FuturePRoof Six | Claude

This is a chapter from #PRstack: AI tools for marketing, media, and public relations, the latest #FuturePRoof publication. You can buy a copy of the complete book from Amazon in Kindle and print formats. The Kindle version doesn’t include images due to format limitations.

Claude by Andrew Bruce Smith | Practitioner

Claude AI is a conversational AI assistant from Anthropic that leverages a large context window, enabling it to excel at processing, summarising, and integrating large volumes of information to bring new capabilities to public relations workflow.

Claude AI is a next-generation conversational AI assistant developed by Anthropic, an artificial intelligence company focused on building helpful, honest, and harm-free AI systems. First released in April 2022, Claude represents a major advance in natural language processing capabilities while prioritising safety, accuracy, and transparency. 

At its core, Claude leverages Anthropic's own large language model called Claude 2, allowing it to understand and generate nuanced, high-quality text. Claude 2 was trained on a diverse dataset of internet text and books using Constitutional AI to minimise harmful responses. As a result, Claude claims to provide significantly more accurate, on-topic, and harmless answers than other AI assistants.

Public relations workflow integration

Claude AI can be a very useful tool for public relations practitioners. Like ChatGPT, Claude can generate content like press releases, website copy, or social media posts tailored to specific audiences. However, its key strength lies in its large (75,000 word) context window. In other words, Claude can receive, analyse and return very large amounts of information. Claude is also capable of ingesting information in a wide variety of file formats, such as PDFs, spreadsheets, and presentations.

Key benefits of Claude's large context window for public relations practitioners include:

• Comprehensive analysis

The large context window allows Claude to process extensive documents like research papers, legal briefs, and annual reports. This provides a more complete understanding of complex materials compared to only analysing text snippets. Example use cases include generating first-draft communication plans and pitch responses based on providing all necessary background information and objectives to the AI to allow it to assimilate, analyse and generate an initial recommendation.

• Text summarisation

Claude can digest and summarise large volumes of text, condensing books, articles, or documents into concise overviews. This makes it easy to grasp key information quickly.

• Knowledge integration

Claude excels at combining information from different sources into a synthesised answer, showcasing strong reading comprehension.

• Improved reasoning

With more context available, Claude can better reason about concepts and connections within large bodies of information. This leads to more accurate and nuanced responses.

• Natural conversations

The large context window enables Claude to maintain context across long dialogues without "forgetting" earlier parts of the discussion. This facilitates more natural back-and-forth conversations.

• Creative writing

Claude can generate longer and more coherent content thanks to the expanded context. This makes Claude better suited for creative writing applications.

• Multitasking

The increased context size allows Claude to effectively switch between various tasks and topics during a conversation while retaining relevant information.

The significantly expanded 75,000-word context window empowers Claude to fully utilise its advanced natural language capabilities when processing large volumes of information. This enables a wide range of beneficial applications for public relations tasks that are not easily achievable with more limited context sizes.

Claude is currently available through a free web-based chat interface that allows open-ended conversations. Users can also access Claude through a developer API to integrate its capabilities into other applications.

In September 2023, Anthropic launched Claude Pro, a paid subscription tier offering priority access even during high-demand periods. Claude Pro also unlocks additional features as they are released.

Looking ahead, Anthropic plans to continue expanding Claude's knowledge and skills to handle more advanced tasks. With its constitutional AI approach as a guiding framework, the company aims to usher in a new generation of AI that balances wide-ranging intelligence with robust safety.

Its conversational ability, knowledge integration, harm avoidance, and speed set it apart as one of the most capable and trustworthy AI agents available today. As Claude continues its rapid development, it may well become an integral part of how public relations practitioners leverage and apply AI to their day-to-day workflows.

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Andrew Bruce Smith, founder, Escherman
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewbrucesmith/

Andrew Bruce Smith is a renowned expert in artificial intelligence and its applications in digital comms, social media, SEO, and analytics. He is Chair of the CIPR’s AI in PR panel, and a sought-after consultant, trainer, conference speaker and commentator on the impact of AI on the public relations industry.

From CBE to Socially Mobile

Everyone can give back, even in the tiniest of ways. From being little, my Mum taught me that you don’t need to have much to help others, writes #FuturePRoof founder Sarah Waddington. 

In our house, that might have been giving someone a bed for the night or surrendering something to allow someone more in need to have it. 

It’s an ethos that has stuck with me and, as my life has changed for the better, I’ve tried to do my best to reinvest the knowledge and opportunities I’ve had along the way. 

That’s because I know from personal experience how important it is to have a hand up if you’re ever to compete on a level playing field - and how much harder it is for some just to get to the starting line.

It makes today’s announcement that I have been awarded a CBE for services to public relations and voluntary sectors all the more special. 

Thank you to all involved with the process and especially those who confidentially submitted the application and supporting letters. For the first time in my life, I’m lost for words.

Keeping going

It is definitely a moment for celebration, but it is also a moment to think about what next because now is not the time to stand still. 

There are so many people who need a voice and it’s important that those of us who have one speak up on their behalf.

With this in mind, I’m proud that after more than two years in the making, Stephen and I are finally able to launch Socially Mobile. 

Socially Mobile is a not-for-profit PR school aimed at equipping the workforce of today for the management challenges of tomorrow. It is focused on practitioners from lower socio-economic backgrounds and under-served groups. 

Stephen is my biggest supporter and I couldn’t do half of what I do without him, not least this latest project which is our most ambitious yet. 

You can find out more about Socially Mobile here and we’d love you to throw your weight behind it as a sponsor, donor or volunteer. Applications for the first cohort will open this summer. We’ll shortly be recruiting assessors to help with the application process and the marking of coursework.  

We need to do more

This incredible honour has inspired me to keep going and to do more. I hope it inspires you too.

In today’s society, it’s not enough to pledge for support for our Black, Asian, Mixed Race and Ethnic Minority colleagues - we have to be actively anti-racist. We are a long way from equality despite the fact that diversity within communities benefits us all. 

The Trussell Trust distributed a record 2.5 million emergency food parcels in the year to March 2021. The addition of independent food banks means the number is likely to be double.

It’s a terrifying indictment of today’s society and it is imperative that those with influence work to change the systems and structures that are weighted in favour of the few, not the many.  

There are many more issues that demand our attention. Please choose the ones that interest you most and play your part. I intend to continue to do what I can too. 

This CBE stands for the values that were instilled in me while growing up. To Mum and my big sister Emma, I love you, this one’s for you.

#FuturePRoof founder Sarah Waddington awarded CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours

Astute.Work founder and managing director, Sarah Waddington, has been awarded a CBE for services to public relations and voluntary sectors. The honour was announced in the Queen’s Birthday Honours today, Saturday, 12 June.

Astute.Work is a 12-year-old management consultancy and public relations business based in Newcastle that has pioneered a virtual working model, working with organisations that put purpose and society first. Its clients include the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Children’s Cancer North, FW Capital, The Common Room of the Great North, GBB, Health Education England and Cloudfm. 

Sarah has developed and self-funded the #FuturePRoof community since 2015 to share management expertise, skills and case studies with practitioners in a bid to improve social mobility in the comms sector. The community has published six books and a number of white papers on a range of topics including NHS communications, a celebration of BAME practitioners, disinformation, influencer relations and management communication.

A lifelong contribution to the public relations industry includes more than 20-years volunteering for the professional body, the CIPR, where Sarah has held roles at regional, national and board level. She was President of the Institute in its 70th anniversary year in 2018, driving an agenda of management practice.

She is chair of the PRCA’s Borderlands and North East group and proud to be an advisory board member for The Blueprint, an initiative devised by Elizabeth Bananuka to promote Black, Asian, Mixed Race and Ethnic Minority diversity in PR and communications. 

Sarah’s other voluntary activities have included a role as Trustee of the Sunshine Fund (2014-2018). She is currently an IoD ambassador in the North East of England (2019-), and part of the advisory group which has overseen Max and Keira's Law – the Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Act which came into effect in May 2020.

Sarah said: “This honour is incredibly humbling and I’m grateful to all those who were involved in making it happen. I’m surrounded by many fantastic leaders who are also doing their bit to create a fairer society and level the playing field. That’s a group I admire and am privileged to be part of.” 

“Nobody in PR deserves a CBE more than Sarah. Her contribution to professionalising our industry has been enormous, and has helped to transform it into the power for good that it is today. I congratulate her on this fantastically well-deserved recognition of her many achievements,” said Francis Ingham, Director General, PRCA.

“Delighted for Sarah that she has been rightly recognised in this year’s Queens Birthday Honours for services to public relations and the voluntary sectors.  As a trojan of the PR industry she has supported so many, led the way to challenge the norms and raised standards to influence us all.  All of which will drive the future of our industry for many years to come.  It is a privilege to have had the opportunity to work with Sarah over the years and an even bigger treat to call her my friend,” said Claire Riley, Executive Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

“Sarah is an outstanding practitioner – her commitment, rigour and passion is present in everything she does. It’s rare to see such ability coupled with an enormous passion to do the right thing, the desire to drive positive change and to give back in the way that she does. Strong leadership is critical as we emerge from lockdown to ensure that every individual and all areas of the UK realise their potential – and I have no doubt Sarah will be central to this in our industry. It is brilliant to see a female North East leader and friend recognised in this way,” said Jen Robson, Head of Communications, North East LEP.

“I can’t think of a PR professional more deserving of this recognition. Over the years I have got to know Sarah well, initially though working with her on many of her initiatives for which she is being recognised, but latterly as a friend. She has a tireless energy and an infectious enthusiasm for supporting, developing and encouraging those less advantaged. She does this with grace and an intense passion that focuses on removing barriers, creating opportunity, and promoting education. Her desire for the industry to level up as a whole is breathtaking, she is a tireless supporter of education and best practice. The modern British public relations sector is more diverse, better informed, and more professional. thanks to the energy and commitment of professionals like Sarah,” said Richard Bagnall, co-managing partner of CARMA International and Chair of international communications evaluation professional body AMEC.

Sarah is aged 44 and lives in Newcastle, Tyne and Wear. She is married to Stephen Waddington and has two children and three step children.

London calling to the faraway towns

PR agencies no longer need to be based in London to access talent and clients, but most still make the capital their headquarters. Sophie Smith investigates drivers for change.

There is a common view in the communications industry that agencies are primarily based in London. Indeed a study of more than 50 agencies that launched in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic supports this assertion. The Wadds Inc. COVID-19 UK PR Agency Startup report found that two-thirds were started in London reflecting the location of their previous employers or personal circumstances. 

However, according to data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), London is not the centre of the UK public relations industry. Its analysis of the market in October 2017 found that three in five of PR and communications agencies were based outside of London. 

Having worked for big agencies in London and Scotland, as well as in-house, Amanda Lowe, founder of Story Comms, chose Birmingham as the place to start her agency. 

“Understanding how regional differences - from economics to inward investment, sector specialisms to politics - should dramatically impact how organisations communicate, Story focused wholly on regionally HQ-ed businesses with national and global footprints. There is PR life outside the M25 - and always has been,” said Amanda.

Amanda is a passionate advocate for the regions, noting their increasing inward investment, political devolution and talent relocation as the fuel for growth. While traditionally the bigger briefs, budgets and industry focus have centered on the capital, she’s confident clients will continue to vote with their feet and seek out the agencies outside London.

The case for regional PR agencies

When we started the COVID-19 startup agency project, we expected to find that the pandemic had contributed to a wave of new agency startups outside of London. With a switch to video chat, online meetings and remote-working, the pandemic has shown us that there is no need for creative or professional services to be based in London in Soho or Southbank.

However, we found that only 27.4% were outside of the capital, with 17.6% of these agencies being based in the South. According to PR Week’s Top 150 for 2021, the location of most agencies (76%) is London. There is limited evidence to support the idea that COVID-19 might level up the distribution of agencies across the UK or result in a boom in regional businesses. 

Nicky Regazzoni, co-founder of The PR Network, a global virtual PR agency, said: “Our decision to work virtually from our launch in 2005 was based on our shared experience running teams in large traditional agencies and facing the perpetual war for talent.

“We believed we could create a bigger and better team - and therefore build the agency faster - by using expert freelancers, instead of employing staff who had to be located close enough to come daily to a central office. This meant we could hire people based on their experience and fit for the brief, not location. Our low overheads allow us to pass cost savings to clients in terms of fees, and to invest in smart technologies to create a strong virtual agency infrastructure. 

“Today we work in more than 40 countries for brands such as Purplebricks, Snapchat, SoundCloud, Toyota and Lexus. Our clients have never cared that we don’t have an office, and Covid has finally proven the business case for the model.”

Government levelling up agenda

The government recently launched the Creative industries fund: fast start business growth pilot for micro and small businesses in the creative sector.

The package includes ongoing support from Innovative UK EDGE and funding of up to £25,000 for innovation projects. The funding comes from the £750m COVID-19 support fund which is to help businesses bounce back from the pandemic.

Agencies featured in the COVID-19 UK agency startup report meet the eligibility criteria. The aim is to provide a package of targeted support for growth so ambitious, creative businesses can reach their potential.

The COVID-19 UK agency startup report finds that COVID-19 has leveled-up competition for startup agencies. Founders have been able to create content and meet people in a way that wasn’t previously possible.

The government’s creative industries fund for small businesses is aiding in this levelling within the industry by providing funds for those smaller businesses/startups that have either struggled throughout the pandemic or haven’t received large funding since they started.

Agency profiles from the COVID-19 report

Three of the agencies we interviewed for the Wadds Inc. PR agency startup report were based outside of London. Ben Veal, the founder of Second Mountain Communications, spoke of his work/life priorities and how he used to spend hours a week travelling back and forth from Bath to London. Second Mountain Comms is based in Bath where he lives and provides the opportunity to build meaningful work around his family. His vision includes some sort of office space in Bath working collaboratively with clients and like-minded businesses in the South-West. 

