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Communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
Communications and engagement strategy2019/20
2 | NHS Kernow communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
Introduction and purpose
This communications and engagement strategy sets out NHS Kernow’s communication and engagement priorities for 2019 to 2020. The strategy highlights our organisation’s narrative, our key messages, our key audiences, how we will involve people with our work, and the communication and engagement routes we intend to use to share our messages. It is not a detailed communications plan or an exhaustive list of activities, but does create a framework within which all communications and engagement work will operate.
Aims of this strategy 3Why do we need a strategy and what are our communication aims?
Our communities 4The context the CCG works in.
Organisational analysis 6Where the CCG is now.
Roles and responsibilities 7Setting out the different roles people in the CCG have: the communications team, leadership, Governing Body and staff.
Narrative 8Explanation of narrative-led communications and then setting out the agreed narrative.
Key messages 9Agreed key messages for NHS Kernow.
Main audiences and stakeholder mapping 10Setting out the key audiences for our messages.Mapping the main stakeholder groups on an influence and interest grid.
Crisis communications 13Procedure for managing crisis communications.
Media procedure 15Why we engage with the media and what procedure we follow.
Communication platforms 16External: print and broadcast media; local networks; social media.Internal: GP bulleting; staff newsletter.
Success criteria 17How will we know that we have achieved our aims and KPIs.
Contents
Shaping services we can all be proud of | 3
Working efficiently so health and care
funding give maximum benefits.
Make Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly a
great place to work in health and social care.
Aims of this strategy
Our priority communication aims are to:
• Ensure people are supported to prevent ill health, remain fit and healthy, manage any conditions, and know how to access the right care they need, when they need it.
• Raise awareness of NHS Kernow and the positive changes it makes.
• Work with the public and our staff to design our plans for health and care services.
• Ensure our staff and the people we work with understand and believe our plans, and their important role in them.
These complement the NHS Long Term Plan which aims to:
• Enable everyone to get the best start in life.• Help communities to live well.• Help people to age well.
The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly operational objectives are clear. They are set out in the following diagram:
People living health lives in communities, preventing illness and improving wellbeing.
When care is needed it will be safe, high
quality, a good experience and mainly
provided close to home.
Attract and maintain a motivated, talented and caring workforce.
Available money will work harder and savings will result
from more joined up services
Our values
Our values underpin everything we do:
• We believe in being honest.• We want to be innovative,
agile and brave.• We are passionate about
making a difference to people’s lives.
• We believe in strong relationships and supporting champions.
• We will listen to people to understand their needs.
Ensure all our non-clinical services work together to support our teams in providing high quality
care and support.
Create the underpinning infrastructure and capabilities that are critical to delivering high
quality care and support
Provide safe, high quality, timely and
compassionate care and support, in local
communities wherever possible, and informed
by the experience of people who use
services.
Improve health and wellbeing and reduce
inequalities by working in partnership and
creating opportunities for our citizens.
System strategic objectives
4 | NHS Kernow communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
Created three integrated care areas
- west, central and north and east
10,000students
to strengthen links with in Falmouth and Penryn.
Our goal is to plan and pay for an excellent health and care service; to improve people’s health and wellbeing; and to reduce health inequalities. We commission services based on the needs of our communities, deciding what to prioritise and purchasing health care to meet those needs within the resources we have available. We also monitor the quality of the services other organisations provide, measuring impacts and planning next steps. We strive to involve and listen to people in our decisions, wherever we can, although this isn’t always possible when urgent decisions are needed, for example, to ensure safety.
Our communities
We serve a population of approximately 534,000 people living mainly in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, although we are responsible for people living in Devon who are registered with one of our GP practices. Our population is among the fastest growing in the country.
Our population grows by 37 percent during the summer as people come here on holiday - approximately 197,000 visitors each night. We need to ensure that visitors are aware of our services, and know how to access the right one, to avoid adding pressure to our emergency services.
The expansion of our universities in Falmouth and Penryn has also seen the population grow by up to 10,000 students and we need to strengthen our links with them.
