy looks like for us
- Easily accessible and user-friendly public services.
- Showcasing best practice and highlighting the inspirational work that empowered local communities are carrying out.
- Demonstrating community wealth building in action delivering real results for local communities.
- Active and vibrant cultural heritage scene for residents and visitors to enjoy.
- Informed communities who are aware of the signposting routes and channels to access local information for funding and other supports.
- Ensuring all residents have the opportunity to have their voices heard and can play an active role in contributing and participating in their communities.
A Community Wealth Building Council that is efficient and accessible, maximising investment and focusing resources on our priorities.
Key Communications Activity
Promote and encourage people to use their vote and ensure residents are well informed about the election process. Develop a communications plan for the 2026 Scottish Parliamentary elections.
Support a programme of early budget engagement ensuring our approach is inclusive and we secure participation from as wide a demographic as possible.
Continue to participate in resilience and civil contingency training and exercising, to ensure that the Communications Team is well placed to respond to incidents and emergencies including weather related issues and is able to fulfil its statutory duty to warn and inform the public.
Continue to support and promote the drive to encourage residents to transact online via our refreshed website.
Continue to provide a suite of internal communication channels to ensure staff and elected members are well informed and kept up-to-date about council news.
Promote Council income opportunities including uptake of advertising on roundabouts and the council fleet, commercial waste, hall and venue rental and Eglinton Country Park dog park.
To support the introduction of our refreshed approach to processing filming requests, actively promote North Ayrshire as an outstanding filming destination with key national filming organisations and production companies.
Continued participation on the National Communication Group to share learning, best practice and discuss issues and opportunities facing Scottish Local Authorities.
Promote the Council as an employer of choice and raise awareness of the range and quality of vacancies the Council has on offer and employee benefits staff can access.
Develop recruitment campaigns for seasonal workers.
Continue to deliver a public campaign which advocates treating staff with respect and dignity and promotes the commitments set out in UNISON’s Violence at Work Charter recognising the importance of staff safety.
Continue the series of staff and community engagement visits led by the Chief Executive and Council Leader where they learn about the work the Council is carrying out in communities.
Provide daily updates and monitoring of the Council’s six corporate social media accounts and continue support, guidance, and best practice updates for the Council’s networks of 120 social media accounts.
What a Sustainable Council looks like for us
- Delivering positive change and transformation to ensure our services are efficient and targeted towards priority areas.
- Clear evidence-based decision making which informs policy and draws on first-hand experiences of residents and communities.
- A good employer supportive of the living wage and fair employment practices.
- Well-managed and maintained customer communication channels, responsive to customers’ needs.
- Demonstrating innovation and best value by maximising the value of our assets.
Promotion of work that aligns with our visions, values and principles – our vision being that “All people who live in North Ayrshire are able to have a safe, healthy and active life”.
Key Communications Activity
Support Children’s Services to grow pathways of support for Care Experienced Children and Young People - including recruitment campaigns for Fostering, Supported Carers, Short Break Carers and to promote events and interventions designed to support our Care Experienced Community.
Updates on neuro developmental services, pathways and supports for Children and Adults, including the NEST service and new digital pathways.
Promotion of positive developments around children’s mental health, including the opening of the West Road facility in Irvine and the Foxgrove National Secure Adolescent Inpatient Service in Irvine.
Promote digital platforms and self-management tools that support health and wellbeing, including the NAHSCP Care and Support page, the NHS Ayrshire and Arran app and the Holly Health personalised behaviour change app, which is free to access for North Ayrshire residents.
Promotion of the new Money Smart service, which will provide free, impartial and confidential advice and support around welfare rights and debt to residents in North Ayrshire.
Promotion around the work of national and local missions to reduce drug and alcohol-related deaths, implementation of MAT Standards and access to Residential Rehabilitation services, as well as the work being done by local recovery groups and positive engagement actions led by North Ayrshire ADP in our schools and communities.
Recruitment promotion across services in the HSCP, particularly for difficult to fill roles and localities, as well as engagement and communication around service changes aligned to our proposals for 2025-2026.
Promotion of the expansion of our moving and handling base at Castleview to offer an equipment and technology hub for staff, carers and members of the public.
Communications Outcomes for NAHSCP
- Promotion of strategies, projects, services and engagement opportunities that will help us to enable our North Ayrshire communities.
- Promotion of recruitment, training, policies, strategies, events and opportunities that will help us to develop and support our workforce and promote health and social care as a career path.
- Promotion of activities, projects, services and strategies that will help us provide early and effective support to North Ayrshire residents.
- Promotion of activities, projects, services and strategies that will help us to improve the mental health and physical health and wellbeing of North Ayrshire residents.
- Promotion of strategies, projects, services and engagement opportunities that will enable us to tackle inequalities in North Ayrshire.