Budget allocated for marketing, communications, and advertising across all council departments - Find a freedom of information request

Please provide the following information for the financial years 2022/2023 and 2021/2022:

1. The specific budget allocated for marketing, communications, and advertising across all council departments.

2. The total amount spent against the budget for marketing, communications, and advertising as provided in point 1.

3. A budget and spend report showing specific recruitment advertising providers.

4. The budget and actual cost for subscriptions and membership fees.

5. The cost to produce and distribute the authority's County News print magazine.

Promotion of services

·         2021/2022: from an allocated budget of £260,890, a total of £135,507.63 was spent.

·         2022/2023: from an allocated budget of £186,893, a total of £80,468 was spent.

Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) do not have a specific marketing department in the council. Expenditure in this area covers a wide variety of services and projects – some examples include website development and maintenance/renewal, specific projects like communication and translations for recycling stream roll-out in Boston, fire and rescue fire alerters and radio communications, LCC enrolment forms, learner handbooks, renewal of management systems for adult learning, etc.

Advertising

·         2021/2022: from a budget of £624,455, a total of £289,016.46 was spent.

·         2022/2023: from a budget of £614,034, a total of £464,499.69 was spent.

This expenditure covers recruitment advertising as well as statutory public notices placed in print newspapers and other publications.  

Cost of specific recruitment advertising providers

·         2021/2022: Sum of £29,022 spent through Total Jobs.

·         2022/2023: Sum of £11,950 spent through jobs Go Public.

This expenditure is through LCC’s online advertising package managed by its recruitment team. Any recruitment beyond this (printed or online) is purchased by hiring managers and is paid from their individual budgets (forms part of the answer to questions above) – these might include senior posts where additional advertising takes place in national media to attract necessary high calibre candidates.

Subscriptions

·         2021/2022: from a budget of £678,431, expenditure on subscriptions was £839,077.29.

·         2022/2023: from a budget of £777,189, expenditure on subscriptions was £1,127,039.75.

This expenditure covers many different service areas, with subscriptions to influential national bodies including in Education, highways and fire and rescue, plus associations with influential regional bodies like the East Midlands Council. Every member of staff who is eligible is reimbursed for one professional subscription. Any expenditure in excess of the budget as in this case, is offset/funded by the substantial underspends in other areas seen elsewhere in the figures shown.

Membership Fees

·         2021/2022: a total of £1,078.47 was spent (no specific budget allocated).

·         2022/2023: a total of £4,232.45 was spent (no specific budget allocated).

This includes membership to key national bodies such as the Local Government Association, County Council Network where Lincolnshire needs to be represented and have its say on key national issues regarding local government, including funding for key services.

County News – cost to produce and distribute

·         2021/2022: a total of £186,627.22 was spent on three editions per year.

·         2022/2023: a total of £223,093.11 was spent on three editions per year.

County News is produced three times a year and distributed to 360,000 homes and businesses throughout the county (equates to less than 19 pence per copy). It provides residents and businesses in all areas of our county with important information about council services and support. The reason for the increase in cost from 2021/2022 to 2022/2023 was due mainly to an increase in the cost of paper.