The CIPR draft strategy and consultation has drawn fire from comms professionals and been accused of being “too vague and way too timid”.

The CIPR’s draft five-year strategy has caused consternation in the profession, with some PR pros taking to social media to attack both it and the way feedback from members was sought.

Andy Green, director of Story Starts Here & Grow Social Capital, urged members to take part in the consultation, which he described on LinkedIn as “deeply buried” within the CIPR website. He accused the strategy of being “incredibly myopic” with “a narrow focus, not taking into account wider trends of professional bodies, the changing world of communications, and the changing nature of communities”.

The consultation, which closed on 30th September, produced 120 responses, the CIPR said. The body had 9,131members in 2018, according to its last published accounts.

South Northamptonshire Council deputy chief executive Peter Holt both joined in the LinkedIn thread and blogged about the draft, described it as “half-hearted” in an interview with Communicate. “I think it shows the CIPR has lost its way,” Holt asserted. “It is too London-centric, a lot of people think that. The strategy doesn’t recognise that as an issue. It doesn’t even mention it.” He added that there’s very little in it on improving the value it offers to members.

Other commentators noted that the draft strategy document “is flawed in many ways, but at least it's progress towards actually having a strategy”.

The CIPR issued a statement in response to an invitation to join in the online debate @CommsChat, which will take place this evening at 8pm on Twitter. “We recently completed the consultation phase receiving nearly 120 detailed and constructive responses - we are extremely grateful to those members who have taken the time to comment on the strategy and we are taking their points seriously. Out of respect to members, and before we have properly examined and assimilated their input and communicated the findings with them, we don’t feel it would be right of us to engage in a discussion on the strategy.”

CIPR CEO, Alastair McCapra, added, “The CIPR thank Communicate Magazine for choosing to highlight our consultation for discussion and for widening this beyond our membership. We look forward to seeing and listening to the thoughts of practitioners as we continue to engage with the profession on our direction and priorities. Our strategy working group will meet later this month, and the final version will then go to our Board and Council in December for them to formally agree (or not).  After this we will be very happy to take part in a Tweetchat or any other discussions about our intentions.”

Join the debate @CommsChat tonight at 8pm