Tell me what you want

Hi, I’m Jane Ogden-Smith and I’m the communications officer for Education and Children’s Services.  I’m also the parent of teenage children who go to a local secondary, and we live in a small rural community in East Lothian.  I communicate and I’m communicated to.

Education communications are a new departure for me.  I have worked for Children’s Services for a number of years.  In Children’s Services, we have drawn up a communications strategy that helps us to try to establish the needs of our service-users, workers and partners, and provide information accordingly.  The strategy helps us to see where we are, what worked well and what we need to do next.  I’d like to do something similar for Education.

I am a great believer in inclusive communication, which is something that East Lothian Council has signed up to and agreed to promote.  Inclusive communication is about the right we all have to communicate meaningfully with others and for others to communicate meaningfully with us.  Inclusive communication will improve the way that we provide information and services for everyone. It will help people get their message over to the staff who work in our services and help all of us to understand what we are really saying to each other.

Inclusive communication acknowledges that printed information isn’t necessarily useful for everyone.  There are lots of ways to communicate – telephone, text, internet, cd-rom, face-to-face. And, people have a wide range of communication needs – for example, you may want your information delivered in BSL, Braille, Polish, Cantonese, Urdu.  You may want your information supplemented by symbols and pictures.  And communication covers a vast range of interchanges – it isn’t just about policy documents and service information – it can also be about signage, colour schemes, the way we interact with you in person and over the phone.

That’s why I need to hear from you.  This blog gives me the opportunity to ask for your help.  Tell me what information you need and how you want it and when you want it.  Tell me how you want to communicate.

So, I’m really looking forward to hearing from you.  If you want a chat, you can ring me on 01620 827 199 or you can email me at jogden-smith@eastlothian.gov.uk

Or, comment on this blog.  As E M Foster says – ‘Only connect’.

 Jane

1 comment May 24th, 2007 jane

Hello world!

Welcome to Edubuzz.org. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

1 comment May 24th, 2007 jane