Maximising the impact of a £48 million investment project

Background and objectives

Isle of Wight NHS Trust received £48 million of capital investment to improve the health and care of the local population.

This one-in-a-generation funding was put into numerous projects, including a new integrated mental health and community hub and a range of improvements at the island’s St Mary’s Hospital.

Blue Lozenge was tasked by Isle of Wight NHS Trust to develop a strategy to communicate the changes to the public, workforce, and local and national stakeholders, and maximise the impact of this transformational programme.

Approach

Initially, we worked with the trust communications team to gain an understanding of the programme and its overall objectives, before conducting a series of interviews with key stakeholders.

Equipped with this core information, we developed a strategy that established three key outcomes for the project:

• Inform staff and patients how the project will impact them
• Communicate the overall vision of the programme and its benefits to residents and patients
• Enhance the reputation of the trust.

We set out an engaging narrative that brought to life the benefits of the investment for patients and the workforce and crafted specific messages to convey this ‘story’ to various audiences. Our strategy also identified the appropriate channels to use to engage audiences and identified the potential risks and issues associated with this communications activity.

To complement the programme messaging, we also produced a communications and branding toolkit for the ‘Investing in our Future’ programme, to ensure all future communications activity and messaging were delivered clearly, and with a strong, consistent ‘voice’.

Contact

If you need support to develop a communications strategy for a large-scale project, get in touch by emailing hello@bluelozenge.co.uk