As for Tom Scott, his inspiration for Little Mesters originated from Sheffield’s history after visiting the Kelham Island Museum. The city’s industrial heritage is built on micro businesses or as they’re called in the city “Little Mesters”. A respect for Sheffield’s local history provided the inspiration for Tom to create Little Mesters for the digital age. The agency has now expanded its office space to support their growing team and client roster, the office is based in the Kelham Island area of the city, where his idea for the agency stemmed from.

Advita Patel, founder of Comms Rebel, has worked in Manchester for most of her career, so it is no surprise that her agency is based in the city. Comms Rebel supports organisations in taking a strategic approach to internal communications, Advita has a passion for supporting frontline workers and loves to help those ‘salt of the earth individuals”. Alongside Comms Rebel, she also started A Leader Like Me, a programme designed to support underrepresented women and non-binary people of colour in the industry. 

Launch of regional agencies expected to be a second order effect

There is no rational reason for London to be the focus of an agency or for startups. The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t reached its end yet and it may be that we start to see a shift in location as a second order effect of the pandemic. It will be interesting to see the development of the agencies included in the report and of agencies that start in the coming years to see whether there are new hotspots or a move away from London.

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Sophie Smith is a MA Media and PR student at Newcastle University. She has worked as a junior consultant at Wadds Inc. during 2021 and supported research on the COVID-19 UK PR Agency Startup project. She hopes to pursue a career with an organisation in the North of England after graduation.

The Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) opportunity for public relations

by Jon White

The COVID 19 pandemic accelerated changes already underway and has placed new emphasis on priorities identified before the pandemic. Before the pandemic, we were well aware that technology is transforming business and working practices. The pandemic showed how dependent we have now become on technology to conduct business, and how much we need it now to maintain social connections.

Among the priorities re-emphasized, we can include concerns for environmental impacts, social consequences of economic activity and the adequacy of arrangements for corporate governance. None of them new, but we are reaching a point where action now needs to be taken to address them.

The concerns are now bundled together under the heading of ESG and presented for management under this heading, used since the early 2000s by organisations such as the United Nations.

The renewed emphasis on ESG creates opportunities for public relations and its development. Since at least the 1970s public relations has dealt with issues relating to the environment and the social consequences of business activities,  as well as the need to broaden management capability to make decisions relating to social questions and the needs of a range of stakeholders over and above investors and customers.

Vuelio Report, ESG Opportunities for Public Relations

These opportunities are set out in a paper written by Stephen Waddington and myself and published in early May 2021 by Vuelio, an organisation offering services to over 3000 clients providing software and support to aid public relations and public affairs practice.

The paper provides a snapshot of current thinking on ESG, describing what it is, how it has been acted upon up to this point and is likely to be taken further in future. Research cited in the paper suggests while practitioners and organisations are relatively unprepared – still – for managing ESG, business leaders are convinced that ESG concerns will become increasingly important in the near future. 

A crunch point

Opportunities for public relations follow on from the fact that we are reaching a crunch point in dealing with ESG concerns:

• Climate change is now recognized as an existential threat -- US President Biden has suggested that this is the decade in which we have to act on environmental protection. Great hopes are attached to the next UN conference on the environment, COP 26, planned for Glasgow in November 2021

• The pandemic has laid bare inequalities between countries in availability of health care. It has also affected different groups within countries more or less severely, with the worst impacts felt by groups more susceptible to infection or economically disadvantaged. There is recognition, now, that current economic arrangements, business practices, are not delivering equally across identifiable social groups

• Corporate governance, found wanting in dealing with the economic crisis of 2008, has not developed sufficiently to deal with new challenges. Its purpose, an ACCA consultation of 2014 suggested, is to create sustainable value. To do this, it will need to call on greater diversity in decision-making and new skills, presently lacking

It is time for action on ESG concerns.  Too often in the past, as the Vuelio report makes clear, commitments are made to act on them but these are rhetorical rather than real. Critics talk of ‘greenwashing’, where claims are made for environmental action which are not realised, or made for ‘cosmetic’ reasons. On corporate governance, lip service is often paid to increasing diversity.

Business leaders are recognizing the need for fundamental change to the ways in which businesses are run.  In 2019, the US Business Roundtable expanded the obligations of business to serve all stakeholders, rather than simply meet the interests of shareholders.

In response to ESG concerns, stakeholder capitalism will create its own demands. According to McKinsey, "Sustaining value creation requires accountability, communication, and updating. It is a process, not a result. For stakeholder capitalism to take root, think years, not months."

Opportunities for public relations

FuturePRoof has looked in the recent past at the opportunities open to public relations to make a greater contribution to strategic, long term management practice.

ESG concerns and the need to respond to them urgently add to these opportunities. Public relations, quite apart from drawing on communication as central to practice, has developed expertise in scanning, monitoring and understanding developments in organisations’ wide social environments.

Ability to do this has been enhanced over recent years by technology and the possibilities of capturing data relating to the current interests and behaviour of stakeholders.

Skill and insight in data interpretation increase the value of public relations advice and the contribution it can make to high-level decision-making and, now, to improvements in corporate governance.

Since the 1970s, expertise in issues management has been developed in public affairs. This includes anticipation, understanding of issue life cycles, and points at which interventions should be made in public debate on issues.

These skills and more will be needed in effective leadership on ESG concerns. The challenge for practitioners will be whether or not they wish to take up the opportunities presented by ESG.

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Dr Jon White is a chartered psychologist and a chartered member and Honorary Fellow of the CIPR. He began his career in communication roles with the Government of Alberta, Canada, progressing through university positions in Canada and the UK to independent consultancy for organisations including large corporations and international government organisations.

The author of two books on public relations, he holds a doctorate in psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is a Visiting Professor at Henley Business School, University of Reading and Honorary Professor, Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media and Culture.

Twitter: @DrJonWhite

Diversity In Action

In this special blog post for #FuturePRoof, conference organisers Advita Patel and Priya Bates look ahead to their Diversity In Action event on 23 March, consider how approaches to diversity differ and converge across the world and talk about how people can become anti-racist. Grab a cuppa and take a read…

What are the top three things attendees will take away from Diversity In Action? 

Priya: How to turn words into actions. This past year, there has been a lot of talk about anti-black racism, diversity, inclusion, equity and belonging. Yet, we see a lot of check-the-box performative gestures versus real performance and progress. Real Talk. Real Action. Real Results.

What it means to be an ally. We'll hear about allyship and what it should look like. We know that so many have the right intent but are hesitant or worried about making mistakes. We'll hear about what allyship means and how it can help make an impact. 

Building a diverse network and participating in the conversation. The networking and connections we make with others with diverse experiences and opinions will help all of us understand perspectives and build the relationships we need to move forward together. 

Priya, you're based in Canada and Advita, you're based in the UK. How do approaches to diversity and inclusion differ and in what way do they converge? 

Priya: Canada, and especially Toronto where I grew up, is known for its multiculturalism and diversity. Although there is still work to do here, what I love about Canada is that it sees it wears its diversity as a badge to be proud of. Since we're close to the USA, I've always compared the "melting pot" that America boasts about as being about everyone assimilating into one version of what it means to be American. I see Canada as being more of a stew – that the different elements retain their uniqueness, and the combination of the diverse flavours and textures creates something warm and comforting. 

With diversity in Canada – we lead from the top (although there is still work to do) with at least an attempt by our Prime Minister to create a more diverse cabinet and prioritise work on gender and indigenous populations. I'm excited about the Black North Initiative pledge signed by 400 Canadian CEOs to drive awareness, action and accountability around anti-black racism. I love the fact that our focus on reparations with indigenous populations is called TRUTH and RECONCILIATION. That how we move forward should focus on the stories we've told and whether they are based in fact or fiction. We're opening our eyes faster in Canada but still have so much work to do. 

Advita: There are times when I think the UK is streets ahead when it comes to diversity and inclusion compared to what's happening across the pond, and then there are moments when I wonder if we've transitioned back 30 years. One of the challenges I think we face is that some of the DEI initiatives can be performative. We focus on one-hit campaigns and then wonder why we do not see change. We also tend to do things in a silo and often end up working against each other. I'm a big believer in the collective voice's power and working together is much more productive than trying to outdo each other. It's one reason why Priya and I were keen to create a conference like Diversity in Action. We want to bring together people who want to part of the change and support each other along the way. 

Is Diversity In Action a business conference or specifically for those in communications?

Priya: The Diversity in Action conference is for everyone who truly wants to progress on diversity initiatives. It's a more intimate conversation that is meant to educate and inspire action. We'll hear first-person perspectives and explore topics across the diversity spectrum, including gender, race, sexual orientation and ability. It's an opportunity to learn and listen. 

Advita: Like Priya said it's for anyone interested in being part of the change. We want this conference to be a safe space for people to ask questions and feel part of the community. I know it's harder when it's through a screen, but we've been quite intentional on the speakers we've chosen and the plan for the day. We want the attendees to be part of the conversation and be able to contribute to the discussions. I want people to connect after the conference and work together to develop ideas, thoughts and solutions. Like I said before if we're going to see a significant change in the DEI space, we all need to work together. 

How practical is the content? 

Priya: I'm very excited about the content and the speaker line-up.

Anita Sanchez, PhD is an executive consultant and author with indigenous roots. She uses indigenous teaching as a foundation for how we can move forward together. I think she will be incredibly inspiring.

Dr Leeno Karumanchery brings us practical solutions that help build anti-racist organisations that benefit everyone. 

Jade Pichette (they/them) from Pride at Work Canada is in the process of publishing a government guide on allyship that will help us understand what it means and how to be an ally.

Adena White will share her process on how to use stories to drive social change. Her podcast, Blackbelt Voices was recognised by both "O" – The Oprah Winfrey Magazine and Vogue in 2020.

Other leaders will share their experiences and perspectives including panels on Disability (led by Mark Webb) and Female CEOs (led by Simone Roche), along with Madiha Jafri talking about her challenges in the STEM space as a woman and person of colour. 

How much do you feel things have moved forward in the drive for equality since the tragic death of George Floyd?

Priya: Today is different as a result of the George Floyd protests that took place globally. Yet it is only one step forward on a conversation that has been happening for hundreds of years. There is now attention through awareness and acknowledgement. Advita and I often say it feels like we're taking one step forward and two steps back on any given day. The fact that we can be talking about the importance of diversity and then seeing conferences and panels announced that are all white still shocks us. It's like the planners are saying it's too much work. There are also a lot of performative gestures – our black boxes if you will. That performance is not followed by progress, making it feel like the flavour of the month issue, and once it's not cool, we can move on. The difference is that the George Floyd murder and global protests have emboldened the impacted communities, and I don't think they are ready to let the conversation fade. 

Advita: I echo Priya's words. I do feel that sometimes the light is dimming when it comes to race equality. I shared a photo of a communications conference line-up a few weeks ago. Out the 35 speakers, 34 were white. When I see things like that it does hurt, it's like they are sticking two fingers up at the conversations and the work that has happened since George Floyd was murdered. 

People have said to me in the past 'we can't find the people'. But the question I ask is 'where have you looked?' because I know we have a challenge in our industry when it comes to race, but we have some pretty incredible folks out there, and some of them on my underrepresented speaker list. A part of this accountability also sits with the speakers. It's essential that we hold conference organisers accountable and don't fear asking if there's fair representation on their list. If they say no or that they are struggling, then ask how you can help. 

Do you think we're finally entering a world in which people can bring their whole selves to the world of work?

Priya: Not yet, but that's the hope. I just presented to a mostly white executive team (one of my clients). As one of the few diverse voices around the table, and as a consultant, I can now comfortably share my perspectives. It's valued more now. I still think companies are recruiting and hiring for diversity to check a box but are not necessarily focusing on inclusion and belonging so that those diverse experiences and opinions can be comfortably shared. Part of the work is for organisations and leaders. Another piece is working on the courage and confidence of the individuals being brought into these positions. When you've been told that you need to assimilate to belong your entire life, that behaviour change is hard, that is what we are working on with A Leader Like Me programmes.

What one thing can we all do as business leaders to actively become anti-racist? 

Priya: I talk about my four As which seems to apply to individuals as well as organisations. First Acknowledge that there is an issue – truly believe that the issues expressed are real. Build Awareness of the facts/numbers supporting the issue today. Have an Action Plan for change – words and behaviours. Be Accountable to results. Someone once said what gets measured matters. 

Advita: They need to understand their bias first. I know leaders who will say things like "I don't see colour" or "I judge people on merit and nothing else," which I don't believe for a second. Every single human being is biased – that's just the way we're programmed. You will naturally gravitate towards someone you can identify with over someone who looks entirely different for you. As a business leader, you need to check in with this bias and make conscious decisions. Look around the room and the people that you lean to for advice. Are you surrounded with replicas of you and people with a similar upbringing or background? If the answer is yes, you might need to connect with others outside of your circle to understand if you 'don't see colour'.  

Who should attend this conference and why? 

Priya: All the data tells us that diverse organisations drive innovation and results. Join the conversation and the conference to listen and learn about what is possible to move us personally and professionally forward regarding diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. I genuinely believe that it will lead to stronger organisations and better communities. 

Advita: Everyone! Honestly, this conference is for anyone who is genuinely interested in learning more about diversity and inclusion. It's for those who feel a bit uncomfortable and want a safe space to explore further and for those who want to know how they can expand on the stuff they've already learned. We have some remarkable industry experts, so this is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a global conversation and connect with others. I want people to understand that they are not alone, and we're here to support. 

