This is the final quarterly report from 2015 CIPR President, Sarah Pinch, spotlighting progress towards her Presidential pledges: - Making membership more meaningful to clients and employers - Standing up for a profession confident in its high standards and able to demonstrate its value - Building trust in our practice through the Code of Conduct and Continuing Professional Development - Reaching audiences beyond the industry.

1. Q4 2015
President’s
Report
PROFESSIONAL
STANDARDS
–
cipr.co.uk

2. Introduction
In this my final report, I look not just at
quarter four, but also at what we have
achieved across the Institute in 2015.
I am indebted to my CIPR Board and
Council colleagues and to Alastair
McCapra and his team at Russell
Square, along with every member and
volunteer. This year would not have
been as much of a success without your
help, challenges, insights and support.
In this quarter I covered over 4000
miles and visited members in Scotland,
Cambridge, Belfast and London and
members from the CIPR Inside, Public
Affairs and Local Public Services groups.
It has also been a privilege to meet so
many students studying PR and I am
indebted to the Universities of the West
of England, Edge Hill and Birmingham
City for their very warm welcomes.
I have been asked many times if I would
recommend standing for President.
Yes, I would. My recommendations for
anyone thinking about it are to talk to
as many people as you can about the
Institute, including those of us who
are Past Presidents. Build a strong and
trusted network around you, including
some good friends outside of the
industry to support you (and give you
a sense check), don’t ever feed the
trolls, realise you are chairing a board
of directors for the year and be clear
about process, confidentiality and
decision making. But most importantly,
do it because you want to serve
members, stand up for the profession
and enjoy the office of President and all
the opportunities that affords.
Sarah Pinch FCIPR at CIPR Channel Islands PR Forum, September 2015
2/ Q4 2015 President’s Report

3. Making membership more meaningful
to clients and employers
At the recent meetings of Board
and in 2013 I was asked by the then
President, Sue Wolstenholme to chair
the Membership Committee, as a newly
elected Board member. I was delighted
to do so. Towards the end of that year,
it became clear to me and Pat Gaudin,
chair of the Professional Development
Committee that our two groups had
a lot in common, so we met as one
committee – and ultimately merged
into the Professional Development and
Membership Committee.
Through all my time involved in CIPR
as a regional chair, a Board member
and most recently as President we
have discussed how to encourage
more members to apply to become
Chartered Practitioners. The single
biggest stride we made in 2015 was
the development of a new assessment
structure to achieve this objective.
The previous three stage structure,
whilst challenging, was excessively
demanding in terms of time and a
one-day assessment process was
successfully piloted in Q4, delivering
nine new Chart.PRs to add to the
previous total of 50 in six years.
This has opened up access to many
hundreds of members. I am taking part
later this month and it is, we believe
as a Board, only by making Chartered
Practitioner normative (like Chartered
Accountant, or Chartered Engineer)
that we will see a paradigm shift in
the recognition of the expertise and
influence PR professionals bring to
organisations. I am enormously grateful
to my Board colleagues Lindsey
Columbell and Jason MacKenzie for
the work they did on this and to the
founding Chartered Practitioners for
their support for the changes.
The contributions public relations
professionals make was seen in a
brilliant piece of research undertaken
by the Local Public Services group,
under the guidance of their chair Wendy
Moran. Published in October 2015, the
research involved nine focus groups
across the UK and interviews with PRs,
Chief Executives and other key players.
Key themes identified for PRs within the
sector included digital transformation,
resilience and commercial awareness.
The group is now working on how it can
support professionals working within this
sector, to continue to develop their skills
– and provide support and networking
opportunities.
In 2015, we started our own online
jobs board, created new networks for
leaders and young communicators
and developed a new corporate
membership offering which will launch
in 2016. A CIPR representative visited
all of our recognised universities to
promote student membership. We
responded to member feedback on
email communications by launching a
new format and style of member email.
Sarah Pinch FCIPR and Alastair McCapra (CIPR CEO)
3/ Q4 2015 President’s Report

