Media training for public health leaders

Helping public health professionals deliver clear, confident messages under pressure

Working with the media plays an important role for any organisation. Blue Lozenge worked with the public health teams from both Reading Borough Council and West Berkshire Council to train team members in both proactive and reactive media relations in preparation for managing public health campaigns and crises.

Approach

When developing bespoke media training, we create a package designed to meet each client’s unique needs. For the Reading and West Berkshire Public Health team, this involved building confidence to engage with the media during health protection challenges, disease outbreaks, and other public health events. We asked each participant to answer a pre-training questionnaire, which provided us with insight into how each participant felt about media training and their current strengths and weaknesses. There are three key areas we covered:

  1. The media landscape

Throughout the media training, we provided a thorough understanding of the media landscape and identified the key audiences for both public health teams and good and bad practices when handling the media.

2. Narrative and messaging

We worked with both public health teams to help refine their current messaging and ensure its suitability for media use.

  • Practical skills and techniques

Each participant undertook multiple interviews to simulate interactions with different media outlets on a range of different issues. The idea of this is to help each individual build up their confidence and practice their responses to a range of different questions.

Outcome

The media training equipped both Reading Borough Council and West Berkshire Council’s public health teams with the confidence and skills to deliver clear, authoritative messages during critical public health events. Participants developed strong foundational knowledge of media relations, refined messaging techniques, and gained practical experience through realistic interview simulations.

This enhanced capability will enable the teams to proactively engage with media outlets during health campaigns and respond effectively to crisis situations, ensuring accurate public health information reaches communities while preventing the spread of misinformation. The training created a sustainable foundation for ongoing media engagement, with team members now able to represent their organisations professionally and communicate complex public health messages in accessible ways that build public trust and understanding.

If you need support with media training for your team, please contact us at: hello@bluelozenge.co.uk

Building leadership communication impact

Summary

Public Health Wales (PHW) commissioned Blue Lozenge to provide leadership development and strategic support for its communications team following a post-COVID strategic review. Blue Lozenge developed a bespoke framework including tailored mentoring and coaching for senior leaders, support for the Head of Communications in strengthening executive relationships, peer networking across the healthcare sector, and a team session to embed new ways of working. The programme resulted in a leadership development framework, a shared team purpose, and a communications and engagement strategy aligned to PHW’s organisational priorities.

Bespoke coaching and strategy to strengthen health communication teams

Public Health Wales‘ (PHW) communication team had completed a strategic review and wanted to emerge from the Covid-19 crisis in a position of strength. They needed targeted leadership development to clarify strategic priorities and strengthen their relationships with stakeholders.

Approach

Using their strategic review, at Blue Lozenge we created a bespoke framework for team development. We developed tailored mentoring and coaching for the senior leadership team, focusing on strategic impact and individual development needs to improve their delivery against the PHW strategy. Working closely with the Head of Communications, we supported the strengthening of their relationships with executive colleagues within PHW.

We connected team members with peers across the healthcare sector through our extensive networks. Working closely with the Head of Communications, we supported their leadership role and relationships with executive colleagues. Finally, we delivered a team session to embed new ways of working and allow shared learning across the whole team.

Impact

Public Health Wales now has a fully developed and achievable leadership development framework that has enabled them to build capability within their team and provide expert assurance and influence at the highest levels internally and externally. We supported them to develop a shared team purpose and communications and engagement strategy that helps the team support the wider organisation to deliver their organisational priorities. The programme also supported personal development and capability building journeys, enabling the team to invest in their own learning and network building across the healthcare communications sector.

Improving primary care communication

Summary

Blue Lozenge worked with One Care, the largest GP Federation in the UK, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board to deliver a public communication and engagement campaign explaining changes to primary care services following COVID-19 digital transformation. Blue Lozenge developed integrated creative assets informed by evidence and insight, sourcing real patient and workforce case studies. The campaign was delivered across social media, public relations, and out-of-home advertising including buses to reach digitally excluded audiences. The campaign generated over 630,000 views on Facebook and Instagram and more than one million YouTube ad impressions.

An integrated campaign to help primary care communicate with their local populations more effectively

Across the NHS, and especially for primary care, COVID-19 was a catalyst for digital transformation and change. The way that patients and populations communicated with their care provider and how they received care changed enormously. The pace of that change meant that there was a lag in genuine engagement with local populations and the workforce.

Blue Lozenge worked with One Care to support primary care organisations across Bristol, North, Somerset and South Gloucestershire with a communication and engagement campaign that sought to provide the public with reassurance and explain these changes.

Approach

Blue Lozenge supported One Care, the largest GP Federation in the UK, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board with their campaign to improve public understanding of the changing roles in primary care. We developed a fully integrated campaign and creative assets, based on evidence and insight. We sourced real life case studies for the campaign from across the Integrated Care System liaising with patients and the workforce. We told the story of how primary care is changing from the patient’s perspective. 