You can find out more about the conference at https://aleaderlikeme.com/conferences/div-in-action-conference/. Early bird tickets end 17 February. 

Readers of #FutureRoof can receive 10% discount of the ticket price by using the code Future10.

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Priya Bates is an award-winning professional communicator with a passion for driving strong performance from the inside out. As president and owner of Inner Strength Communication, Priya builds strategic internal communication, engagement, branding and transformational change plans that enable, engage and empower employees to deliver business results. Her clients include organizations and leaders across technology, retail, financial, healthcare, mining and manufacturing sectors looking to build strategic internal communication expertise. 

As co-founder for A Leader Like Me, Priya creates an empowered community for women of colour to help them build skills, define strategies, and find support to grow in their careers. 

Twitter: @priyabates
LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/priyabates
Websites: www.innerstrengthcommunication.com / https://aleaderlikeme.com/

Advita Patel is the Managing Director of CommsRebel, an internal communication and employee experience consultancy based in Manchester, U.K. She's also the co-founder of A Leader Like Me, a global membership programme which helps underrepresented women of colour succeed further in their career.

 Advita helps organisations take the leap and revolutionise the way they communicate with their workforce by using effective measurement techniques and creative tools. She is also a qualified coach/mentor and works with teams and individuals to help them achieve their goals with confidence. 

Advita has spoken at various events and appeared on several podcasts where she speaks about internal communications, measurement, DEI and imposter syndrome. She is a chartered PR practitioner, a Board Director and a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. In 2020 she was named on the Northern Asian Top 100 powerlist and on the top 101 list for Inspiring Workplaces as one of the global influencers for employee experience. 

Twitter: @advita_p
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advitapatel/
Websites: www.commsrebel.com  / https://aleaderlikeme.com/

It’s time to make media training more evidence-based

by Jo Detavernier and Richard Chataway

Media training is traditionally part of a mix of measures taken by communication professionals to prepare their CEOs and other executives for media interviews. 

Executives are offered through media interviews the opportunity to learn and practice the most important techniques they will need to communicate their messages efficiently during an interview. 

The investment made into training people how to deliver corporate messages is an important one, because there is no use for any communication department to go through great pains in designing powerful messages if spokespeople stumble over delivery at the moment of truth. Efficient media communications is in other words a matter of both design and delivery.

Twice we have used the word “efficient”, but what exactly does it mean in the context of media interviews? We consider any efficient media communication to be communication that achieves its desired impact - and that impact will always concern something you want one or more target audiences to know, feel and / or do. 

In media interviews, the delivery of messages needs to accommodate two requirements. First, delivery needs to account for the laws of the media production process. When you are delivering a media interview of which the sound will be taped for example, you will have to talk in very succinct soundbites if you want your messages to survive the cutting room. The medium is indeed very much the message in media relations.

Secondly, the messages need to be formulated in a manner that allows for optimal processing, storing and retrieval in view of the outcomes you desire to achieve with your key audiences. 

Evidently, the journalist is part of that audience as well. He or she is a filter who will pass on the messages to the end-audience or at the very least moderate the conversation to which the audience is made a witness. While the targets you will want to achieve with the media as an audience proper will be limited to them knowing (understanding) what it is you want to convey, just achieving that end through clear communication is already no small feat.

When it comes to having an impact with audiences, the behavioural sciences have an important role to play in injecting what we know already about the science of how messages are best construed and communicated into the ways spokespeople are trained. We will come back later to how things will at times go awry in this domain.

Evidence-based training

What makes a media training (or any other corporate training) evidence-based? 

Rob Briner (Briner, 2019) holds that an evidence-based management approach is one where there is conscientious, explicit and judicious use of the best available evidence. 

Conscientious means that a major effort is made to collect and use the evidence. Explicit means that you describe in detail the evidence on which you end up basing your assertions. Judicious finally means that you critically appraise the quality of the evidence.  

There are still, according to Briner, different sources of knowledge that need to be consulted if you want to talk about evidence-based management. It is by aggregating the insights of these different sources that a holistic view on reality is acquired. The more of the different sources you manage to consult, the more solid your findings will be. 

Briner identifies the four sources that matter as: scientific literature, organisational information, the opinions of stakeholders and professional expertise. 

In the context of media training this implies that you will want to know what the behavioural sciences have to say about the impact of your messages, what the editorial policies of the media consist of, what the opinions are of journalists and how these are communicated and what consultants have learned through experience about how media interviews are best prepared for and conducted.

Contrary to what some might believe, an evidence-based management approach does not exclude a trainer from relying on his or her experience. There are limits however to what that experience might bring to the table. Professional experience lacks the multitude of data points that are delivered through a scientific design, it comes with no immediate feedback on what has been undertaken (making it hard to discern causal relationships) and it provides for no information collection in ceteris paribus environments (Detavernier, 2020).

For all the reasons mentioned above, those aspects of a media training where a trainer will be able to make use of their own experience to gauge the impact of certain delivery techniques on target audiences are limited. 

How could, just to give one example, a media trainer have any knowledge on whether negations used in statements (“we do not plan to…”) are well understood and processed by target audiences?

Without wanting to give less than due credit to the organisational knowledge and input of stakeholders, our opinion is that the integration of scientific insights into media training is where the most significant improvements can be made. Whoever sets themselves the challenge of this will have to navigate skillfully between the Scylla and Charibdis of quasi- and pseud-science.

Roads to nowhere

Different cases exist of claims that have been shared and sold as ‘scientific’ to trainees but have since proven to be less than accurate.  Together with the Institute for Public Relations Detavernier (Detavernier, 2019) endeavoured to identify three ‘classics’ of the genre. 

• Verbal communication only accounts for 7 percent of the impact of communication

Body language would account for 55 percent of the impact of communication, the voice of a spokesperson for 38 percent and words said for no more than 7 percent. All of this is a misconception that is rooted in an erroneous reading of the research from Albert Mehrabian. The so-called “7/38/55”-rule is a simplification of findings that does not do justice to Mehrabian’s findings. That being said, we do not mean to imply that body language has no impact whatsoever.

• You should always repeat a message three times

An executive should repeat a message three times during a conversation if he or she wants their audience to pick up on the message. Let us repeat this one more time: a message should be conveyed three times for it to be understood. This rule of thumb has no empirical foundation. How many times a message needs to be repeated depends completely on circumstances.

• Audiences do not process negations

Actually, we should not have picked this subheader, if we were truly afraid you would not process the negation. Intuitively one might accept readily that negations can not be processed but this learning, which has probably found its way into media training through the influence of neuro-linguistic programming, is not correct.

Empirical research

Executives should not despair at the differences in what they’ve been taught. The good news is that in the last few decades scientists acquired a great many insights on the efficient design and delivery of messages in media interviews through solid empirical research.  Aurélie De Waele, An-Sofie Claeys en Michaël Opgenhaffen (De Waele, Claeys en Opgenhaffen, 2020) have inventorized what we know now about what works and does not work. On their list we find that it is important for spokespeople to (among other things):  

• Make eye contact with the interviewer

• Resist touching your face

• Not smile when you apologize for a mistake

• Not speak too slowly with a high pitch

• Not speak with a monotonous voice

The authors scanned the recommendations of different media trainers as they could be found in media training manuals and found a lot of outdated advice. One example of such outdated learning is the claim that is a cardinal sin for any spokesperson to respond with a ‘no comment’, when crisis communication research paints a much more nuanced picture of the usefulness of such a reply.

Choice of evidence-based providers

There is no reason why executives should not have the same demand for high-quality media training as they do for other essential goods and services delivered by the communication department. The degree to which a training is evidence-based will decide the degree to which the techniques that are taught will truly help spokespeople accomplish the communication goals they have set for themselves.

In other words: the evidence-based character of media training merits being one of the criteria that is evaluated by buyers when different offerings are compared.

But how can you gauge the degree to which any media training is evidence-based? There are no ISO or other standards available for media training. 

What professional communicators can do is ask up front to consult (at least part of) the course material. The best providers of media training already integrate quite a few scientific findings in their courses (and reference their sources transparently). 

Where providers refuse to share in advance information on the evidence-based nature of their course material, through a preview or other ways, such denial can and should be interpreted as an indicator of potential quality flaws.

Bibliography

Briner, Rob, The Basics of Evidence-Based Practice. SHRM Executive Network, 2019, 7 pp. 

De Waele, Aurelie, An-Sofie Claeys en Michael Opgenhaffen, Preparing to face the media in times of crisis: Training spokespersons’ verbal and nonverbal cues.  Public Relations Review, Volume 46, Issue 2, June 2020.

Detavernier, Jo, Three things your media trainer should never have told you. IPR website, 2019 - link: https://instituteforpr.org/three-things-your-media-trainer-should-never-have-told-you

Detavernier, Jo, Rob Briner interview: Management consultants do not know how to read the scientific literature. Jo Detavernier website, 2020 - link: https://www.jodetavernier.com/2020/07/rob-briner-interview-management-consultants-do-not-know-how-to-read-the-scientific-literature/

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This article is written by Jo Detavernier, principal of Detavernier Strategic Communication, and Richard Chataway, principal of the Communication Science Group - the authors launched their own evidence-based media training in 2020. A version of this article appeared earlier in Dutch in the print version of MT Magazine.

Twitter: @JoDetavernier
Twitter: @rich_chataway

COVID’s silver lining - a shared purpose

by Ranjeet Kaile

Where before NHS communication teams up and down the country may have had to fight to get heard, they are now the bridge bringing the organisation and the wider community closer together through a shared purpose. 

You’ll learn:

• About the need for a multi-agency approach to deal with the increase in demand for mental health 

services caused by COVID-19

• How action planning must be based on the needs of the community

• That the NHS comms role now more than ever is to support the transformation of hospitals into 

community assets

Beyond the expected surge in mental health demand from existing service users, we can anticipate that there will be a much wider and deeper impact on the population as the country continues to deal with COVID-19. 

Evidence shows that in times of significant crisis or financial turmoil, there is a substantial increase in people who have never previously accessed mental health services suddenly finding themselves in need of support. 

We also know that there is a strong correlation with the impact that recessions have on the growth in suicidal behaviours. According to the Office for National Statistics we are now in the worst recession since World War II. We have all heard of the tragic increases in domestic violence.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to reconsider so many of the rules of communication that have stood strong over the last 20 years or so. Pre-COVID, if you wanted to launch a big campaign to talk about the above issues you would bring people physically together. If you wanted to engage the community, you would contact them and then ask to come out and meet them. All of this, of course, is not possible in the current or ‘new normal’ world that we live in but all the while, the lack of engagement causes increased risk of social isolation and mental ill-health.

Traditionally prevention is the domain of public health administered through local authorities but COVID-19 has meant that rulebooks have been re-written, with the full support of partner organisations, to allow people to get the help they need now.

A multi-agency rallying call

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation were the first off the blocks issuing a rallying call to all our statutory partners across south London to take part in an urgent virtual summit to prevent a mental health crisis. Council leaders, experts by experience, community partners and clinicians all answered the appeal. 

Through social media, within five working days over 1000 people had registered to attend. On the 2 June 2020, we held our first virtual summit where leaders pledged that their organisations would take part in a two-year mental health prevention programme. 

In July 2020, we formed the South London COVID-19 Preventing Mental-ill Health Taskforce, which has representation from the three mental health trusts, two integrated care systems, local authorities, healthwatch, councillors, community and experts by experience to help shape the ambitions of the programme. It is incredible when through all this darkness you can see rays of light coming through. Coronavirus has bound us towards a shared purpose like never before. 

 Through the work of the taskforce, clinicians and experts by experience, the outputs of the summit were refined into six key themes of focus including:

• Social isolation, loneliness and community involvement

• Helping people who are at risk of losing their jobs cope

• Housing insecurity and environment

• Supporting disadvantaged communities and groups

• Supporting families, children and young people

• Developing a long-term, joined-up approach to prevention

Our second virtual summit in November 2020 used these themes to focus heavily on action planning based on the needs of the community. 

Working with the community

We knew getting into the heart of our communities was crucial. Following a robust procurement process, we partnered with the national charity Citizens UK to help us engage, in a COVID safe way, through a four-month community listening programme from November 2020 – February 2021. This will be followed by a Spring summit at which we will share the co-produced two-year action plan in its entirety.

Writing this down in this way feels like summarising war and peace onto a few pages but this multi-system programme of work is the culmination of hundreds of hours of work involving many people from across the south London system, who have all given their time to a cause that they feel strongly about and can see the very real danger of if we don’t take action in a united way. 

Ultimately this tragic pandemic has thrust communications to the heart of the organisation’s business. Where once NHS communication teams up and down the country would be fighting to get heard, we now find ourselves as the bridge which brings the organisation and the wider community closer together through a shared purpose. 

Our role now more than ever before is to support the transformation of hospitals into community assets. Assets that ultimately help to reduce health and social inequalities. The only way we can do this effectively is by opening the door wide open to ask for support from local communities who can use their networks to help us shape the solutions and convey our messages in a way we would never be able to dream of doing on our own.

The future remains to be seen as we move from one wave to another, one lockdown to the next, but what we do know is that we are committed for the long haul and that the strategic value of communications has never been more evident than ever before.

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Ranjeet Kaile is the director of communications, stakeholder engagement and public affairs at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, as well as interim director of communications at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust.

He has 20 years’ marketing and communication experience working in some of the country’s most challenging public sector arenas.

Since joining the Trust in 2013, Ranjeet has built an award-winning service leading a number of innovations that have directly benefitted patient care. 

He is passionate about public services, community engagement and access to services. He is a Trustee for Alcohol Change UK. 