Our communities are diverse and what is right for an urban city like Truro may not be right for a rural area like St Just. We are forging stronger and more meaningful links with our communities to understand their needs and the challenges they face to ensure we plan care that meets the needs of people who live there.
We want to change the balance of healthcare provided in hospitals and in the community so more people don’t reach a crisis or need to be admitted to hospital, and instead receive their care in their community, or at home. Due to our rurality, we need a mixed model of care, so we are creating a joined-up system of GP surgeries, urgent treatment centres, community pharmacies, minor injury services, community hospitals, developing online GP consultations and self-help advice services such as NHS 111 online, NHSQuicker, and app for Devon and Cornwall and the national NHS App which provides a simple and secure way for people to access a range of NHS services on their smartphone or tablet.
To help us achieve our vision, we have created three integrated care areas - west, central, and north and east – so we can deliver integrated care models closer to home, focussing on self-care and prevention and reducing our reliance on bed-based care. We will align our decision-making based on the needs of each community and increasingly over time delegate the decision making to these areas.
534,000One of the fastest growing populations in the country.
rise in population in the summer37%
Create a joined-up system of GP surgeries,
urgent treatment centres, community pharmacies, minor injury services and community
hospitals.
Provide a simple and secure way for people to access a range of NHS services on their smartphone or tablet.
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In October 2018 our GP membership voted to take on delegated responsibility for primary care medical services (general practice)commissioning from NHS England. This is still awaiting approval from NHS England, but we believe this will give us greater influence to develop our primary care strategies, in-line with the needs of our communities and the planned housing and population growth in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Our Shaping Our Future plan shows that increasing numbers of people need support from health and care services to better manage their health conditions and so reduce any over dependency on services. Lifestyle behaviours such as drinking alcohol, smoking, physical inactivity, diet and social isolation contribute to five diseases – heart disease, strokes, cancer, lung disease and liver disease - which together cause 75 percent of premature deaths and disability. Heart disease and strokes cause the deaths of nearly 500 people each year. We also have high rates of diabetes and osteoarthritis. Increasing levels of both adult and childhood obesity are a significant problem.
Poverty, deprivation and isolation are big issues, with 17 of our neighbourhoods identified as being among the most deprived in England, and almost 15 percent of households having someone older than 65 living alone. People in our disadvantaged communities are at a higher risk of living with at least one debilitating condition.
Mental health is of equal concern. We have high rates of suicide and people harming themselves deliberately, with five percent of people also reporting long-term mental health problems. We are developing a system-wide mental health strategy and our approach to support people has been endorsed by NHS England’s national mental health director.
We have diverse communities, with some having high levels of deprivation. We must consider the social, as well as the geographical differences of our communities in our communications and engagement work to ensure we reach and involve as many people as possible. This includes not only traditional face-to-face public meetings, providing materials in easyread, plain English, and other formats; but expanding the use of online tools to help us reach a broader range of people, including hard-to-reach and people with literacy issues.
We will work closely with our integrated care communities to support the grass-roots conversations and work that is taking place to reduce duplication and provide help and advice, when needed.
All of this is set against the backdrop of continued financial pressures. We have spent the past three years working extremely hard to address the financial challenges faced by both our organisation and the wider health and care system. Following four consecutive years in which our spending in-year was higher than the growth monies we were receiving, we launched a financial plan aimed at reducing waste and duplication, addressing our deficit and balancing our books by 2020/21.
Nearly 500
are caused by five lifestyle behaviours (smoking, alcohol, physical inactivity, diet and social isolation)
75% of premature death and disability
people in our community die
early from heart disease and stroke
each year
15% of households have someone older than 65 living alone.
of people report long term mental health problems.
5%
Expand the use of online tools to help us reach a broader range of people.
delegated commissioning
Our GP membership voted to take on
for primary care medical services.
Launched a financial plan aimed at reducing waste and duplication, addressing our deficit and balancing our
books by 2020/21.
6 | NHS Kernow communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
For the first time in our history, we have developed a joint financial recovery plan for the local NHS, which signals our commitment to work in partnership for people, rather than focusing on the individual needs of the three main NHS organisations in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.