4. Standing up for a profession confident in its high
standards and able to demonstrate its value
In Q4, the CIPR PRide awards came to
a climax with 2157 people attending
nine dinners across the UK. Among 944
entries, the shortlisted hopefuls shone
out yet again providing a wealth of
case studies of brilliant public relations.
Thank you to all the regional and
national groups for your hard work in
making these events so successful, and
to Cat Morgan and her events team.
Across the Institute in 2015 we worked
to make professional standards a
bigger part of our picture by making it
easier to apply for CIPR qualifications
and removing the requirement to join
the CIPR before enrolling on a course.
We began a syllabus review of the
CIPR Diploma, our main qualification
and opened new teaching centre in
Malaysia. The Centre for Learning now
offers a Moodle site to enable online
support for learners between teaching
sessions and 1800 practitioners
attended CIPR Training in 2015.
We took two important steps that
will shape our qualifications in the
future – the CIPR joined the Federation
of Awarding Bodies (FAB) and
commissioned a research study into
future skills needs in the PR profession
from Queen Margaret University.
As well as this, we supported the
development of a new worldwide
framework of professional competences
developed through the Global Alliance.
We believe by making it easier for
people to take our qualifications
and exploring what future skills and
knowledge professionals will need,
more practitioners will become
qualified, well respected and will
demonstrate high standards and
the value of public relations to
organisations and clients.
The Excellence Awards was a highlight
for me- another opportunity to stand
up for high standards, robust judging
and exceptional work from right across
the industry. I was delighted to see two
inspirational young women, Valentina
Kristensen and Bridget Aherne win
Young Communicator of the Year
and The CIPR and IoD PR Director
of the Year awards. There were 611
entries and 687 people attended the
dinner. We launched an app with all
the information for the event which
complements the new online platform
for submission and judging of entries.
Our aim was to make entering easier
and to enhance the event experience
and we had great feedback. I am
delighted to say that, having won
“Best Awards Event” at the Association
Excellence Awards in 2015, Excellence
is again a finalist in 2016.
CIPR Code of Conduct
4/ Q4 2015 President’s Report

5. Building trust in our practice through
the Code of Conduct and Continuing
Professional Development
Continuing Professional Development
(CPD) and Ethics came together in a big
way in 2015.
A record number of members completed
their CPD in February 2015 (1600)
and we successfully ran, with support
from our Groups, a “#SummerOfCPD”
campaign, significantly boosting early-
year CPD engagement.
Ethics became a compulsory part of the
CPD cycle, with members required to
log a minimum of five points through
a related activity. To support this, we
launched an online ethics module,
held roundtable discussions on the
subject across the UK and participated
in Ethics Month in September. We also
published new guidance on a range
of issues including public affairs, paid
media, using statistics, and social media
and the law. Thank you to those groups
who ran special ethics events, I hope to
see more of those in 2016.
Members can also now benefit from
access to an “ethics hotline” for the
first time.
We launched the UK Lobbying Register,
following the closure of the UK Public
Affairs Council, writing to all MPs
and Peers with a leaflet setting out
professional standards for lobbyists.
The CIPR held a popular series of
Social Short events throughout the year
focussing on paid media, storytelling,
using social in a crisis and working with
social talent. We also supported the
development of a new ‘Community
of Practice’, bringing together
practitioners and academics in pubic
relations.
5/ Q4 2015 President’s Report

6. Reaching audiences beyond the industry
Speaking to the world beyond PR is a
central part of the role of the Institute.
We must build the reputation of public
relations as a strategic management
discipline and generate employer
demand for the professionalism our
members stand for. Taking part in the
Society of Editors Conference and also
hosting a workshop at The Association
of Chief Executives of Voluntary
Organisations have been important
elements of this work in 2015.
We also have a role in shaping the
operating environment and it was this in
mind when, in Q4, the CIPR challenged
the Newspaper Licencing Agency to
develop a new, simple form of licence
for small businesses.
In 2015 the CIPR took a step into the
future of corporate governance by
producing our first Integrated Report
for the 2015 Annual General Meeting.
The Report serves as a guide for
members who want to help clients
and employers move towards this new
and challenging way of presenting the
overall value of an organisation. It has
been very well received by members
and the IR community.
The process of producing the report
was itself highly instructive for both staff
and senior volunteers and in December,
I was honoured to present one of the
Institute’s highest honours, the award
of an Honorary Fellowship, to Professor
Mervyn King, the founder of Integrated
Reporting.
The CIPR supported several other
conferences hosted by stakeholder
organisations including the Festival
of Marketing. We were also a partner
of Social Media Week and took part
in the FutureComms conference,
which was an interesting experience!
I am especially delighted that –
together with our Public Affairs and
Corporate & Financial Groups, CIPR
supported the national Debating
Matters competition, organised by
the Institute of Ideas. Any member
can offer to join the judging panel and
I would encourage you to do so. It’s
thrilling and exciting to see and hear
young people debate important issues.
Debating Matters 2014 Finalists
6/ Q4 2015 President’s Report

7. To address some wider social problems
which have a specific impact on
employment in our profession, the
CIPR published our Gender Pay
Manifesto, based on research carried
out in 2015, and also supported the
national Disability Confident campaign.
We also supported the cross-sector
Access to the Professions initiative.
I have championed the vital issue of the
gender pay gap in PR and will continue
to work on this issue in 2016.
Finally, as way of highlighting a broader
range of policy ideas, the Institute
published the first ever CIPR manifesto
ahead of the 2015 General Election.
Postscript
I remain on the Board, as Immediate
Past President and am looking forward
to working alongside my new Board
colleagues to continue the development
of the Institute and listen and respond
to members; holding firm to our core
purpose and Royal Charter. If there
is anything you would like to discuss,
please get in touch by tweeting
@ms_organised or by emailing
sarah@pinchpointcommunications.co.uk.
Social Media Week London, September 2015
7/ Q4 2015 President’s Report