Twitter: @Ranjeet_Kaile
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ranjeetkailecommsleadership/

Research, government fear porn and COVID-19

by Adam Shepphard 

Research by its very nature takes a long time, sometimes 10-15 years to go through three clinical trial phases before it is licensed and introduced as standard patient care. COVID-19 changed the rule book, creating a unique communications challenge. 

You’ll learn:

• How internal comms was prioritised at the start of the pandemic in order to keep research stakeholders up to date with fast paced changes to studies

• That crisis comms necessitates a fast sign off process if the information shared is to stay current

• The challenge of managing the ‘new normal’ of COVID-19 comms on top of a heavy-duty existing 

workload

As I emerged from Hogwarts, with the taste of Butter Beer still fresh in my mouth, the world was still the same as when I’d entered. 

I’d spent the afternoon at a major UK tourist attraction, at some points packed in quite closely to other visitors. It was 6 March 2020 and driving from the Warner Bros Studio Tour to our next destination we passed the Royal Berkshire Hospital, which the previous evening had reported the UK’s first COVID-19-related death. From that point my world was never the same. 

My role is complex; I’m the communications lead for research and innovation at England’s biggest hospital trust. I also lead comms for two Manchester-based National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) organisations—that’s a lot of research and a lot of researchers. 

(Greater) Manchester prides itself on “doing things differently” as Factory Records boss and Mancunian legend Tony Wilson once said. Our Health and Social Care devolution in 2016 allows us to address our challenges holistically, including our research and innovation infrastructure, which brings together the NHS, universities and other partners to form the “One Manchester” approach. This means communicating for my organisations as well as supporting the wider Greater Manchester response.

An immediate change in pace

Research by its very nature takes a long time, sometimes 10-15 years to go through all three clinical trial phases before it is licensed and introduced as standard patient care. I can publicise a study opening and it may be another 12 months before we can talk about the first participant recruited. COVID-19 research doesn’t follow that rulebook.

I’ve dealt with crises before, but the kind that are usually over in hours, a day, or a couple of weeks. COVID-19 was, and still is, a crisis without a clear end in sight. It immediately necessitated a complete rethink in what we were doing day-to-day: how, where and when we communicated with staff; what we could say externally; and the rapid consideration and prioritisation of the huge volume of activity coming our way.

There was no more 12 months for recruitment. Patients were recruited to trials in a matter of days and studies continued to open, and adapt, at a rapid pace. This all needed to be communicated internally and externally. 

Our internal comms more than quadrupled; our monthly Managing Director blog became weekly and we created a dedicated COVID-19 research intranet section with pages for each individual study. This long-term “nice to have” goal for other studies now became an essential. Daily updates, including physical changes to research space and the latest recruitment figures were published across the whole trust. We also ran several highly successful recruitment campaigns for our staff to take part in studies.

We created dedicated COVID-19 sections on our bespoke research and innovation website and the main trust website. We wanted as much information as possible open and available for the public and the media to challenge the fake news that was already filling up social media.

Cut through and careful timing 

We also had to be conscious of the noise in the system and making sure we cut through. Some of our researchers were receiving internal comms from five or six organisations. Negotiating the multitude of pressures and requests to “get some comms out”, my philosophy was short, snappy “to the point” comms, delivered at the same time, on the same day of the week, through the same channels. 

If I’ve learnt one thing from crisis comms management over the last decade, it’s that whatever is getting approved is usually going to be out of date by the time it comes back. In bringing partners together from across Greater Manchester we had their approval process to navigate, our own rigorous internal approval process, and, additionally, approval from NHS England and NIHR for anything external. 

How did I facilitate that process and make sure we delivered timely and accurate communications? Working day and night for months with sign offs at midnight, emails at 3am and Bank Holidays behind a laptop. This will sound very familiar to all public sector comms colleagues during the pandemic. 

And it worked; staff felt informed and supported, our public made aware of how we were not only treating patients in Manchester but also helping the worldwide COVID-19 effort, and our media buy-in was fantastic. We achieved coverage from America to Australia telling some amazing stories about our researchers and our research participants. BBC coverage of an innovative PPE design brought offers of investment and mass production to that team, and for us that Holy Grail of “comms added value”, away from website visits and Twitter engagements. 

Pressure from political quarters

Additional pressure and complexities during this time came from an unexpected area – the President of the United States. Once President Trump tweeted about hydroxychloroquine every media outlet in the world wanted to know about it, creating further demand for the team. 

And while the nation stood at their doors applauding the NHS, pubs and restaurants opened, family and friends began to see each other to enjoy the summer months, NHS comms teams continued to check social media to see what was being said.

#covidhoax

“The pandemic is over stop milking it”

“A virus no stronger than a cold”

“See how much money keeping up this charade is worth to them”

“Peddling a dystopian narrative”

“Sharing government fear porn because you have lucrative research projects”

With this came personal attacks. At the time of writing this chapter I’ve just been called a “shameful person for distorting the truth”. While it sounds like a Malcolm Tucker Badge of Honour, I never thought a global health pandemic would be the time I was most under attack for my profession. 

We’re all human and what we do is needed

Defending your role as a comms professional in the NHS is something I’m used to, not least with the annual cry of “Spend money on real doctors, not spin doctors”. 

But if a patient or a family member has read one of my stories, watched one of my videos or engaged with one of my campaigns and it’s prompted a lifestyle change, a visit to a GP, or for them to take part in research which has improved or saved their life (or the lives of others), that proves comms is worth investing in.

As summer came so did the call to “get back to business”. Prior to the pandemic, my team were supporting over 800 research studies. Many of these studies reactivated, meaning we were we faced with the dual challenge of high priority, high media interest COVID-19 comms, along with supporting our other studies – equally as important to our patients and participants in improving the care and treatment for their conditions. This will be our “new normal” for the foreseeable future. 

The last eight months (I’m writing this in October) have highlighted just how critical clear and effective comms are. Complaints of mixed messages ping from our screens daily. In a constantly evolving landscape, it’s an almost impossible task to get it right all of the time, but the NHS has been exemplary in doing this, at both local and national levels. 

Research is now, and will continue to be, a major news topic and we have the spotlight to tell the world about the amazing work being done. I’ve never been prouder to be an NHS communicator, and of my team, my colleagues, and our NHS comms community.

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Adam Shepphard has nearly a decade of NHS comms and marketing management experience and has worked across a variety of areas including commissioning, specialist and acute hospitals, and research and innovation.

He is currently the communications lead for Research and Innovation at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, the Manchester Diagnostic Technology Accelerator (DiTA), NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre, and NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility. 

Since March 2020 he has been leading an extensive programme of work highlighting more than 30 (and growing) cutting-edge COVID-19 clinical research studies to internal, regional, national and international audiences. 

Twitter: @adamshepphard
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adam-shepphard-1419bb14/

Values, culture and behaviour as an organisation’s bedrock, especially in a crisis

by Lisa Ward

Now, more than ever, organisations need to focus on their values and behaviours and ensure staff feel empowered to meet the challenge of a global pandemic. 

You’ll learn:

• How a collaborative, compassionate culture can help organisations to adapt and innovate

• About the need for space and resources for NHS staff whose mental health has been impacted by COVID-19

• That kindness is crucial when people feel destablised

How do you know if an organisation has good values? Why does it matter if they get the job done? 

Having been around the block in my 25 years in a wide range of communications and PR roles, I can tell you good values matter. They matter to the people working in the organisation, but importantly they have a direct impact on the people the organisation does business with and that the NHS cares for. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting impact on how the whole world operates, so in that sense it is a uniting force. It has changed the lives of all of us and for some, forever. 

I’ve been saying a lot during the last seven months that if the pandemic has taught me anything, it’s the importance of ensuring that you have put the hard yards into developing a culture that fosters the right response when faced with a crisis. Although we didn’t know this was coming, the strong values and collaborative, compassionate culture in so many organisations has helped the NHS respond. It has helped organisations to adapt, innovate and create new ways of working.

The NHS is still very much dealing with the biggest challenge in its 72 year history and it would be easy for those values and behaviours to be pushed to one side to get the job done. The last seven months have been relentless for those of us not on the frontline so I can only imagine how challenging it really has been for care providers. 

Mental health matters

Which brings me onto a key point. We know about the physical impact that COVID-19 has already had on so many people. Many NHS staff have been seriously ill and tragically lost their lives. But what we do not really know yet is the fall out in terms of mental health. 

We know that NHS leaders have real fears about the mental health of staff and burnout. There hasn’t been any downtime for the NHS. As soon as the first wave of cases decreased, they were restarting the elective and planned care and other services that had reduced during the peak. Supporting staff whose mental health has been impacted requires them to be in an organisation that has a culture that wraps itself around them and gives them the space and resources to get better. 

Strong and consistent leadership has come into question throughout the pandemic and it has been heartening to see so many positive examples of strong, compassionate leadership throughout the trusts that my organisation represents. It is this and those leaders living the right values and behaving in the right way that has helped so many staff to keep going. Critically, it has also meant that staff have been able to ask for help. 

Give people permission

Values help to guide leaders when making difficult decisions and responding to difficult situations. It also means that the workforce knows what is expected of them. A values-based culture combined with compassionate leadership gives people permission. It gives permission to try new ways of working, implement new ideas or trial new equipment. If this is ‘the way we do things round here’ when not in crisis, it will mean that the response to the crisis will be done without fear and in the knowledge that the leadership has their back. 

Compassionate, values-based organisations also give staff permission and the confidence to raise concerns and speak up about errors and problems. 

At NHS Providers we have gathered so many examples of how teams across trusts have adapted and innovated during the pandemic, all with the aim of providing the best possible care for patients. This has been both directly and indirectly. I have heard about redundant sleep apnoea machines being adapted to be used as additional ventilator capacity, a trust manufacturing their own PPE and a cancer alliance carrying out COVID safe robotic cancer surgery. There are also many examples of health and wellbeing support for staff, that have helped those staff to continue looking after patients. 

Everyone has found this crisis difficult on some level, but if your core values are strong and you have a support network around you it makes responding to this much easier to embark on. I can only imagine how difficult it has been in organisations without strong leadership, without the bedrock of a solid, values-based culture and where staff do not feel heard, respected, trusted, and cared for. 

I have been blessed with a great career that has provided me with so many rewarding, positive experiences and triumphs. But I have also experienced some extreme lows. The difference? How that organisation lived, breathed and implemented their values and how it was led. I can relate to those people who will have found responding to the pandemic unbelievably difficult. But I can also relate to those who know they are cared for and supported by their employer.

Avoid a say do gap

It’s easy to write words on a bit of paper to describe what your organisation stands for. Anyone can do that. We’re all aware of organisations inside and outside of healthcare telling us that they are kind, have integrity, respect each other, are compassionate and so on but it is so much more than that and the pandemic will have exposed this. 

There has never been a greater need for organisations to focus on their values and behaviours and to take this opportunity to evaluate if they are the right ones and whether they are empowering the workforce to meet the challenge of a global pandemic. 

But most importantly there has never been a greater need to consistently live your values and be kind to each other. In the most uncertain and destabilising period for generations, kindness goes an awfully long way. 

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Lisa Ward is head of communications at NHS Providers. Prior to joining NHS Providers in November 2018, Lisa spent more than ten years in the NHS heading up communications teams at acute trusts and before that was a chief press officer at the Department of Health. 

Twitter: @LisaWardComms

The importance of internal comms to the NHS and social care system

by Ross Wigham 

Boundaries between internal and external communications have blurred, with NHS staff often using external sources to get their information. To ensure cut through of accurate COVID-19-related news, a new strategy was needed to ensure messaging was received by everyone in the organisation. 

You’ll learn:

• About the strategic importance of internal communications since the start of the pandemic

• The importance of consistency and authenticity in building trust with staff

• How a staff surveying scheme has helped inform management decision making and information sharing, made staff feel valued and reduced stress

I wish I was writing this chapter in happier circumstances, but sadly health and care staff right across the country have been working in absolutely exceptional circumstances for a sustained period of time now.

As national chair of NHS Providers’ communications group and also an NHS communicator on the coal face, I’ve seen this first hand and really want to say thank you to all the teams who have been working so hard in such difficult times.

As professional communicators we’ve had a key role to play in this crisis not only with the public, but also in supporting, engaging, informing and updating our own staff. It goes to prove what we’ve always known about strong communications and public relations being so vital, especially during times of crisis. This has certainly been a profound and perhaps an existential challenge that has needed a huge volume of communications effort.

The importance of internal comms

Internal comms can sometimes feel like the poor relation to PR in the public sector, but with the current workforce challenges coupled with the global pandemic it’s become more important than ever during the past eight months.

During the crisis I’ve had roles at two different NHS organisations – one smaller and centralised, the other large and dispersed – but one thing that has really struck me is the importance of getting the internal communications rhythm and volume just right. Too much, too quickly and people get information burn out, too slow and not enough and they will quickly become cynical.

For some time traditional boundaries between internal and external comms have been breaking down, with staff becoming more used to getting information from elsewhere and using networks that are primarily designed for communicating with the public.

Consistent approach

Having a different ‘face’ for the public and the people you employ has not really been viable during this crisis, especially when you want to create trust and consistency in your organisation.

Under such huge scrutiny and pressure the information presented to the public and staff had to be consistent to be authentic and believable at a time when trust in national messaging was at times very low, particularly on issues like PPE or testing.

Employees now access messages from so many sources that the lines between staff and public comms are blurred and far less defined in the social media age. Everything needs to be lined up and balanced because our staff are the public too.

Strategy

The starting point for us in the pandemic was developing a really clear strategy on how we planned to communicate with people during an unprecedented event. In Gateshead the external challenge was large and fairly straight forward but internally it was really complex. We had to quickly provide a team that could cover strategic and tactical operations over seven days and make sure our own 5,000 staff understood what was going on. Our strategy was to effectively create a newsfeed for staff that could be accessed by email or smartphone app at any time.