Having saved £7 million (one percent) in 2015/2016, and a further £21 million (three percent) in 2016/2017, we ended 2017/18 with a reduced deficit of £33.2 million. Our projected end of year deficit for 2018/19 is £20million deficit. Our control total for 2019/20 is a £10million deficit.
Although more work is needed to control our spending on hospital care, our spend on both prescribing and NHS Continuing Healthcare is now more in line with the levels we should be spending for the size of our population. While this has sometimes meant taking difficult decisions to reduce or remove services, more often it has been about improving the way we do things and doing the right things earlier. Our focus on managing our finances more effectively means we have been able to commission new services, particularly in mental health and primary care.
Organisational analysis
We agreed the following five strategic objectives for our system for 2019:
1. Improve safety and quality A clear focus on improving patient safety. Strengthening the leadership of safety and quality improvement and supporting system wide working to enable and support continuous learning.
2. Contain costs The financial plan for 2018/19 delivers a significant reduction in overspending and is consistent with the maximum in-year deficit set for NHS Kernow of £20million. This reflects the principles of the agreed joint financial framework to restore financial stability to the NHS in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly during the next three years and demonstrates our significantly improved financial position.
3. Strengthen system-wide working Recognising that positive change for patients is achieved when organisations work together. We are rebuilding system-wide roles with our members championing clinically-led system-wide redesign of the model of care and leading development of community-based care in localities.
4. Continued organisational development We will continue to strengthen leadership capability and capacity and leadership of transformation.
5. Improve health and wellbeing This is an aim for both the general population we serve, and also the staff who work for us and our partner organisations. By taking care of our staff we are also ensuring that services are maintained and quality continues to improve.
These aims run throughout our strategy and inform all of our work.
6 | NHS Kernow communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
Developed a joint financial recovery plan for the local NHS.
£10 millionOur control total for 2019/20 is
a £10million deficit.
Prescribing and NHS Continuing Healthcare spend in line with the levels we should be spending
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Roles and responsibilities
Our communications and engagement responsibilities are:
Governing Body • Provide leadership for NHS Kernow and our partners, ensuring that our direction and strategy are understood by all people.
• Represent NHS Kernow to our external audiences and the wider community.
• Ensure the views of the public are helping to design and improve the quality of health services.
• Engaging GP member practices to create a shared vision which they in turn can share with people and staff.
• Leading on some direct communications with the media, stakeholder networks or other external bodies, to ensure everything we do is clinically and professionally led.
Directors • Promote NHS Kernow’s work with those who have an interest in or influence on our work
• Build strong positive relationships with key audiences and identify all opportunities to involve them in planning and improving health services.
• Support, engage and co-design with your teams in any involvement activity and in understanding NHS Kernow’s strategy and how it applies to their everyday work.
• Support the Governing Body. • Use feedback and other insight to continually review and improve services,
outcomes and impact.• Share important feedback with the Governing Body to inform decision
making.Managers • Promote NHS Kernow’s work with all of our different audiences, ensuring
the communications function is kept informed and involved as part of this.
• Build strong positive relationships with key audiences and identify all opportunities to involve them in planning and improving health services.
• Use feedback and other insight to improve services, outcomes and impact.
All staff • Keep informed about NHS Kernow’s achievements and plans, and the role you play in this.
• Promote NHS Kernow’s work and be ambassadors and champions. • Support teams to continually improve. • Provide feedback to other colleagues and Governing Body to support
decision-making.Communications and engagement function
• Provide support and advice to NHS Kernow and wider health and care system on communications and engagement activity and opportunities.
• Own and maintain key corporate communication and engagement channels.
• Own and implement the communications and engagement strategy, and associated action plan.
• Provide training and support to staff to help them with communications roles.
• Ensure good communications protocols and arrangements exist with all partner organisations.
• Brief and support other partners, as appropriate.
8 | NHS Kernow communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
Narrative
All of our communications will be narrative led. A narrative is the overarching story of where we came from, where we are now, and our vision for the future. Our narrative is a framework for all of our communication.
Our narrative is not a mission or vision statement, and people will express the narrative in their own way, using their own words, as appropriate to their specific audience. Our narrative provides consistency and a route map, not a script.
