Creating communication foundations for a NHS mental health trust

Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust had grown significantly, serving over 2 million people with over 7,500 staff across multiple local authorities. CQC reports identified improvement needs in leadership visibility, staff communication and engagement processes. At a critical point of refreshing their strategy and mission, the trust urgently needed sustainable communication foundations.

Approach & communications strategy

We embarked on a thorough discovery programme to understand the organisation, its audiences, and channels. This provided an evidence base against which to provide recommendations for improvement. Our work programme included:

• Reviewing strategic plans and data points including existing channels and content, employee survey results
• Intranet review and channel audit working with existing suppliers and other internal communication channel metrics.
• Design and creation of a workforce and stakeholder survey.
• Development and presentation of a comprehensive report detailing our findings and recommendations broken into quick wins, medium term actions and long-term priorities.
• Board sessions to ensure alignment of directors with the programme of recommended actions alongside operational priorities.

Outcome

• Our programme of work at Blue Lozenge helped to inform the ongoing communication and engagement strategy, providing valuable insight into what was needed to improve communication and engagement with the public and the workforce.
• We developed structured conversations around specific areas of focus and we were able to reach employees from across the organisation ranging from the executive team through to front line employees
• We secured buy-in from the Board to work through the final recommendations supporting the communication and engagement team to deliver.