Seeking feedback to make sure people were getting what they need was really important even during a crisis. In a fast moving situation we tried to do this though Twitter DMs, email and online surveys.

Working at such pace and scale in a way the NHS has never done before reminded me a bit of the comparison between the symphony of test match cricket vs the pop music of T20 – it’s the same skills but a totally different game.

Teamwork

During COVID-19 we’ve seen first-hand how amazing frontline NHS staff are, but also appreciated the vital role that support staff play in mobilising such a mammoth effort. It simply couldn’t be done without HR, facilities, logistics, cleaners and all the others who are playing a huge part, so our communications needed to appreciate and understand that.

Strong networks and group support were vital and one thing that has been invaluable is our daily call with heads of communications across the North East but also national groups like NHS Providers and all the informal virtual support for comms people that sprung up organically.

The importance of trust

We know that trust in institutions has been falling for some time and while the NHS is a much loved institution it’s certainly not bullet proof. The organisations that did well during the crisis were the ones that worked hard to build trust over the longer term, used the right spokespeople and engaged with staff in an open and responsive way.

I know that many will disagree here but over-communication, especially for staff, is a huge risk. There is so much noise in the system I can see how staff can switch off when bombarded with too much information. We needed to keep space for thought and reflection so that the really urgent issues can cut through the noise. In both Gateshead and Northumbria we restricted communications to clear, dedicated bursts at set times during the week so that people knew when to tune into the things that were really important.

Listen and support

One of the easiest ways to find out how staff are feeling and whether your channels are hitting the mark is to ask them.

In Northumbria Healthcare the team stepped up their determination to listen and support staff with a scheme that saw more than 10,000 responses.

When the pandemic started the trust established Corona Voice, a weekly survey of staff where anyone could raise issues, provide information, answer questions or just say how they were feeling at the time.

The system received 10,044 responses from staff in the first three months and gave senior managers a real-time way of resolving issues and supporting staff groups. This provided the organisation’s gold command with a weekly thermometer of staff morale but also informed decision making on some key issues. Each week the results would be published so that staff could see what was being said overall and get some feedback from senior management.

Not only did this make staff feel valued, but it also helped them to express any negative feelings and reduce stress. 

It also helped the organisation understand the impact of changes to working patterns and redeployment, if key messages and national communications were hitting home, how worries and anxiety were impacting on staff and what could be done to help.

The internal comms team got some fantastic feedback through this system and worked closely with the HR and staff experience teams to ensure this was a success. Some of the best feedback came from those on the frontline.

Supporting staff and ensuring they can offer the best possible care has been a key driver in the wider success in Northumberland and North Tyneside, with recent public satisfaction scores actually increasing to 94% during the pandemic.

As well as this, results for Northumbria Healthcare from the Care Quality Commission’s adult inpatient survey 2019 were the highest in the North East and among the best in the country.

Reward and recognition

One thing I was reminded of by staff right throughout the pandemic was that staff wanted our work to reflect the successes in very dark times. Many wanted us to provide some kind of antidote to the understandable media focus on death rates. 

That’s where our internal and external comms would meet to celebrate patient recovery and really recognise the achievements of all staff in achieving this. Some of the most special moments were the videos we captured of patients being clapped out of hospital when they recovered or colleagues from across the emergency services coming together to applaud each other’s efforts.

While these were some of the darkest days we’ve known, they were also some of our proudest moments as professional communicators.

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Ross Wigham is chair of the NHS Providers #CommsLeads network and deputy director at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Before this he was head of communications and marketing at Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Twitter: @RossWigham

In a crisis do the simple things well

by Michael Carden

For the one of the first NHS trusts in the UK to be impacted by COVID-19 the message was clear, the comms team needed to keep it simple, keep learning and keep going. A key priority had to be keeping everyone safe and avoiding burn out from an incident with no clear end date.

You’ll learn:

• That in a crisis, going back to the fundamentals can provide a framework for activity and help build confidence 

• The importance of being in the room where information is shared and decisions are taken

• How the values of openness, transparency and appreciation are crucial to organisational resilience and cohesion

There from the start 

We were one of the very first trusts in the country to treat people for coronavirus. We sent our first all-staff email out at the end of January and received our first patient the following week. 

We treated some of the highest numbers of patients requiring critical care in the country, including the prime minister. Our teams weren’t just on the frontline of our adult and children’s hospitals either – we run community services for two large London boroughs. 

So as a comms team we really do feel like we’ve been right through this from the very beginning. 

Here’s a few reflections on how, in times of crisis, it’s doing the simple things well that counts. 

Facing up to the challenge 

So what prepares you for doing an NHS comms job through a global pandemic such as COVID-19? 

In some respects, nothing could have prepared any of us for the way in which the pandemic took hold, shutting down our schools, pubs, restaurants and shops. For not being able to see our friends and family for months on end. For generating a sense of fear and uncertainty across the whole country. And for the sheer relentlessness of the work, long hours, day-in day-out, over such a long period of time. 

What made this most challenging, and what has made it so different to other crises or incidents, has been the way it has affected each and every one of us outside work as well as professionally. Coronavirus has invaded every single inch of our lives, physically and emotionally.

There were many times when I sat, slightly dazed after another full-on day at the hospital, in a deserted train carriage on my way home from the ghost town that was central London, wondering what on earth was going on, and whether I was even coming close to doing the right thing at work. 

I’m sure that colleagues right across the country were feeling the same thing.

Take a deep breath 

But, in so many other respects, we were all so much more prepared than we thought. 

All our collective years of professional communications experience meant that we had all the skills we needed at our fingertips. It was just about taking a deep breath and remembering this in the context of what we were all living through. 

Fundamentally, this was about getting clear messages out, to the right people, in a timely way. Basic communications – simple right? 

Finding our feet 

Well yes, but also very much no. 

We were having to juggle operational and emotional communications, and to balance working at full pelt with keeping our team safe and avoiding burn out from an incident with no clear end date. 

This felt extremely difficult in the early days. While our trust had been managing the response earlier than most, things escalated very quickly from an operational and societal perspective as the virus took hold. 

But once we established a simple rota, making sure the right mix of people - both from a seniority and skills perspective - were available on site while allowing others to work from home, we found our rhythm. Here are some things that I learned.

Be in the right meetings

I am lucky to work somewhere where this happens, in the most part, as a matter of course. But not always, and I have worked places where it absolutely doesn’t, whether by oversight or design. 

Put simply, if you don’t know what’s going on, you can’t communicate it properly. More importantly, you can’t influence it, shape it, or challenge it. Make sure you’re in the right rooms, actual or virtual. 

Put patients first

It’s why we’re all here right? Think about what they need to know and what they might be worried about. Use all of your many channels to inform and reassure on a regular basis. Listen to what they are saying and respond. Be clear, honest and human. 

Give staff the facts… 

Our comms absolutely had to make sure people knew what they needed to know. What mask is it this week? How do you wear it? How do I get into work? What do I do if someone at home has symptoms? 

So the information flow never stopped, and we made lots of changes to make sure that this information was both more frequent but also more accessible. 

We sent daily chief executive emails and shifted our all-staff briefings online. We created a Coronavirus hub on our intranet designed to be the single point of information for staff, a virtual one-stop shop for working life through a pandemic. 

…but think about their feelings too 

We also wanted our comms to help staff feel that the trust was there for them and valued everything they were doing. 

We tried to be open and honest - when we didn’t know the answer to something we said so. 

We used every opportunity to recognise achievements and to say thank you. 

We highlighted the contribution that everyone was making, not just the clinical teams, fantastic as they were. Everyone played an absolutely vital role in our response, and we wanted them to know that.

Protect your people

We had some high profile patients who attracted significant national and international media attention, as did some staff as a result of this. But it’s our job to protect their privacy and best interests and to help them through the situation, just like anyone else.

Just because there is interest in someone, that doesn’t mean people are entitled to know more, whoever they are. Stick to your guns. 

Celebrate success

There’s always light in the darkest of times, and we’ve seen some amazing examples of how NHS staff have responded to the situation. Find the right stories, treat them sensitively, and think about the most appropriate way and time to tell them.

Did it work? 

As you’d expect, we’ve done lots of evaluation and, while we definitely didn’t get everything right, we’re really proud of what we achieved. 

It’s important to remember that we are not the sole influencers of people, and nor should we be. But at times of such heightened stress and uncertainty, with inconsistent information flying around from so many different sources, it is our job to help our patients and staff navigate this.

Here’s what one of our staff told us via our internal comms survey: 

“At a very difficult time, clear, concise and well balanced communication made all the difference in making staff feel appreciated, overviewing what was going on across the trust and helping to navigate through these incredibly difficult, confusing and sometimes harrowing times.”

Keep going

None of what I’ve written in this piece is complicated, but remembering that when the world is coming crashing down around you is difficult. 

And it doesn’t mean there is no place for innovation during a crisis – quite the opposite, and there will be countless examples of NHS comms teams, including ours, who have responded in the most creative of ways to the challenges they faced. 

But when the things get really tough, and you think you don’t know what to do next, keep it simple, keep learning, and keep going – you do know what to do. 

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Michael Carden heads up the media and internal communications teams at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, where he has worked since February 2018. Prior to this he was head of communications at King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. Michael has been in NHS communications since 2005, working for local and national organisations including a number of years at the Department of Health, where he worked on the swine flu pandemic and the response to the Francis Inquiry amongst other things. 

Twitter: @mdcarden
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michael-carden/ 

Out of adversity comes opportunity – launching a PPE manufacturing unit in a pandemic

by Paul Dunn and Sarah Rose

When supplies of personal protective equipment were exhausted during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust decided to take matters in its own hands and create a local manufacturing facility. 

You’ll learn:

• About organisational vulnerability when supply chains fail

• That community support can work as an interim support measure

• How an entrepreneurial mindset can revolutionise operations, build resilience and aid job creation

When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity. President John F Kennedy

It may be early in our collective COVID-19 journey to consider the opportunities that have been born out of adversity. Some might even say it is crass to mention the word opportunity given what has gone before and what we may face over the coming months ahead. But like with every crisis, there will be learning opportunities and there are many with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). 

The context

As the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, the media headlines were consumed by the number of cases, number of deaths, number of people in hospital… we could go on. Fear was an overriding emotion that consumed the nation and added to this fear was the news regarding PPE.

Every day, headlines in the news appeared about PPE. From hospitals, care homes, care providers and GP surgeries all at risk of running out, through to consignments being stuck on aeroplanes and everything else in between. Our reliance on the international markets for PPE may work well when the wheels of the world are working, but when faced with a pandemic and the world technically shuts down, we are all vulnerable. 

Nationally there was, and continues to be, national NHS coordination of supplies. In fact the Army were commissioned to help support distribution of PPE. 

When there are issues with manufacturing and delivery, it impacts on everyone. Being reliant on pallet drops of PPE from people who don’t really understand the geography and the make-up of the health and care system is fundamentally problematic. Many organisations were getting each other’s expected deliveries, what was promised was not delivered and it became very clear that central coordination of this was actually an impossible job. 

At this point let us be clear on the importance of PPE during a pandemic. PPE saves lives.

The community call to arms 

As the headlines ramped up and we put out a ‘community call to arms’, our local communities responded with everyone wanting to help. People of all ages, businesses of all persuasions, schools and prisons all came together for a common goal to do their bit to support the NHS. From homemade face masks and visors to kit bags, those sewing machines that were hidden under the stairs for many years went into overdrive. The NHS is, and will continue to be, ever grateful for the amazing support.

The opportunity

No matter how much support from the local community was given this could never fill the gap of essential PPE equipment, specifically clinical gowns and scrubs, which were needed as part of infection prevention and keeping our staff safe. NHS organisations and other care providers didn’t know, from one day to the next, what would be delivered. Given that hospitals would on average go through thousands of gowns each day, this was increasingly becoming a critical issue. 

Following an opportunistic conversation between Northumbria Healthcare and Sarah Rose from Hobart Rose, a local textiles and manufacturing company, it was clear that we could resolve this very real issue with local manufacturing. This rapidly created a unique partnership that mobilised within weeks and, at the height of a pandemic and strict lockdown rules, created essential PPE equipment not only for Northumbria Healthcare but the whole of the north. 

Over two million pieces of PPE equipment have been made in a matter of months and supplies across the region are well placed to support all organisations as we embark on the second wave of COVID-19. 

But more importantly this is a positive legacy that will not only get us through the pandemic but beyond. Northumbria Healthcare is committed to locally manufacturing as much as it practicably can. No longer will it be reliant on international markets for key pieces of protective equipment and this not only builds resilience but creates employment opportunities. 

More product lines are being added, including pillow cases, with other NHS organisations choosing to be supplied via this newly formed NHS manufacturing hub. Demands are such we have moved to new premises to ensure we can grow and evolve as demands increase. 

Out of the face of adversity, innovation has not only meant we can keep people safe and protected but we can support our local economy with job creation too.

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Paul Dunn is the executive director of finance for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and has been since 2004. He is a qualified accountant with over 25 years experience of working in the health service. Paul helped develop the trust’s successful application for foundation status and long-term financial strategy.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/paul-dunn-1819b339/

Sarah Rose is a consultant to Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing Hub and managing director of Lucas Jacob Ltd. She has extensive experience in textile sourcing and manufacturing within the UK and internationally. With over 27 years of running her own business she has developed networks, throughout the UK and abroad, boosting the economy and creating jobs within the region and nationwide whilst developing and supporting apprenticeship training schemes, university placements and mentoring. She is passionate about the industry and a committed proven champion for MADE IN UK product. Since launching the Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing Hub, this work has been awarded a hotly contested Chief Executive Making a Difference Award.