While we will use key messages and targeted approaches to specific things, all of our communications and engagement will be framed and directed by our overarching narrative. All communications should be tested against that narrative.
Our Governing Body has agreed the following narrative:
“NHS Kernow has led real improvement in our local system during the past few years, and there is much to be positive about. Performance has improved in many areas and while there are still pockets of challenge, the health and care system in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly is almost unrecognisable from a few years ago. We are now all about shaping services that everyone can be proud of, with a renewed focus on the people who need our services.
“The national perception of our health and care system can still occasionally be negative; powerful and effective communication can help others to see and appreciate the achievements, progress that is being made.
“NHS Kernow has sorted many of its own problems and is now uniquely placed to lead continued change to benefit people who use the services we commission, our staff and the wider population.
“We need to move to a more fluid way of working, where boundaries matter less and the outcomes we can achieve together for people matter more. We need to build even better relationships across organisations to deliver even better outcomes for people. We need to support our talented staff to enable change themselves, showing their resilience in meeting challenges and maintaining the primary values of care and honesty to help this happen.
“We are working increasingly as a joined-up health and care system that encourages growth and independence, with NHS Kernow having an overview that supports and nurtures as well as providing direction, removing barriers to growth and taking difficult decisions where necessary.
“We are determined to continue improving, and encouraging every individual and organisation to improve as well. By working with our staff, stakeholders and the public NHS Kernow can lead the positive change needed in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.”
8 | NHS Kernow communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
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Key messages
Key messages are derived from the narrative and used as shorthand to promote and progress the narrative among target audiences. They are the main points that should be emphasised in communications externally and internally, in different formats and using different communication methods. We will monitor that the key messages are appearing in communication products; this is not to exclude other content but to ensure that the main points are consistently pushed. A communications and engagement plan will set out how the key messages are prioritised and promoted.
The following key messages have been agreed by our Governing Body:
• Our NHS has significantly improved during recent years. Performance has gone up in key areas and the finances are being balanced.
• We need to work as one NHS and care system to continue to improve and provide high quality care. • We have a caring and dedicated workforce. We must empower them to lead the changes that will
benefit people.• We are leading the creation of a joined-up health and care system which will provide safe and high
quality care in or closer to people’s homes, based on the needs of their community.• We lead our health system, driving greater partnership between organisations and integration to
benefit local people.
Engagement
Engagement is the mechanism by which we seek, listen to and learn from people’s experience of using health care, and understand their views and opinions. We are committed to having an open and ongoing dialogue with the communities we serve and the partners we work with, to help us to understand what really matters to people.
Our principles for engagement include:
• Embed engagement in all we do. • Engage as early in the process as you can.• Avoid tokenism. • Use co production methods wherever possible.• Engage creatively. • Target those e most affected by any change.• Encourage feedback. • Actively involve people.• Actively search for people and communities, rather than expect them to come to us.
By adopting effective engagement we can ensure that people have an opportunity to influence and co-design proposals early on in the process so they meet their needs. This is also crucial in engaging with staff to help foster a culture of openness and honesty. This is covered in more detail in the HR/OD strategy.
The legal duty
NHS organisations have a legal duty to ensure that the public is informed, involved and has the opportunity to influence the final shape of any proposed significant changes to services before any such changes are implemented. The key pieces of legislation driving the duty to consult are:
• The Health and Social Care Act 2012.• The NHS Constitution.
10 | NHS Kernow communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
Approaches to engagement
The engagement approaches we use will include (but are not limited to):
• Events designed specifically to learn about people’s experiences.
• Events designed specifically to learn about the views of the voluntary and community sector, statutory partners and people we work with in relation to services we commission or where appropriate:• Using existing mechanisms to obtain this
information e.g. meetings we routinely attend
• Using meetings of groups that are hosted by NHS Kernow, such as the Citizen’s Advisory Panel
• Attending events organised by partner organisations in the statutory and voluntary sectors and, where appropriate:• Attending events organised by organisations
other than statutory and voluntary sector partners e.g. the Royal Cornwall Show
• Using a range of methods tailored to the most appropriate way to engage with a particular group or geographic area, including (but not limited to) drop-in sessions, focus groups, online/paper surveys/public meetings/live streaming.
