Conference Agenda Oct 2021 PRINT - Flipbook - Page 36
further opened up by all roles becoming home-working,
encouraging candidates from across England & Wales. A
suite of new HR policies were approved by GPEx in late
2020 and a new staff training system came on-stream this
summer.
Whilst welcoming this huge progress in HR, we recognise
we have further to go – especially in encouraging and
supporting more people of colour to access rewarding
careers in the Green Party.
Another priority area for us has been safeguarding, building
on the new safeguarding policy adopted by the Green Party
in 2019 (see www.greenparty.org.uk/safeguarding). We
presented the 2020 annual review of the policy to GPEx in
November 2020 and will be working with the safeguarding
team (CEO Mary Clegg and Governance Officer Steph
Nissen) on the 2021 annual review this autumn. We pay
tribute to the hard work and professionalism of both
Mary and Steph in this critically important part of Party
life. Thanks to that work, Green Party governance bodies
have been offered safeguarding training from the NSPCC.
Embedding safeguarding awareness across the party is an
ongoing process and we will be developing a safeguarding
champions network as part of the 2021 safeguarding
policy review.
We serve on GPEx’s Administration and Finance Committee
(AFCOM), working with finance and GPRC colleagues to
ensure that the Party’s financial position remains sound.
We were particularly pleased to see GPEx adopt a budget
for 2021 shaped around the Green Party’s new Political
Strategy, targeting investment at the agreed priority of
winning new MPs at the next General Election. We continue
to champion a strategic and elections focused approach to
Green Party activity. We have a Political Strategy agreed
and we need to implement it consistently over the years
ahead.
GPEx can be a place where very different views and
approaches clash, as was the case this summer around
the selection of Green Party spokespeople. We had
concerns about the process used, and the outcomes
from it. Through extensive discussion and dialogue, ably
facilitated by GPRC co-chair Martha James, we were able
to reach a compromise solution and find a way forward.
Spokespeople now have a clear Code of Conduct to follow
and the current list will be reviewed by GPEx at the turn of
the year.
We close our report with a heartfelt thank you to our
incredible staff team, who have responded to the
disruption of the pandemic with pragmatism, good humour
and unwavering dedication to the Party and the climate
and social justice we seek to achieve. Their work and
the tireless activism of members leaves us in a stronger
position than ever before.
36
C: EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
COORDINATOR
Molly Scott Cato*
When I stood to be External Communications Coordinator
I outlined three priorities and my report to conference
focuses on these primarily, together with some additional
points of interest.
A clear media strategy
Our strategy for this year has focused on two issues: the
local elections and the climate negotiations both at the G7
and at COP. I was very pleased with the weekly themed
communications in the run-up to May 2021 under the
general heading ‘climate action is good for you’. Together
with the Campaign and Communications Committee I
have developed a strategy for our climate communications
focusing on three key themes:
•
Make the Polluters Pay: sharing our key policy of
carbon tax and dividend
•
Climate action is good for you: how climate action
will mean safer streets, cleaner air, warmer homes,
etc.
•
Global justice and climate reparations: a theme we
are still developing linking historic emissions and
colonial exploitation with the COP loss and damage
agenda for the countries of the Global South.
Engage proactively with media gatekeepers
We have held meetings with some of the key platforms
where we want to see Green messages communicated
including BBC Politics and Channel 4 News. We now have
active channels of communication to key editors although
there is still an ongoing struggle to ensure adequate
coverage. We need to build stronger relationships with
ITV and the editor of the Guardian. Sky News and the
Independent have taken a strong position on climate and
are giving us a correspondingly better amount of space.
Spokespeople
I have overseen the appointment and launch of a new list
of spokespeople whose task is to improve our credibility
and spread our policy messages across the range of
issues. This process was confronted by controversy and,
at the time of writing, I am still working with others to
seek to ensure that all GPEX members are happy with
all the spokespeople and to improve the process for the
future. Meanwhile the spokespeople are beginning to work
well as a team and strengthen our media profile. We are
embarking on a process of training our spokespeople that
should start soon.