FEATURE: Council refuses to cut out 'seven sins of jargon'

9:50am Friday 10th October 2008

CIVIL enforcement officers should be called traffic wardens and stakeholder engagement should simply be asking people what they think.

A return to a simpler way of saying things is on the cards for council employees - but not those who work In Waltham Forest.

The council has refused to follow the lead of Harrow and cut out jargon, saying Waltham Forest residents do not want their information dumbed down.

Councillors at Harrow decided to retreat from overcomplicated phrases for everyday things and return to what they were called before.

It has identified “seven sins of jargon” and told its staff to stay away.

Now its employees can breathe a sigh of relief when they want to talk about school crossing patrollers, and simply call them lollipop women and men.

And a civic amenity site can be called a rubbish tip again.

Waltham Forest Council, however, is not so sure.

Council leader Clyde Loakes said: “The borough has signed up to the Plain English campaign and has been for some time but it’s about getting the tone right.

"I don’t think any residents need information dumbed-down. People want to know what’s going on and they want the facts. They don’t want information simplified to the point where it starts to lose meaning.”

Cllr Loakes said his was a council “run by local people for local people”.

He went on: “We will always try to avoid jargon. Obviously sometimes we don’t get it right but that’s when it’s useful to hear from our residents, to let us know what they think."

But community campaigner Simon Munk disagreed, saying most council documents and meetings were “impenetrable”.

“The council likes to get on with the business of running us without any interference and one of the most effective ways of doing this is to make everything terminally boring and totally unintelligible to the average person,” he said.

“These people have created their own little language to talk to each other and the more they can talk to each other in this language the more the rest of us are shut out.”

Examples of jargon and what we think they mean.

SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES STRATEGY

“We need to help our population grow in an economically balanced and sustainable way.”

(We need to help people to become equally rich)

WALTHAM FOREST’S CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGY

“Action is also to be taken on the other three climate change national indicators, including NI 188 on adaption. The Council intend to have produced a baseline (level zero of the NI) by March 2009, and are seeking to achieve ongoing progress from this point forward.”

(The council will aim to reach national targets on climate change)

“Mitigation and adaption assessment were required and it covered broader environmental impact issues, not just carbon savings.” (Eh?)

TENANT EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY

“Staff and members will be briefed on the tenant empowerment and communication strategies so they understand fully the role they play in their implementation.”

(Council staff and councillors need to have council jargon explained too)

“Representatives of all equalities groups were invited to attend this event and those who were unable to attend due to other commitments were contacted by telephone to ensure that they had the opportunity to input into the consultation. The discussions identified actions which could have a negative equalities impact and suggestions for mitigation and improvement actions proposed in each case, so as not to inadvertently increase burdens on the most vulnerable members of society.”

(Non-white, gay and disabled people were asked to come to a discussion about how the strategy could effect them. If they could not come to the meeting, staff called them and asked them questions.)

REPORT TO CABINET IN SEPTEMBER “TOWARDS EXCELLENCE THE EFFICIENCY REVIEW” (REPORT ABOUT JOB CUTS)

“A dedicated HR team will lead the implementation of the new structures, assimilating and drawing up ring-fenced interviews and redeploying as many employees as possible in order to protect both the employment prospects of individuals and the council’s financial position.”

(Personnel staff will try and move people around to keep them employed and save the council money in redundancy payments)

“Wave 2 proposals will be followed by further proposed headcount reductions arising from Wave 2.”

(There will be two lots of job cuts)