• Maintaining close relationships with statutory partners, the voluntary sector and elected representatives and, where appropriate, briefing members.
• Reporting the outcomes of our engagement activities, demonstrating how we have used information to influence our decisions.
Main audiences and stakeholder mapping
Our success is primarily achieved by working with other people. Our vision will only be achieved by strengthening our relationships with our partners in the NHS, local authorities, voluntary sector and the public. We have relationships with a number of organisations and people and these relationships are vital to ensuring there is good understanding of our work.
We will involve and communicate with a wide range of people to achieve our communications and engagement objectives, which are tailored to their specific needs. We will shape our messages and work with communities to develop tailored community-based communications.
Our ambition is to involve, engage and co-produce wherever we can to the fullest extent.
The following sets out the level of engagement required:
MANAGE: Key partners who should be fully engaged through communications and consultation work.
INFORM: Keep interested people/groups informed. Those in this section may need to have their influence increased, depending on the subject/work programme.
MONITOR: This group needs to be monitored for communications and engagement need.
10 | NHS Kernow communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
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Type Audience Level of engagement
Primary care • GP member practices • Kernow Local Medical Committee• Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Pharmaceutical Committee • Kernow Health CIC
Manage
• Dental Local Professional Network• Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Optical Committee
Monitor
Secondary care • Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust• Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust• South Western Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust.• Northern Devon NHS Healthcare Trust• NEW Devon Clinical Commissioning Group, as a commissioner of
secondary care• University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
Manage
Public • The public• Citizens Advisory Panel• Patient Participation Groups• Locality stakeholder groups• Healthwatch Cornwall/Isles of Scilly• Hard-to-reach groups • Carers• Specific groups e.g. West Cornwall Healthwatch
Manage
• Leagues of Friends Inform and engage
Key opinion gatherers
• MPs • Councillors • Professional bodies• Unions/staff side organisations• Media (local, national and trade). • Health and Wellbeing Boards and stakeholder groups
Manage
Regulatory bodies
• NHS England / Improvement • Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Manage
Public partners • NHS England/Improvement• Cornwall Council• Council of the Isles of Scilly • Cornwall Council Health and Wellbeing Board• Council of the Isles of Scilly Health and Wellbeing Board• Cornwall Council Health and Adult Social Care Overview and
Scrutiny Committee• Council of the Isles of Scilly Overview and Scrutiny Committee• Parish and town councils• Voluntary organisations• Community organisations.• Care home groups • Domiciliary care groups • Carers’ groups
Manage
Staff • Representative organizations• Other staff forums
12 | NHS Kernow communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
Our approach
Our communications and engagement work needs to take a more targeted approach if it is to be effective and this strategy will target three main groups:
Our people Our partners The public
We will adopt a campaign-based approach and focus on three themes for the year, aligned to our key messages. They are:
TRANSFORMINGTransforming health and care services in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, showing people the benefits of an integrated health and care system, and the role we play in it.
INNOVATIONShowing how we work with others to use innovative technologies to deliver services that meet people’s needs.
COLLABORATIONIllustrating the benefits of grass-roots engagement and partnership working to achieve our vision.
All our work will be aligned to these campaign themes and will keep in mind the strategy which will ensure our values are at the heart of our communications.
The campaign model shifts the focus of communications from an output-driven reactive approach to a proactive strategy, by targeting a specific audience through appropriate channels to deliver important messages and achieve our outcome.
We need our communications and engagement work to be driven by results and change people’s behaviours. All of our work will be aligned to clear objectives and measurements to help us to track our progress and impact. The benefits of adopting this approach are:
• That the public and staff know what is going on at the earliest opportunity.• Higher return on investment.• A more proactive approach to our communications work, something which has lacked in recent years.• A more joined-up approach to working.
This is in-line with the Government’s Modern Communications Operating Model (MCOM).
