On 3 June, the Oxford Mail issued an article – headlined: ‘Taxpayer-funded OxLEP spends tens of thousands of pounds on PR company to 'raise profile' – in which it discussed OxLEP’s recent appointments of an external public relations agency and an in-house communications executive.
Our vision is for Oxfordshire to be a: ‘vibrant, sustainable, inclusive, world-leading economy – driven by innovation, enterprise and research excellence.’ Communicating just how we actively support our county to reach this vision is vitally important.
Since our inception in 2011, OxLEP has secured over £200m worth of funding for a variety of projects and programmes benefiting Oxfordshire – funding which may have otherwise been lost to other areas of England.
In addition to securing this funding, our expert teams provide guidance and support in key areas – this includes; advice on business growth and development, promoting investment opportunities within our county to businesses outside of Oxfordshire, encouraging organisations to create apprenticeships and work experience placements for young people, whilst linking schools and colleges with hundreds of Oxfordshire businesses in the process.
Just this week, our Oxfordshire Business Support team began a month-long programme of free workshops – all with the aim of helping our county’s business community to start-up, grow or become more agile, as reported by the Oxford Times.
Another key driver of OxLEP’s work is to support the creation of 85,600 jobs in Oxfordshire by 2031. We are already over 50% of the way to this figure, with around 45,000 new jobs generated within the county since 2012 – a proportion of which can be attributed to the programmes and investment we have secured through our work programme.
Being able to successfully communicate this funding, support and guidance – available to our business community, education providers and young people – is a vital part of work.
The retained service fee for Tala – our PR agency – as well as the salary of our communications executive, benchmarks very favourably with similar public relations appointments, according to industry research.
Both roles were filled following an open and competitive tender exercise, involving several PR agencies, and a transparent recruitment process respectively.
Investing in the communications function of our work is essential and – by raising the profile of the work we do and support available such as that delivered through our Business Support team – we can continue to encourage business growth and investment within Oxfordshire.
Nigel Tipple (Chief Executive)