Twitter @sarahrose126
Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/sarah-rose-23294922/
Instagram: @sarahk1206

COVID-19 lessons: Comms as a way to lead world-class messaging and engagement

by Mark Flannagan

Almost every professional communicator will have been asked at some point in their career to “just do a bit of comms”. One benefit of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a new found recognition that, within the NHS, the strategic role of public relations has finally been recognised and accepted.

You’ll learn:

• How high quality, continuous, timely communications delivery helped keep the public and staff informed in the heat of the crisis

• Why virtual events are here to stay

• How the pandemic has enabled the creation of marketing assets with a more unified and public friendly look and feel

Those who work in NHS communications are particularly familiar with the handed down ideas from others to: “Just do a bit of comms”, “Please just comms it out”, “Add your comms magic”, etc. I am not sure COVID-19 has changed that for good, but in my direct experience and looking at that of others, the pandemic has led to an opportunity to put high quality communications centre stage going forward.

The last six plus months have seen communications teams in NHS trusts, hospitals and many other NHS bodies take a skills led approach to public and staff communications. 

My experience is that communications professionals have been able to say “no” to some of the old and odd ideas we are often faced with, rather than just “ok, I will try”. The need for urgent and credible delivery of practical solutions has allowed colleagues to get on with doing their job without fear or favour. Posters have been produced, websites have been updated and created and the “new technology” (for the NHS) of video meetings, live-streaming etc. has been brought in rapidly.

The result? We don’t know yet. At a local, operational level I am sure that, thanks to this “new technology”, internal communications has changed for good, for many. For example, last year at Alder Hey we took the revolutionary and time consuming step of organising in our hospital and community sites “town hall” meetings to brief and engage with staff. We were lucky if these had 100 people attending. During the pandemic our live broadcasts rarely fell below 200 viewers.

FIG 01. Live broadcast viewing figures

We don’t intend to hold such meetings in person again, even when we get the vaccine. We can turn on events and briefings almost instantaneously, at every locality in Alder Hey. We know people find them easy and feel they are more personal than being brought together in a large meeting room. Tuning in at your desk is just better for them. People particularly like the opportunity to (usually anonymously) ask live questions of their leaders and to get live answers.

We also used the urgent need to get information out without lengthy committee decision-making with colleagues to bring our collateral, offline and online, together under a more unified and public friendly look and feel. 

Using our existing design agency we delivered items called for under a shared image set, seeking to simplify and remove jargon, rather producing the same old corporate imagery etc. Everything we did had to cut through in a time of crisis, and had to be continually refreshed. In other words, we were required to deliver communications as it should be done, not as others want it to be.

Vitally, we got daily consensus around messages. At the height of the pandemic we held daily live broadcasts for all staff. That required daily ‘start the day’ key message meetings with our CEO, medical director, chief nurse and other key people. A revolution in message sharing and control has been put in place, never to go away.

My own experience is validated anecdotally through contact with my NHS communications director colleagues. At the start of the pandemic a shared WhatsApp group was brilliantly set up by NHS Providers’ Adam Brimelow and Lisa Ward. It does appear that, whilst old frustrations remain, there is a bit more trust and head room for us all to be allowed to deliver communications as it needs to be done. We can only hope this remains the case going forward. We certainly need to fight for it.

We have a golden chance to make the case for the difference that communications teams have made. Without high quality, continuous, timely communications delivery the public and our staff colleagues would have been left confused, scared and uninformed. Locally I do not see evidence that this was so. However, the recent survey by NHS Providers and the NHS Confederation of views of communications professionals during this crisis, suggests the national picture is different.

It would be wrong to say that we need to “exploit” the last six or so months for our own ends. But, it is a fact that communications in the NHS; good, local, flexible, rapid, has been at the heart of operational excellence in the delivery of care everywhere during this pandemic. 

Communications has been an enabler, bringing people together and reassuring them. Going forward, we need to consider what the new place is for communications. Can we use the evidence of the pandemic to show that we are not here to do “stuff”, but to lead and facilitate world-class messaging and engagement?

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Mark Flannagan has been director of marketing and communications at Alder Hey since July 2017. Prior to this he was the chief executive of the charity Beating Bowel Cancer from 2010 to 2017. In that role he led advocacy around access to cancer medicines and took a high profile role in advocating for a new approach that involved patient experience. He is widely recognised as a highly experienced speaker, policy analyst and communicator and has connection at the highest levels in government and the UK health services.

Twitter: @MarkFlann
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/markflannagan

Stepping into the future: How comms will lead the ongoing transformation of the NHS

by Liz Davies

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the excellent work of our frontline NHS staff into sharp public focus. Inside the NHS, this has been mirrored by an appreciation of the work of professional communicators, whose strategic role now very firmly occupies a seat in the boardroom.

You’ll learn:

• How virtual technology has revolutionised patient engagement

• The importance of internal comms in the delivery of patient care

• That COVID-19 has helped NHS teams develop and deepen stakeholder relationships, building social capital for an uncertain future

None of us will forget 2020 in a hurry but for the NHS it will definitely leave a lasting imprint. 

Just as NHS staff dared to lift their heads after the long slog of winter, a new virus came along which, little did any of us know, would put a halt to normal life as we knew it.

Looking back at previous global health pandemics, history tells us they often result in major societal changes – the type of changes which far outlive the devastating impact of the virus itself. 

Coronavirus is certainly no different and has brought about a whole new raft of learning and innovation in the NHS at a pace and scale like never before. 

From the tragedy of so many lives lost (and let’s not forget we are still very much in the midst of this pandemic), the legacy left behind has and will continue to change the way the NHS does business forever. 

Communications was already very much at the heart of major change in the NHS, but the impact of COVID-19 has only served to amplify our strategic value in a whole variety of ways. 

Everything I’ve seen and been part of over the past six months has had comms welded into the heart of the organisational decision making, something that not only makes me proud, but gives me great confidence for the future. 

Here are just a few examples of why our strategic role will continue to lead the ongoing transformation of our beloved NHS.

Embracing a new virtual world 

In the space of a few short weeks, we saw the mass introduction of virtual technology for patients needing a GP consultation or hospital appointment. 

Changing the way we offer patient consultations is something we’ve grappled with for years and the NHS Long Term Plan describes the traditional model of outpatients as ‘outdated’, ‘unsustainable’ and in need of ‘radical overhaul’. No arguments here.

Trying to change embedded appointment processes in a big machine like the NHS has been in the ‘too difficult box’ for far too long. There’s also been a misconstrued perception that older people can’t or won’t use technology (presumably preferring the trek to and from hospital often for short check-ups that could easily have taken place virtually). Well, COVID-19 gave us no option but to change and the results so far are very encouraging.

There will, of course, always be a need for face-to-face appointments, but the time and efficiency savings for patients, staff and the NHS as a whole as a result of virtual consultations are striking. 

In my trust alone, we carry out just over 400,000 face-to-face outpatient appointments every year. Imagine the long-term environmental impact of reducing this by just 5%. 20,000 fewer car journeys to and from appointments, not to mention the reduced anxiety and stress people often associate with coming into hospital. 

Listen, learn, evaluate – like never before 

The fast paced switch to ‘digital first’ has had comms embedded from the outset, from the production of patient information and reassurance on virtual safety and privacy concerns, to making it easy for people to let us know what’s working and what isn’t.

Just because we’ve had to make changes quickly doesn’t mean they have all been plain sailing or our responsibilities to involve people in changes that affect them have been taken away. 

This latter point is important and of particular pertinence here in the North East where big health inequalities exist – we can’t and shouldn’t assume that everyone has access to the internet and technology, or that they know how to use it. 

As ever, one size does not fit all and ongoing measurement and evaluation is pivotal to success. 

Connecting with staff 

You’d be forgiven for thinking that public messaging and media handling were front and centre of the NHS comms response to COVID-19. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As political and national NHS leaders broadcast to the nation through live daily press conferences, NHS comms teams across the land were poised at 5pm every evening ready to digest, decipher and effectively communicate to staff whatever had been said.

The disconnect between national and local comms is a story for another day and something which has frustrated many in the profession, but this did result in opportunities.

Locally our efforts were focused on internal comms and making sure staff felt connected, were aware of what was going on and what it meant for them in the here and now of delivering patient care.

We set up a closed staff Facebook group and WhatsApp broadcast lists (without the usual IT protest), opening up new informal channels to reach our 8,000 plus workforce. This meant as new information was announced we could share this quickly, often out-of-hours and reach staff in different ways.

Investing in stakeholder relationships 

Keeping stakeholders up-to-date about the impact on the NHS and local services was also crucial. 

Just as we saw with the Thursday night clapping and outpouring of love for the NHS, the political mood music also changed. There was profound respect and gratitude for the efforts of the NHS with political assertions cast aside.

The pandemic opened up a safe space for frank conversations and closer relationships were inevitably formed. There is nothing like a national crisis to pull people together.

The dialogue with local councillors, MPs and local authority leaders has grown beyond recognition. Alongside regular formal briefings, the value of personal conversations, keeping people tipped off on issues as they emerge and being as responsive as possible to questions and concerns, has carved a deeper level of trust and mutual understanding. 

The lasting legacy of this will be pivotal for the future. As normal life resumes, (whenever that might be), difficult and controversial decisions will still need to be made as the NHS continues to transform.

The social capital gained by investing in stakeholder relationships now, will pay dividends in times of future controversy.

Affirming our place in the boardroom 

The biggest sense of pride and satisfaction throughout the pandemic has been witnessing the overwhelming appreciation of our work as professional communicators. 

Our strategic role now occupies a very firm seat in the NHS boardroom and the recognition and respect gained not only from fellow executive colleagues but frontline staff and partners has been truly humbling.

The value of comms is also translating into other areas of ‘normal’ business. Colleagues from within and outside the organisation are now seeking our expert input more than ever before, recognising how we can help solve problems and support improvements. 

For me personally, the response of my team has been nothing short of phenomenal and our true ‘affirmation’ has been in securing extra organisational investment to allow us to continue to develop our service offering. We made this a very easy decision for the board.

I’ve never felt prouder to be part of such an iconic institution and if we’re looking for the positives from 2020 and the heartache of COVID-19, then it’s the most definitely the great strides made for our profession which, I have no doubt, will continue to lead the NHS into the future.

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Liz Davies MCIPR and CIPR Accredited Practitioner is the director of communications at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust.

Twitter: @LizzlyDavies
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/LizzlyDavies

Introducing new data and tech: Launching the NHS COVID-19 app

by Kirk Millis-Ward

Central Government decided that the NHS COVID-19 App would be first rolled out on the Isle of Wight. Here’s how the teams involved handled the complexities of its launch under heavy scrutiny from the media. 

You’ll learn:

• How to close skills gaps in a crisis

• The value of genuine two-way engagement with your community to affect behaviour change

• That a hyper-local approach and allowing people to get involved can reap dividends when sharing 

campaign messaging

Being the epicentre of a major national and international technology story in the midst of a global pandemic was never on the planner for our Isle of Wight communications and engagement teams.

Islanders are self-aware enough to know that big data isn’t necessarily synonymous with our beautiful beaches, clear waters and verdant countryside. But we’re nothing if not up for a challenge.

The scale of that challenge became abundantly clear after we got the nod from central Government that the NHS COVID-19 App would be rolled out first on the Isle of Wight. 

Whatever the controversies of the original contact tracing App and its giving way to a decentralised replacement built to Apple and Google specs, there are some valuable lessons for all communicators in our experiences.

Stick with me to find out how our small island coped under intense scrutiny and engaged people from all walks of life to give something new a go, to play their part and help protect our community.

Time to tool up

From the outset of the pandemic the Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Isle of Wight Council Communications and Engagement Teams were working at full tilt. Our plans for growth and better integration were just starting to get moving but time was not on our side.

Bringing colleagues together, we thrashed out what the impact of the App’s arrival might be on our business as usual and COVID-19 response comms, then got to work.

Accepting any and all offers of help, we seconded in team members from other departments with a particular focus on our social media offer. We made good use of the additional pairs of hands from Government, and brought in expertise in local stakeholder engagement.

The effect was island-wide communications and engagement on steroids. We were able to fully mobilise existing and emerging local authority and NHS networks to deliver key campaign messages in double-time.

Lesson: 

Take some time to understand your team’s strengths and weaknesses and then do something about the gaps. Use your relationships to get the help you need.

‘We’ve had enough of experts’

The spontaneous appearance and organic growth of local COVID-19 Facebook groups posed a particular challenge early in our pandemic response.

Dogged determination and diplomacy got us added as administrators and we were better placed to deal with disinformation, rumour and scaremongering.

It set us up well for the inevitable scepticism about the new COVID-19 App.

The general public, so the adage goes, have had enough of experts. But we couldn’t get enough of them.

Thankfully there were clinicians, technology specialists, developers and public health experts available to us – to help us understand the technology, the risks and the challenges, but also to help us explain it to the public. 

Lesson:

Influencing the conversation on social media isn’t about pumping out press releases, posting links and counting reach.

Find out where your community is and play an active role in the conversations that they are having.

In the eye of the storm

All but non-essential travel was curtailed but journalists are key workers too.

The App launch saw national and international print and broadcast journalists descend on St Mary’s Hospital and pound the strangely quiet streets of Newport looking for people to vox pop.

On one day in May, the trust comms team prepared and fielded 15 different spokespeople simultaneously to the assembled national and international broadcast media. They came from right across the trust… ambulance drivers, doctors, housekeepers, nurses and physiotherapists all supporting the comms campaign. They were way out of their comfort zone. But we did it and it clocked up more broadcast activity in 8 hours for us than in the whole of 2019.

