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.
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/