Good communication and public relations will make a significant contribution to the effectiveness of the Agency's work on all the new access arrangements. The National Countryside Access Forum (the Forum) has a significant role to play in advising t...
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Communicating the work of the Forum (NCAF 2/3)

Purpose 1. Members are invited to advise the Agency on the ways in which the work of the Forum should be communicated to others. In particular members are asked to consider:
  • the aims and objectives for communicating the work of the Forum; messages, target audiences and the tools for reaching them; and
  • the options for communication set out in this paper, and to identify any others it considers relevant to communicating the work of the Forum.  

2. An Agency Research Note 'Communicating with the public' is attached for information.

The task

3. Good communication and public relations will make a significant contribution to the effectiveness of the Agency's work on all the new access arrangements. The National Countryside Access Forum (the Forum) has a significant role to play in advising the Agency on the development of policy and procedures to implement and communicate these new arrangements. Public relations is an important tool which will assist the Forum to provide the Agency with clear and timely advice.

4. Forum members had a brief discussion on communication at the first meeting on 21 July. It was agreed then that it will be important to provide target audiences with up to date information on the work of the Forum as it proceeds through its programme of activity. The Forum now needs to advise the Agency where and how to target this information.

Role of Forum members 

5. Forum members have agreed that they will have a responsibility for providing information to, and networking with, others who have an interest in access to the countryside. The Forum will work best if members are in close contact with as broad a constituency as possible, and are able to represent its views in meetings and engage its support effectively outside them. Members will be encouraged to monitor the effectiveness of the Forum in developing and maintaining links with a wider audience. Members will also seek to increase their knowledge on relevant access issues through site visits.

Role of the Agency 

6. The Government's framework document highlights the importance of effective publicity and information for the implementation of the new access arrangements. As well as publicising the work of the Forum the Agency has a wider role to provide information on all aspects of its work on access. The provision of information will develop in stages:


a. Stage 1 - Initially, we need to provide our immediate partners, the public and interest groups with up to date information on the nature and progress of work towards the implementation of new access arrangements. An important part of this is publicising the work of the Forum; and

b. Stage 2 - In the longer term we will need to publicise access availability, rights and responsibilities, closures or other restrictions, and public transport to enable easy and responsible use. Information will be developed and provided in different ways to suit the messages we want to give and the audiences we want to reach.

  • maps, guides, internet and on-site information;
  • testing the feasibility of a national access register (which could be made up of local access registers) and other means of publicising where and when access is available; and
  • producing codes of practice for visitors, land managers and local authorities giving information on how to make best use of, and manage access.  

Objectives of communicating the work of the Forum

7. The objectives in communicating the work of the Forum are to:

a. help the Agency publicise the role of the Forum in advising on its access work; and

b. help Forum members network effectively within their constituencies. 

Options for communication

8. The Agency has already introduced a number of ways to publicise the work of the Forum. The general aim has been to announce the Forum's existence and agenda and to make sure this general information is available to an interested audience. We now need to take this further by agreeing on objectives, selecting and defining the target audiences and the methods for reaching them. So far, the Agency has delivered information on the Forum as follows.

a. Web site - agendas, papers and minutes of meetings are put on the Agency's web site.

b. Documents - agendas, papers and minutes of meetings are available on request from the Forum secretariat.

c. Countryside Focus - an article on the Forum was included in the June/July and August/September issues of the Agency's newspaper - we aim to include an article in each edition.

d. Media relations - a Press Release was issued following the first meeting - we aim to issue one after each meeting. 

9. There are a number of additional options for communicating the work of the Forum to others. These include:

a. National events - the Agency could host an annual conference to deliver information and encourage discussion on the Forum's work.

b. Regional events - the Agency could hold regional events in partnership with representative organisations and perhaps local government. This could be a way of developing links between the national forum and local forums. Initially, these might be held in the north west and south east where the Agency is setting up access demonstration projects which may be used to pilot local forums.

c. Publications

  • representative members could introduce the production of Forum newsletters by their organisations. These could be targeted at the constituency of each organisation.
  • the Agency could produce an annual leaflet on the work of the Forum - this would give the terms of reference and list members and have a wide circulation e.g. national and regional bodies and local government.  

d. Public relations assistance - the Agency is about to appoint a public relations assistant to promote and publicise the Agency's work on access to the countryside. This consultant will liaise closely with the Agency's headquarters, public relations staff and regional publicity advisors, and could be used in part to implement a communication strategy for the Forum.