The council was busy fielding spokespeople too, for broadcast media and for our own channels. It seemed like the entire public sector, from GPs to maintenance engineers, were mobilised urging the public to play their part.

The weeks of coverage weren’t easy. The clamour for data, the need for daily stats to show how we were doing was intense and caused confusion. But here’s where relationships come in. If your local media know and trust you, you can cut through the noise at a national level. We remain grateful for those open and honest conversations with our local reporters.

Lesson: 

Be prepared, be open and honest. Start working on your relationships with local media now, get to know the reporters and build trust because in the teeth of a crisis you will need to be able to pick up the phone and have conversations based on that trust.

When everyone is going global, you go local… hyperlocal

In a crisis we all feel the urge to control everything, to grip it. Resist the urge.

Think about your networks, map your stakeholders and make sure you can reach them when you need to – because no organisation is an island, even if you’re on an island.

We did some excellent work early in the pandemic to reach out to businesses and to community and voluntary groups. 

On a hyperlocal level, the council is now plugged into community organising almost street by street. So we were able to reach out to people in a new and powerful way. We reached people via organisations and associations, through town councils and village support groups. We got messages out through our call centre and across all the NHS channels at our disposal.

It worked. By bringing these complex and varied stakeholder groups together, by giving them the tools to amplify our messages we cut through to people of all ages, in all communities. 

There’s a bandwagon coming, jump on it

With blanket local, regional and national media coverage and stakeholders shouting from the roof tops, it’s not surprising that people and businesses saw the opportunity to get involved.

Isle of Wight App t-shirts popped up for sale, celebrity endorsements rained in and pushed organic PR and social media reach that we could only have hoped for in the planning stage.

Lesson:

If people get involved organically, lean in. Bring them into your campaign. 

Communications as a strategic function

I’m proud of how our island responded. We led the way and played a significant part in the country’s fight against COVID-19.

Our experience has proven the power of effective communications and engagement, in a way no evaluation report or stakeholder session could. 

Our task now is to keep our seat at the top table by reacting effectively to the many and varied challenges coming our way as the nation navigates this new normal. 

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Kirk Millis-Ward is director of communications and engagement at Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Isle of Wight Council.

An experienced journalist and qualified physiotherapist, he is passionate about the role that communications and engagement plays in delivering better services for communities.

He lives and works on the Isle of Wight where the close-knit community and the integrated nature of small-scale public services present unique communications opportunities as well as challenges.

Twitter: @KirkWard_NHS
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kirk-millis-ward-0071131b3/

A partnership approach: Regional mobilisation as the model of the future

by Claire Riley

A command and control approach alone no longer suits a modern day communication function with a diversity of stakeholders. A multi-agency, localised perspective on media and communications creates economies of scale, consistency of message, avoids duplication of activity and frees up teams to work on other issues within their own organisations at a time of need.

You’ll learn:

• How and why NHS teams in the North East have been working in ever closer alignment

• About the Integrated Care System which is enabling care to be planned and integrated to meet local needs

• That joint working, including with the media, is a more successful communications model, especially in a time of crisis – but that this requires relationships built in advance

In his bestselling history book The Northumbrians: North East England and its people, author Dan Jackson talks about a distinctive regional culture “that has always relied upon – and celebrated – toughness and hard work – firstly in a dangerous frontier zone…. formed into a great crucible of the industrial revolution where the same qualities of endurance were relied upon and celebrated.” 

Hard work and hedonism have long been stereotypes of North East life in this unusually well defined region which as early as the 11th century was already seen as a distinctive and different region of England.

Northumbria is an ancient term for a kingdom that no longer exists but many of the shared values, traits and culture remain in the modern North East made up of Northumberland, Durham, Newcastle, Gateshead, North and South Tyneside, Sunderland, Hartlepool, Stockton, Darlington, Middlesbrough, North and South Tees.

Our friends in the North

The NHS across the region is well served by some fantastic organisations with a long history of innovation, quality and collaborative working. As a system the North East also has some of the highest performing hospitals in the country (regularly among the best for the national NHS standards) and are even recognised globally with those in Newcastle, Gateshead and Northumberland all in the Newsweek list of World’s Top Hospitals.

Perhaps because the distances between areas are relatively short, the region is so geographically isolated or there is such a distinctive feel to the whole area, our hospitals have always worked well together. 

This has been especially true of our communications and engagement teams who have been working in ever closer alignment over recent years as individual NHS trusts have faced up to common challenges of growing demand, increasing austerity, winter pressures, the beast from the east storm season and the national cyber-attack on our computer systems.

Tackling COVID-19 in the region

The challenge of COVID-19 brought this joint working into sharper focus as NHS teams from all disciplines came together to look at how the North East could best respond for patients and our own staff.

My own role extended beyond the usual Northumbria patch because I currently lead and co-ordinate the regional ICS approach to communications and engagement. ICS stands for Integrated Care System – a partnership approach that brings together providers and commissioners of NHS services with other partners, including local authorities, to collectively plan and integrate care to meet the needs of the local population.  

In the North East we face so many similar challenges that it makes much more sense for us to plan and act collectively, especially around communications. An urgence to tackle a spectrum of health inequalities requires consistent, joined up messaging that will resonate with people from the Scottish border right down to the Tees Valley and beyond. 

As a group of communications professionals, we are acutely aware of this and had been working in collaboration long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. However, this was clearly a catalyst for even closer partnership and we worked collectively, and strategically, across the region to agree more local messaging where we could and build the economies of scale that would not be possible by individual organisations.

National messages, local delivery

While we all had a duty to channel the national messaging and amplify the Government campaign there was also room for a local voice that could, at times, strike more of a chord with people in the North East which, let’s face it, is a long way from London.

This was important because when a level 4 incident is declared in the NHS, responsibility for communications messaging, and activity, is controlled via a central Arms Length Body generally located in London. 

Initially there was a huge amount of tension with this as the national team made it clear there was to be no local communications activity done without its agreement and sign off. Anyone who did was reprimanded (officially named the naughty step!). Regardless, national and local journalists contacted most of the regional NHS communication teams asking what was happening, requesting information regarding numbers and access to critical care units – some sharing significant frustration regarding lack of access and the level of control being wielded even to them. 

Local teams knew the importance of amplifying the messaging to support cut through with a wider public audience, alongside tailoring messages depending on the localities served, and many were frustrated in their inability to act. This has to be a learning for us all as we embark on other level 4 incidents of this nature. 

Getting the right local spokespeople to deliver the key messages is so important especially in a region like ours if the public are to trust, believe and act on them. As a region we’re closer geographically to Scotland than London and local trust and understanding means a lot to our public and staff. 

Therefore, as a collective across the North East (and in part of North Cumbria), we broke ranks and as part of the ICS we agreed to collaborate, working with the media to position the messages we needed to with real patient and staff stories. At this point, I would like to publicly thank the media for their unbelievable support in doing this. 

During the initial phase of the crisis much of our work was around supporting individual trusts and not reinventing the wheel in terms of content. We set up some specific daily bulletins for local leaders but also created animations, videos, media opportunities and social content that everyone in the region could use to get the messages across.

This was further supported with more targeted local stories, all of which were designed to inform and influence individual behaviours. 

Better together

They say that relationships get you through difficult times and these are formed before a crisis, not during. We now have a strong history within the communications network of working collaboratively and the help we had from our colleagues across the region enabled resilience, consistency and support that made us all stronger together.

Our daily stand up call was not only a really important operational tool, but also a useful support network for everyone working in communications, offering an opportunity to share information among peers and generally look after each other.

By working jointly on media and communications it freed up teams to work on other issues within their own organisations and ensured we weren’t competing for space or duplicating effort at such a busy time.

We are now taking this approach into winter as we work on a joint campaign urging the public to #DoYourBit around issues like A&E, flu vaccination and using services wisely. 

Thank you to all of the regional communications professionals who, with humour and hard work, made a difficult time for us all far easier to deal with….I raise a virtual glass of wine to you all.

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Claire Riley is executive director of communications and corporate affairs at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and communications lead for the North East Integrated Care System.

Twitter: @thefourrileys
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/claire-riley-94304a9/ 

COVID-19 and NHS service change

by Caroline Latta

The pandemic has seen major services transformed in a matter of weeks but more work is needed, not least to protect the BAME community. NHS communicators must continue to gather data across all demographics and educate why this information is crucial to enhancements in healthcare provision.

You’ll learn:

• How COVID-19 is driving NHS service improvements

• The importance of equality monitoring and how this improves user engagement

• Tips for better data monitoring collection

Coronavirus has profoundly changed the NHS, social care and local government. In days, major service transformations have been achieved that would previously have taken years. 

Many of those service changes have offered significant benefits – for example, telephone and video appointments are quick and convenient, and referring patients for tests before they see a consultant can save valuable time. 

The message from national leaders at NHS England and NHS Improvement, as well as local service leaders, senior nurses and doctors, is clear: Let’s lock in those benefits, while seeking to rebuild local services that meet the needs of the local communities they serve.

The NHS is legally obliged to involve its communities in how services in the NHS are organised and this gives us an important opportunity to build on a new openness around issues of race, community, health systems and inequalities in a way that has never been done before.

This is critical. Data from the pandemic leaves us in no doubt that people from BAME backgrounds have been disproportionately affected. The NHS recognises it has to act now and quickly. Local health and care systems need to rethink relationships with staff, patients, the public and local communities and existing approaches to listening.

Engaging with people who use NHS services is a crucial step for service transformation programmes. But, in the main, data about the backgrounds and protected characteristics of patients can be poor - a huge challenge for service change leaders.

Go digital first and blend in offline methods

The COVID-19 socially distanced world has created a new norm in how we involve people in discussions around what is important to them. A large majority of ‘traditional’ face to face consultation activity has had to be replicated online.

One positive consequence of the pandemic is that many are now better equipped with technology and more familiar with the online process.

However digital alone is not likely to meet the legal duties regarding public involvement and equalities, so a blended approach to include offline methods should always be taken to target specific communities of interest.

NHS Boards need to be assured that engagement methods still reach those who are digitally excluded, and in particular BAME communities at this time of need. 

Data on protected characteristics is key

The starting point for any service reform activity is to check the data around patient flow, gender, age, postcode and key protected characteristics – all the questions you’d usually find in standard data monitoring information. 

This provides the evidence that we are reaching the people who need particular services and helps identify when we are not. 

Equality monitoring by itself does not explain why a service is under or overused by some, but provides a starting point for highlighting issues. This enables us to set realistic targets on how we can improve services to make them more inclusive. 

Unfortunately, while protected characteristics information (for example race and heritage data) are included as standard questions, all too often they are not completed. 

The NHS needs to better explain why this information is important (some conditions are more prevalent in ethnic backgrounds) and engage with BAME communities to gain their support to provide the information when asked. 

Using that data we can identify and target people who are most likely to be affected by a change in service and as a result we can build new ones that meet more of the needs of the widest possible section of our population.

Socially distanced methods of engagement

Many existing engagement methods can and will have already been adapted for social distancing.

Websites support a variety of engagement methods. Take content management systems adapted for discussion forums, wikis (to gather ideas, co-draft or comment on documents, plans or maps), videos and hosted surveys etc. 

Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Skype can be used for webinars to share information, but also focus groups and online co-production methods. 

Telephone interviews always have a useful place, especially if supported by a community sector or social research supplier.

A stakeholder relationship management (SRM) system is a single digital repository for all stakeholder communications and can be invaluable. 

This is a data store of activity (interactions), feedback (from all channels – digital and non digital) and allows you to store, recall and analyse information quickly and easily. It can also be used as a database and some have stakeholder mapping functionality, enhanced reporting functions, surveys and event management built in.

Unlike CRM, SRM is concerned with what is being said as well as who is saying it. This is a must have when using a digital first approach to ensure feedback from key groups such as BAME are captured and used in reform planning. 

Finally, working with community organisations and partnering with them can also help reach new people. COVID-19 has seen a surge in volunteers who can act as trusted brokers to reach particular target communities and this should not be overlooked. 

Key actions to update engagement in a COVID world

• Update your involvement strategy

NHS duties requires continuous involvement, so it’s crucial to update your strategy to take account of digital methods, how you plan to involve digitally excluded communities and include internet use locally. The latest information from ONS can help.

• Ensure better data monitoring collection

Once agreed, the same monitoring information should be collected in all partner organisations, with an extra onus on working with BAME communities to educate them on why it’s important to provide the data.

Whichever service is under review, build a profile of service users in relation to age, gender, BAME and protected characteristics, population heat maps and key health conditions. This data should underpin your engagement plan.

• Go digital first for engagement 

If you don’t already have a stakeholder management system, get one. It’s the best way to understand who you are engaging with and crucially what is important to them.

• Work with local community and voluntary organisations

These organisations have been the glue between the NHS and local authorities in their response to COVID-19, and we have seen record numbers of volunteers come forward to support the vulnerable, many of whom are a protected group.

They often reach much further into communities than public bodies can, so ask for their help in running discussion groups, taking surveys or brokering introductions to other key community leaders.

Always have a plan 

As engagement and communications professionals, our strength is our planning abilities, having a clear purpose for the engagement project and appreciating what can and can’t be influenced. 

Our measurement and evaluation is key. To make change we must continue to build our insight evidence base and feedback to local communities. It helps all of us to show how the data provided was used to make services better for patients and staff alike.

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Caroline Latta is a leading strategic communications, public involvement and consultation specialist. She’s an expert in health, care and public health service change. She’s also the co-writer of an NHS service change legal duties guide, produced for NHS England and NHS Improvement. 

Twitter: @carolinelatta
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolinelatta/
Web: wearestand.co.uk

Trust, loyalty and the NHS

by Amanda Nash

The NHS is one of the most recognisable brands in the world. Already highly regarded and trusted across the UK, public confidence has only increased in the NHS since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The big question is how can the NHS now build on renewed interest in its careers and expand and develop its workforce?