Digital analytics
The CCG will aim to strengthen understanding on the digital communication channels. As the period covered by this strategy develops we will make greater use of digital analytics to enable evidence and insight to influence our work. In particular we need to understand who we are talking to and how they consume their communications; map out existing online and digitally active communities to enable us to target and engage more effectively; and use analytics more directly to influence our campaigns.
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Crisis communications
A crisis is anything that could negatively impact on the operations or reputation of the organisation. The following list is indicative and not exhaustive:
• An accusation of fraud or neglect (whether justified or not).
• An unexpected death of someone in care commissioned by the CCG.
• A medicine or drugs incident.• A health and safety accident.• The resignation of a senior member of staff.• The dismissal of a senior member of staff.• An attack from an outside organisation
(regulator, MP and CQC).• Significant commissioning change that not all
of the public would support e.g. closure of community hospital.
The key principle in managing communications in any crisis is to have an agreed streamlined procedure which allows for a swift response enabling appropriate communications with all key audiences.
The main stages to be followed in managing communications in a crisis are set out below. The speed with which these need to be managed will vary between incidents i.e. some will be known about in advance but many will not.
Roles and responsibilities
The senior staff member will ensure the appropriate people are informed and, if necessary, brought together to discuss the situation. For example, relevant operational manager, Head of Communications and Engagement.
The Head of Communications and Engagement is responsible for setting out a communications and engagement plan to manage the situation. As a minimum this plan will include:
• Brief outline of the situation and the risks to the local communities and the organisation.
• The goals of the communication and engagement plan: reassure key audiences, maintain reputation, rebut.
• The tactics available to the organisation: denial, mitigation, acceptance, apology.
• Key messages to be used: there will be a range of messages to be used for different audiences.
• Stakeholder priority list: decide who needs to be informed about the situation, by whom, and how.
• Draft reactive press release / statement for use, if necessary: a variety of options might be necessary depending upon the media request and the development of the situation.
• A background briefing for journalists.
COMMUNICATIONSDefinitionThe identification of a crisis. While there is probably no need to have a standing group to manage a crisis, a member of the senior management team needs to notify the communications and engagement team of any situations that require crisis management.
14 | NHS Kernow communications and engagement strategy 2019/20
Media
The communications and engagement team will monitor any media and social coverage, and manage all media enquiries. They will work with journalists to find out what they know, who they have spoken to, what their angle is and agree a timeline. They will then prepare a statement and brief the senior member of staff, including making a clear recommendation about handling strategy. The strategy agreed may be to consider an interview, in which case the Head of Communications and Engagement will prepare a briefing note and provide support to the person doing the interview. It may be decided only to issue a statement.
Internal communicationsNHS Kernow’s internal communications function is the primary responsibility of the executive team supported by the HR team, although the communications team work closely with the lead officer and provide support and advice, as necessary, to ensure that accurate timely messages and engagement processes are prioritised.
Effective communication and engagement is not just the sole responsibility of our communications and engagement team. Given the number of meaningful contacts our staff working across health and care have with members of the public – particularly with those in the vulnerable at-risk groups we need to target – it is critical that staff have access to correct and up-to-date information about issues affecting our system, and the important role they each play in providing safe and effective care. We will support our staff to feel empowered and confident to become our greatest ambassadors.
Social mediaThe communications and engagement team will use social media to promote key messages and respond to enquiries. The extent of this will depend on which audiences are being prioritised and the nature of the messaging. In addition all staff, and especially those in leadership positions in the health system, are encouraged to be involved in social media and to help ensure that positive messages are promoted.
The communications and engagement team will prioritise resource to monitor and manage the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages, which reaches key audience groups.
Social platforms will be monitored and responses provided to specific groups to provide updates and correct inaccurate information, if required.
Proactive communicationsIt is important to promote NHS Kernow (and the wider health and care system) as an effective commissioner and a forward thinking and rewarding place to work. This will reassure patients and the public and help to address workforce issues.
Initial actions to help this include:
• Staff are now blogging (and vlogging), giving their own perspective on the organisation. This will always have greater credibility than corporate communications, internally and externally.
• Making more of the CCG’s LinkedIn profile to connect and network.• Supporting GPs with recruitment campaigns. Although talent
development and recruitment sits primarily with HR, communications can support and progress this.