 
We aligned the campaign to national creatives and plans, reinforcing national messaging and developed bespoke assets to engage the local population in a meaningful way that resonated with them. In addition to the creative development, we managed the campaign delivery across several channels including social media, public relations and out-of-home advertising. Using an integrated approach helped to ensure we met the needs of all our audiences including the digitally excluded. 

Outcome

We created some excellent stories that resonated with the local community, on social media we drove traffic to a specific campaign website and received over 630,000 views on our Facebook and Instagram profiles and over 1 million ad impressions on YouTube. We used out-of-home advertising, specifically on buses, to reach the digitally excluded population. The team now also have numerous creative assets to use for future communication activities and campaigns. 

 

 

Communication plan to support NHS capital development

Summary

Isle of Wight NHS Trust commissioned Blue Lozenge to develop a communication and engagement strategy for their £48 million Investing in Our Future Programme, a major estates and digital transformation project. Blue Lozenge conducted a discovery phase including stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and a programme team workshop, before developing a full communication and engagement strategy covering audiences, channels, tactics, risks, governance, and a detailed delivery plan. A bespoke communications toolkit was provided to enable the in-house team to deliver the communication workstream independently, ensuring a sustainable and consistent programme of engagement with stakeholders and the public.

Developing a strategic engagement plan to support healthcare investment

As part of their estates and digital transformation agenda, the Isle of Wight NHS Trust were seeking to transform the health and care for their local population through a £48 million capital investment project, the Investing in Our Future Programme.

Blue Lozenge was tasked by the programme team to develop a communication and engagement strategy for the project. The communication and engagement strategy needed a compelling narrative, that would help the programme gain the support of a complex network of stakeholders including, the public, the workforce, local and national stakeholders.

Approach to communications strategy

The first phase of our approach was all about discovery. As an extension of the programme team, we analysed their project to understand their strengths and challenges from a communication and engagement perspective. We looked at best practice and helped the team understand the current view of stakeholders and their audiences.  We worked with their communication team and the broader health and care system to understand the best channels and ways to reach key audiences. An in depth programme of research including stakeholder interviews and focus groups helped us to understand key themes. A workshop with the programme team enabled us to agree their key communication priorities.

We developed a full communication and engagement strategy and implementation plan for the programme. This included the communication strategy and approach; audiences and stakeholders; channels and tactics; risks and issues; and governance and sign off.

The delivery plan detailed communication timing and channels, including which messages, assets, and channels should be used when and with what audience. We ensured there was a process for conversations and two-way communication and mechanism for the programme to listen and respond to feedback. We provided a communications toolkit specifically for the Investing in Our Future Programme, to help the organisation implement and deliver the communication workstream without being reliant on external resource.

Outcome

The communications and engagement strategy and delivery plan that we developed, with the programme’s key audiences, provided a clear road map and next steps for the in-house team. The programme team could be consistent and clearly articulate the benefits of the programme and ensure there was a sustainable programme of communication.

Increasing communication capacity for a major event

Summary

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM) commissioned Blue Lozenge to provide emergency communications capacity for the funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022, the largest ceremonial event in over 70 years. Blue Lozenge rapidly deployed senior communications specialists and tactical experts to provide gold and silver command cover, 24/7 support, media management, and crisis communications planning. The team integrated with central government, the Royal Household, emergency services, and health partners. The support enabled effective public safety messaging for over 100,000 visitors, prevented road gridlock, and allowed the permanent RBWM team to manage sustainable workloads throughout the event.

Supporting the communication effort for the Queen’s funeral

The funeral of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022 represented the largest ceremonial event in over 70 years. The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM) faced an unprecedented communications challenge that far exceeded their normal capacity. They needed immediate, high-calibre communications expertise to augment their team during this period of exceptional demand, ensuring public safety and preventing overcrowding as over 100,000 visitors converged on Windsor. 

Approach

Blue Lozenge rapidly deployed experienced communications professionals to integrate with and support the RBWM team: 

  • Provided senior communications specialists to offer gold and silver command cover 
  • Embedded tactical communications experts to handle operational delivery 
  • Established 24/7 professional support to maintain continuous communications 
  • Supplemented the existing team’s capacity for media management, social media, and public engagement 
  • Contributed specialist crisis communications expertise for contingency planning 

Our team seamlessly integrated with multiple partner agencies, including central government, the Royal Household, emergency services and health partners, ensuring coordinated communications across all stakeholders. 

Impact

Our resourcing solution delivered exceptional results: 

  • Maintained continuous communications coverage throughout this historic event 
  • Prevented system overwhelm despite the extraordinary demands 
  • Enabled effective public transport messaging that prevented road gridlock 
  • Supported real-time issue management with no significant incidents 
  • Allowed the permanent RBWM team to manage sustainable workloads during an intense period 

The flexible resourcing model we provided meant RBWM could rapidly scale their communications capacity to meet this once-in-a-lifetime event, then return to normal operations afterward without the long-term costs of permanent recruitment.