The Engage programme and the Government Communication Network in the UK, 2006–2010

• Date: 01 November 2015
• Author: Phil Ramsey
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1550
• Published date: 01 November 2015

■Academic Paper

The Engage programme and the

Government Communication Network

in the UK, 2006–2010

Phil Ramsey*

University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China

The Engageprogramme was launched in April2006 by the Government CommunicationNetwork (GCN) in the UK. As a

civil service bodysupporting those in government working as pressofficers and in marketing roles, the GCN underthe

New Labour government in the period 2006–2010 was involved with the extension of the logic of marketisation to

government communication. This articlecharts this process by examining key government policy documentsfrom this

period.The rationale for Engage restedon the assumption that governmentin the UK needed to adapt its communication

approach to reach what were perceived as individualised consumers in society. The extension of the logic of

marketisation to government communication that happened under Engage is shown to be consistent with the New

Public Management approach to publicservices under New Labour. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

The Engage programme was launched in April

2006 by the Governm ent Communicat ion Net-

work (GCN) under the New Labour government

(1997–2010). As a civil service body in the UK,

supporting gove rnment press officers and those

working in marketing, the GCN contributed to

the extension of the logic of marketisation to gov-

ernment communication. Under the terms of En-

gage, the ‘public’were conceived o f as an

‘audience’,while‘citizens’were con ceived of as

‘consumers’. This article charts this shift by sur-

veying several key government policy documents

that helped shape Engage and changed the terms

of government comm unication in the per iod

2006–2010. The establishment of the post of ‘Per-

manent Secretary, Government Commu nications’

under New Labour and the resulting innovations

that were put in place le d to a breaking down of

the traditional dichotomy between news and infor-

mation, and advertising and marketing. The first

person to hold the position was Howell James,

who argued that under the terms of communica-

tion, government should be considered as a com-

pany and citizens as consumers. This position was

intellectually consistent with the idea shown in

the Engage documentation that some sort of

fundamental societal shift had occurred by 2006,

rendering traditional government communication

approaches redundant. The rationale for Engage

rests on the assumption that government in the

UK at this time needed to adapt its approach to

communication to reach what were perceived as

individualised consumers in society. This article lo-

cates this in relation to the New Public Management

(NPM) approach to public services under New La-

bour, as influenced by public choice theory.

The article is composed of desk-based research,

employing documentary analysis to provide a quali-

tative analysis of UK government policy documents.

It draws on archival research techniques, used to

retrieve policy documents from online databases,

and other government information placed online

*Correspondence to: Phil Ramsey, University of Nottingham

Ningbo China, 199 Taikang East Road, Ningbo 315100, China.

E-mail: philip.ramsey@nottingham.edu.cn

Journal of Public Affairs

Volume 15 Number 4 pp 377–386 (2015)

Published online 13 November 2014 in Wiley Online Library

(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pa.1550

Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.