In the future, communications and positive messaging need to become the responsibility of all staff. The communications and engagement team will support with training and advice, seeking to work better with teams to understand their issues and celebrate their success.
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Media procedure
The media are a good way – but not the only way - to reach our target audiences. We will work with them when it is in the organisation’s interest to do so.
The procedure to be followed is:
1. The Head of Communications and Engagement will, in consultation with the Chief Officer, Chairman and other appropriate staff, agree a series of themes, matching the narrative and promoting the core messages, which will frame the media planner for the next 12 months. For example, innovative service delivery, partnership working, patient involvement, reduced waiting times, etc.
2. The team will seek out human interest stories to illustrate these themes that will be attractive to the media. These will be simple, people-led and visual. These can be sourced from within the organisation, from supporters and people we work with, and from external initiatives that impact on our work.
3. Stories and articles will be drafted each month, agreed by the senior team, and then distributed to the relevant media using a range of communication channels. They will be followed up by the communications officer contacting key media contacts to see if they would like to develop a story. If a journalist is interested there might be a need to offer an interview, a tour, or an additional background briefing.
4. In addition, service managers and members of the Governing Body will be asked to provide at least one story a quarter about their projects that illustrate the themes and can be used by the communications team for a release or longer article.
5. The team will be responsible for horizon scanning and briefing the Head of Communications and Engagement on relevant developments in the sector that are worthy of comment. In addition they will identify relevant national award schemes that services or teams could be nominated for.
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Communication platforms
We use a range of methods and channels to communicate and engage with people. These will be targeted to ensure the most appropriate channels are used for each message and audience group.
Channels at our disposal include the website; Facebook; Twitter; the media; face-to-face briefings; campaigns; branding; publications; events; public meeting s (such as the Governing Body) advertising and the production of statutory documents such as the annual report, most of which can be delivered at little to no cost to the organisation and tax-payer.
We will continue to place increasing emphasis on digital communications, in particular the web and social media, as two of our preferred channels for engaging with people in response to the universal growth in usage of digital channels that penetrate every aspect of our daily lives.
What specific platforms will we use to promote the narrative?
• Print and broadcast media: newspapers and radio (commercial and BBC).• Regional print and broadcast media: newspapers, radio, online and television.• Specialist journals: health, social care, community development, primary care, mental health• Specialist publications for specific services. • Micro channels in specific geographic areas: parish newsletters, school and community publications in
relevant areas• Our website: articles, news items, case studies, supporter reviews.• Social media: to drive traffic to the website or engage in debate via Facebook Live and Twitter chats. • Other websites: where relevant swap articles and news with partners. • Partner publications and outlets to raise awareness across health and care. • Blogs and vlogs featuring our staff and leaders.
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Success criteria
There are a number of ways to measure whether the communication strategy is meeting the targets set.
Media coverage: how much, balance of positive and negative, which outlets.
Social media likes, follows and increased reach rates.
Staff survey: setting a baseline by understanding what staff know about the organisation, if they feel valued, and testing this every year to identify trends and put support in place to address any issues.
Stakeholder survey: Partner organisations, PPG and CAP members.
New staff survey: as people join the organisation (or even apply), ask them what they already know about NHS Kernow. This will be used to inform recruitment and broader communication campaigns.
Annual General Meeting: A chance to reflect and celebrate our achievements, whilst looking to the future.
Evaluation will underpin all of our communication and engagement work, so we can learn from what works, what doesn’t, and be more effective in our future approaches.
Partner communications
It is critical that there is effective communication across our health and care system. All communication leads from the NHS and local authorities operate as part of a collective system-wide team. There are good relationships between all organisations, including regular communication to share intelligence and devise strategic plans. This comprises representatives from NHS Kernow Clinical Commissioning Group, NHS England, Cornwall Council (corporate communications and public health), Council of the Isles of Scilly, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust and Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. This ensures there is a single route to share information and a collaborative approach to our work, including shared messages between our staff, clinicians and practitioners.
To find out more about our work, visit our website: www.kernowccg.nhs.uk
This document has been designed and produced by NHS Kernow - January 2019
