Today’s the seventh annual #OurDay – the annual social media event that is all about throwing some positive light on the wide range of work carried out by local government in the UK.
The 24-hour ‘day in the life of a council’ tweetathon is the brainchild of the Local Government Association (LGA) – which also wants the event, on the eve of the 2017 Budget, to also remind the Chancellor of the “invaluable work councils do on a daily basis to improve the quality of life of residents”.
The group, which acts as the national voice of local government, says the aims of #OurDay include demonstrating the value local government provides to the public in the context of councils working in an”increasingly challenging financial environment”.
It also wants to showcase new and innovative schemes, showing how the sector is using social media to benefit residents as well as a chance to reflect 24 hours in the life of a council, from providing care for the most vulnerable in its local community to cleaning residents’ streets.
To get that message out, it wants as many councillors and local authority staff as possible to take a couple of minutes out of their day to tell the world what they’re doing to keep their communities running.
It also hopes to cap last years’ s event, which managed to get more than 9,000 Twitter accounts and over 37,000 tweets out there.
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#OurDay started at midnight and you can participate or track it with that specific hashtag (#OurDay).
For Cllr Paul Bettison, Chairman of the LGA’s Improvement and Innovation Board, “We hope this #OurDay will be the biggest yet.
“It is an opportunity for people who work in councils to highlight the invaluable work they do for the public [and] showcases a day in the life of local government and shines a light on all the different things that councils do for their communities in a 24-hour period.
“Councils work on behalf of their residents, providing a huge variety of services up and down the country, every day, to support people and make their lives better. This is a great chance for residents to go behind the scenes and hear the stories behind the services.
“I hope as many local authorities, councillors and staff as possible get involved and highlight the good work that is going on in their communities. Councils are the most open and transparent part of the public sector and using social media is an easy and effective way for us to communicate with our residents and answer any questions they may have.”