You’ll learn:

• About Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives as one of the most successful public health campaigns ever

• How COVID-19 has increased trust in our healthcare professionals but workforce is the biggest challenge facing the NHS

• That appreciation and feeling valued helps to build staff engagement and loyalty

Think NHS. What does it mean to you? 

If you or a loved one is a patient your recent experience, your hopes and fears, will be all too present. If you work for the NHS, your daily work, shifts and colleagues will likely spring to mind. If you’re both, you’ll have a range of experiences and interactions to draw on.

Whatever your personal experience, there is now something else at play in our national psyche – the role of the NHS as a National Heroes Service, in responding to COVID-19. 

This isn’t new. Danny Boyle gave the NHS a starring role in the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony [1]. This showed the health service as an institution sacred to many, one which in times of VUCA [2] offers a safe and trusted promise of guaranteed help. 

And since the pandemic, if you consider the way the NHS has stepped up, donning PPE to care for patients with and without the virus, it’s likely that when you think about the NHS, images of staff holding ‘Stay Home’ signs, pictures of rainbows and communities clapping in the streets also come to mind.

Gut feeling

A brand, as Neumeier defines it [3], is nothing less than “a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.” 

How do you feel about the NHS? Those three letters - which were brilliantly inverted to stand for Stay Home Now during the first phase of COVID - have a strong emotional trigger too. 

The NHS lozenge, one of the most recognised brand identities in the world [4], prompts a range of feelings with trust, high regard and confidence popular amongst them.

Top for trust

If satisfaction levels can be used as a proxy for that ‘gut feeling’, then the nation has a good feeling towards the NHS. And it’s a feeling that was getting stronger even before the pandemic hit. 

Public satisfaction with the NHS had jumped to 60% in 2019, a 7% point increase from the previous year. This rating, reported in the 2019 British Social Attitudes survey [5] was taken between July-October 2019, before daily images of a virus affecting people in China came anywhere near our screens. 

It is unsurprising nurses top the 2020 IPSOS Mori Veracity Index [6] for those we trust the most, believed in by 97% of those polled, with a 2% increase since 2018. They are followed by local pharmacists (a new addition) and doctors, who at 95% have also increased their ratings by 3% in recent years. This polling was undertaken in May 2020, when COVID-19 had a tight grip on a nation in lockdown and the NHS was at the centre of the response. 

If satisfaction and trust is high, the public is also confident in the NHS to deliver, relying on it to be there for them in the midst of a global pandemic. At the end of April 2020, 82% of those asked were confident the NHS would cope with the pandemic [7]. The proportion of people who were ‘very confident’ doubled in just over a month. 

Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives

Pre-and-during COVID-19 data shows the NHS is trusted and revered. So when it is threatened, the country rallies, eager to protect the NHS. It is, after all, our last bastion of hope in a health crisis.

While some have taken issue with elements of the Government’s messaging during the pandemic, the Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives campaign [8] was a stroke of genius. It was one of the most successful public health campaigns in recent history, in terms of its ability to impact our behaviour. It gave a clear call to action and a why – protecting our most-cherished institution, the heroes staffing it and preserving it for ourselves, should we need it.

The nation listened, acted and did indeed stay home [9]. The campaign was so effective, subsequent easing of lockdown was more difficult. 

The Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives slogan may, in time, turn out to be as memorable a mantra in our history books as Lord Kitchener’s WWI Your Country Needs You.

Why does this matter?

With satisfaction, trust and confidence all high and rising, the reputation of the NHS is at a strong point. There are many reasons why the strength of the NHS brand matters. Not least is attracting, retaining and motivating a skilled workforce. It’s often argued workforce is the biggest challenge facing the NHS. As the world has seen, you can build hospitals quickly; the far harder task is staffing them with trained and qualified practitioners.

The NHS went into COVID-19 with more than 100,000 vacancies [10] – 1 in every 12 posts in hospital and community services.

For roles like porters and entry-level healthcare assistants, there is competition from the retail world to attract staff. Even amongst professionals who have invested in a career in healthcare, loyalty to the NHS cannot be taken for granted: a 2018 YouGov survey found that 1 in 5 young doctors plan on switching to the private sector [11] at some point in the future.

Building loyalty

In our trust, Organisational Development and Communications have jointly run a programme called Emerging Stronger. Colleagues have been asked to reflect on what they want to learn from the pandemic period and take forward, what needs to stop and what needs to change. One of the things staff told us they liked about communication during this time was the clear and common sense of purpose. It was unifying in the threat of a common enemy: COVID-19.

This rallying purpose was not limited to our organisation. The NHS urged former staff to come out of retirement and return to the service via ‘Return to Practice’ to help respond to the pandemic. The Nuffield Trust [12] reported: “By mid-April, nearly 11,000 former and overseas nurses and midwives had joined the emergency staff register and twice the number of students had extended clinical placements.” People, past and future, wanted to help. 

If, as D’Aprix [13] says, internal communications is about creating and sharing meaning, then the pandemic has amplified the rich sense of purpose already there: the NHS exists to care for people in their time of need. At heart, its purpose is the most highly skilled delivery of kindness.

During the first acute months of COVID-19 that kindness and selflessness was centre-stage. It was lauded and applauded. It made working for the NHS feel an even more worthwhile role and staff demonstrated this by using ‘Proud to work for the NHS’ in their social media profile pics and bios.

Appreciation and feeling valued [14] at different levels help build staff engagement and loyalty. Loyalty matters because, put simply, it allows the NHS to recruit and retain people to safely staff services. 

In our own organisation, in spring 2020, 1,800 of our 8,663 staff responded to a PULSE survey: 79% of those said they would recommend our trust as a place to work – our highest ever rating.

The challenge now, as the NHS People Plan [15] published this summer recognises, is:

Growing for the future particularly the need to build on renewed interest in NHS careers, to expand and develop our workforce, as well as taking steps to retain colleagues for longer.

One of our challenges as NHS Communicators is to help sustain that feeling of appreciation and value, as well as the focus on the wellbeing and support of our staff, as we move forward.

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Sources

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01b7461

[2] https://hbr.org/2014/01/what-vuca-really-means-for-you

[3] https://www.emotivebrand.com/defining-brand/

[4] https://www.england.nhs.uk/nhsidentity/#:~:text=The%2520NHS%2520Identity%2520is%2520one,levels%2520of%2520trust%2520and%2520reassurance.

[5] https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/public-satisfaction-with-the-nhs-rose-sharply-in-2019

[6] https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2020-06/veracity_index_2020.pdf

[7] https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/spike-britons-thinking-government-acted-too-late-address-coronavirus-confidence-nhs-continues-grow

[8] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/01/story-behind-stay-home-protect-nhs-save-lives/

[9] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/884002/2020-05-08_COVID-19_Press_Conference_Slides.pdf

[10] https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/the-nhs-workforce-in-numbers#2-what-is-the-overall-shortfall-in-staff-in-the-nhs

[11] https://yougov.co.uk/topics/health/articles-reports/2018/12/11/most-nhs-staff-are-loyal-public-sector-expect-serv

[12] https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/the-nhs-workforce-is-it-on-track

[13] https://abcomm.co.uk/podcasts/ (Episode 13)

[14] https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2018/05/16/what-does-staff-engagement-mean-in-the-nhs-and-why-is-it-important/

[15] https://www.england.nhs.uk/ournhspeople/online-version/introduction/

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Amanda Nash is head of communications at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust. Prior to that she has worked in communications with the police and local government. She is a qualified and practising executive-level coach.

Twitter: @manickmanda
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amanda-nash-b41a89136

Opening up ICU in the midst of a pandemic

by Cassie Zachariou

Giving broadcast media direct access to the inner workings of an organisation is a risk at any time, let alone during a pandemic. For healthcare trusts, patient privacy and dignity and the safety of all involved has to be weighed against the need to share a crucial public healthcare message. Here’s how it can be done. 

You’ll learn:

• How important it is for the NHS that the public understands the impact of COVID-19 on the frontline

• The many ethical considerations that come with opening up ICU to broadcast media

• How trust between healthcare professionals and the media is important to help tell one of the most significant stories of our lifetimes

BBC News’s Fergus Walsh asked to film in our intensive care unit (ICU) as we were approaching the peak of the pandemic. It stopped me in my tracks. We were a week into lockdown and our main priority up until that point had been internal communications – making sure staff had the information they needed at a time when the situation was changing hourly. But Fergus’s request was about to shift my focus entirely and we had just a day and a half to turn things around before filming. 

Managing risk

We had all seen the extraordinary scenes from hospitals in Italy but up until that point, no news crews had been inside an ICU in England. Which trust was going to be brave enough to be the first? When Fergus made his pitch, I knew straight away it would be us. University College London Hospitals (UCLH) has a healthy appetite for risk – one director once told me it was the mark of a confident organisation. I knew that my role was to mitigate the risk as far as possible in order to show the public what was happening on the frontline of the pandemic. 

Fergus’s wish list was long and there were many logistical challenges to overcome such as how to film and move around the hospital safely. I needed to engage with many people across the organisation – in ICU, infection prevention and control, our COVID-19 wards, security and others – at a time when these people were having to deal with issues of much greater magnitude. One nurse looked on the verge of tears when I asked if we could film in her ward – it was one ask too many for her in the midst of the crisis.

I would be lying if I said I didn’t consider recommending pulling, or at least delaying the filming. I asked to see our chief executive to discuss the key outstanding issues. He is a big supporter of communications – he believes you can only ever have too little, or not enough comms. 

There was only one matter I brought to him that day which caused him to pause – should we allow a news crew in when we were restricting visitors in all but exceptional/compassionate circumstances? His conclusion was yes, it was in the public interest to do so to help reinforce the message that people needed to stay at home to stop the spread of the virus and protect the NHS.

Leap of faith

The former journalist in me really kicked in – I made call after call, kept tracking people down, asking questions, finding solutions, persuading, influencing – whatever was needed to get this over the line. The following day, even up to an hour before filming, I was still on the hustle. But once the BBC arrived, I felt I’d done all I could and now we had to take a leap of faith.

Fergus and I had never worked together before so we had to establish a relationship very quickly. I could immediately sense the heavy weight he felt to get this piece right. He told me it was the most significant story of his career and it was at that moment it struck me the same was true of mine. The most important – and perhaps the hardest – thing was that we had to trust each other. For my part it was about giving Fergus the freedom and access he needed to tell the story when the stakes were high. For his part, it was about doing so in a way that was fair and preserved the privacy and dignity of our patients.

We spent eight hours together that day, filming in ICU, in surge capacity (theatres which had been repurposed to house extra intensive beds), in a COVID-19 ward and in front of our emergency department. 

Our staff were so eloquent, so calm, confident and compassionate. They didn’t realise it at the time but they were speaking to the whole nation and what they had to say was going to cut through in a way that no politician standing at the podium could.

Like most things, you can try to plan filming as tightly as possible but you do need an element of good fortune on the day to make compelling television. A crucial piece of the jigsaw that had been missing from my prep was a patient who was able and willing to tell their story. While we were filming on ICU, one such patient was admitted to the unit. He was a lovable, 67-year-old bus driver who was determined to fight the disease to get back home to his wife, children and grandchildren. His story brought real human interest to the report and Fergus subsequently followed his recovery until he was back home safely with his family. 

We can do this

There were moments during the day when we were all betrayed by our emotions. For Fergus it happened while looking down onto the Euston Road and realising that people outside had no idea what was happening within the hospital’s walls. The voice of our charismatic ICU consultant cracked when talking about the sacrifices his family were making to support him during the pandemic. My eyes filled when our chief executive, who is a doctor in acute medicine, gave a message of reassurance to staff in his interview. He told them: “We are professionals, we are the NHS, we can do this.” It really felt like we were all in it for the fight of our lives and everyone at UCLH had their part to play. 

At the end of the day’s filming, Fergus, his cameraperson (whom I must praise for his outstanding work along with their producer) and I went to the ICU staff room where there was an incredible selection of food generously donated by local businesses. The sense of camaraderie among the team was heartwarming and they were so grateful to Fergus for coming to tell their story. They were so welcoming in fact that Fergus announced he would like to come back to do another day’s filming in a month’s time to which they all wholeheartedly agreed! I couldn’t quite believe it but as with his first approach, I knew we would do it.

Pride and purpose

Between April and June, Fergus produced five news reports about the care UCLH provided during the pandemic. These reports ran across the BBC’s channels – television, radio, online, social and sounds. His third report, which broadcast after the Prime Minister’s address about easing lockdown restrictions, had an average of 14.5 million viewers. For comparison, in 2019, the BBC News at Six and Ten had an average week day audience of 4.2 million and 3.4 million respectively. 

Our own social media posts about the BBC’s coverage had significant engagement. On Twitter, the first of a series of tweets promoting the initial BBC report was seen by 556k people, retweeted 735 times and liked 4,110 times*. In comparison, our best performing tweet in 2019 was seen by 51K people, retweeted 100 times and liked 216 times*. 

The BBC’s coverage was extremely well received by staff and helped pave the way for other trusts to open up their ICUs to news reporters. By working with a trusted journalist with a common purpose, we were able to demonstrate the value and need for good communications in a crisis. On a personal note, I have never felt a greater sense of pride and purpose in my work. 

 *Data as at 31 July 2020

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Cassie Zachariou is head of communications at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) – one of the most prestigious NHS trusts in the country. Prior to this she held positions at Imperial College Healthcare and the Royal Free London. She began her career as a journalist focusing on health and social care.

Twitter: @CassieZac
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/cassie-zachariou-51877331/