Cabinet Office launches social media guidance for civil servants
Today Cabinet Office announced the publication of guidance for civil servants on the use of social media as well as guidance for Departments to overcome the technical barriers to civil servants accessing the internet and social media channels.
The social media guidance is made up of six principles:
Government should
- Communicate with citizens in the places they already are
- Use social media to consult and engage
- Use social media to be more transparent and accountable
- Be part of the conversation with all the benefits that brings
- Understand that government cannot do everything alone, or in isolation
- Expect civil servants to adhere to the Civil Service Code (online as well as offline)
Writing in the foreword to the guidance the Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude notes “When civil servants, policy makers and service delivery units alike, open themselves to dialogue with the public they can glean a much better understanding of the real needs and concerns of citizens. They can keep up to date with the latest thinking as well as being a listening post and avenue for real time reassurance and information”
In his foreword, Sir Bob Kerslake (@sirbobkerslake), Head of the Civil Service, points to the role that social media will have in changing ways of working “The workplace of the future will have to be less rigid, less hierarchical and a lot more flexible. Participating in social media is a good way to learn how a modern workforce engages and communicates”
The work done on the social media use guidance, which was a commitment in the Government ICT strategy published in March 2011, has not been done in a vacuum. It iterates from previous guidance from the COI in 2009, from discussions and debates with public sector colleagues at events like UKGovCamp, policy contributions from those interested in the digital space (though not necessarily working in government) such as @Puffles2010 presentation on The Impact of Social Media on Whitehall (.ppt file 8MB), Teacamp debates, Steph Gray’s (@lesteph) Digital Engagement Guide, the many interested Twitter users as well as from our own staff here in GDS @GovUK.
Part 2 of the guidance on helping Departments overcome technical barriers was developed by the Home Office and provides a very valuable snapshot of some of the significant challenges that will need to be overcome in the coming months.
For those who are regular users of social media there will be little new, but for some of our civil service colleagues who may have experienced both cultural and technical barriers in the use of social media at work, we hope it will be used as a means of empowering them to explore what social media offers, whether that is consulting and engaging, improving their policy practice or simply listening to better act on the concerns of citizens. The world of digital engagement is evolving all the time and we anticipate that this guidance will not be something that remains static but will continue to iterate over time.
We welcome continued contributions and feedback on how government can engage with social media with a constant focus on trust, users and delivery. The guidance on social media use is now on the Cabinet Office site.
Emer Coleman is Deputy Director for Digital Engagement at the Government Digital Service
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Developing social media guidelines – the ACAS advice | Minerva’s pencil case
- Cabinet Office releases guidance on social media for civil servants – Discovery Brand
- Home Office launch guidelines for social media use | Birmingham City Council Social Media Working Group
- Actions speak louder than words: being a digital practitioner « Clear message
- Changing corporate culture on social media | A dragon's best friend
- New organisations coming along to Teacambs, new Facebook page & some FAQs | A dragon's best friend
- New organisations coming along to Teacambs, new Facebook page & some FAQs « teacambs
- Special guests for June’s Teacamp « teacambs
- Reform of the civil service – today’s White Paper | A dragon's best friend
- Digital a key component for Civil Service Reform Plan | Government Digital Service
- Digital a key component for Civil Service Reform Plan | Government … | Government Civil
- NEWZ-SPOOF: “Knight of Realm tames dragon with cake!” | A dragon's best friend
- In praise of…the Government Digital Service | A dragon's best friend
- June’s Teacambs « teacambs
- The Civil Service Fast Stream – is it right for you? | A dragon's best friend
- My civil servant Twitter rules « Work
- Digital a key component for Civil Service Reform Plan - Mike Bracken.
- ***Thank you*** | A dragon's best friend
- Social media – Must we measure? | Government Digital Service
- Cabinet Office issues social media guidance for civil servants - Government Tenders, Government News and Information - Government Online
- Puffles’ Twitter Lists – The Civil Service | A dragon's best friend
- 2012: Making the best of an awful year | A dragon's best friend
- Digital Transformation in 2013: The strategy is delivery. Again. | Government Digital Service
- Policy, delivery, Government digital service
Excellent! Looking forward to reading it.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited about new guidance before. Thank you so much guys. This really helps.
I second Liz’s comment. Woo and indeed hoo! Great principles, simply put, but fundamentally and powerfully liberating. Thank you!
well done guys!
Great to see such a high-profile document doing a good job of summarising the issues and benefits that so many of us have been discussing and promoting for years. Hopefully this will be a living document, updated regularly to remain current and adaptive to trends.
Hi James,
Any suggestions for improvement welcome. These are definitely supposed to be updated over time as you suggest
James
Excellent work – now part two is to make all the public service units aware of this and help them understand. And the real challenge is in step three – ACTING on it. And TOP 5 “Understand that government cannot do everything alone, or in isolation” is the key to the execution strategy. #da12social
well done. in any bureaucracy adoption of innovation comes down to leadership by people respected in the hierarchy and likely to form the next wave of leaders.
how many rising policy stars, perm secs, young dep secs, under secs, DD are using social media regularly as part of their jobs? and how can you increase that.
With social media engagement an increasingly important element in good governance for all types of organisation, the fact GDS is leading the way with this initiative puts a significant level of contemporary professionalism into government communication and is to be applauded.
The guidelines are very practical and well put together, yet simple. It’s impressive how listening and developing networked influence are being addressed. Very many congratulations to the team.
Overcoming technical barriers? No tags, no bookmarks, no alt text, no metadata? Do you still have any usability and accessibility standards for PDFs? http://coi.gov.uk/guidance.php?page=149
Thanks- point taken. We will amend to meet standards next week as you’ve suggested.
James
Well done everyone for producing this. I have some thoughts at http://antonycarpen.co.uk/2012/05/17/new-civil-service-social-media-guidance/ on what you may want to cover in social media awareness-raising/outreach work across Whitehall and beyond.