Communications and Engagement Strategy

Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017

1. Introduction This strategy sets the ambition and direction for Bath and North East Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group s (BaNES CCG) communications and engagement over the next two years and details the approach and initiatives that will help the organisation achieve its aims and objectives in line with its Five Year Strategy Seizing Opportunities. Our direction of travel is informed by the NHS Constitution 2010 with its founding principle that the NHS belongs to the people. Reports and recommendations including Duty of Candour, The Francis Report and Keogh Report are also drivers for continuously improving standards within our engagement and communications activities. We will ensure that the public, patients and carers are at the centre of local health and care services and that we listen to and involve them effectively and systematically at every stage in the commissioning process. This strategy will be achieved by successful partnership working with staff from the across the CCG. It will be shared with all staff within the CCG to ensure that patient and public involvement is incorporated into any new procurement process or commissioning decisions that could impact on patients, their carers and the wider general public. 1.1 The role of the Communications Team In delivering this strategy the Communications Team will: Enhance and be the guardian of the CCG s reputation ensuring our audiences understand and positively support our organisation s work. Lead, in a proactive manner, the involvement of the public, patients and carers in decisions relating to their care and the commissioning or redesign of local NHS services, in line with the CCG s statutory duty. Be the CCG s centre of communications and engagement expertise for internal and external stakeholders informed about local health issues and needs of our different audiences and helping staff in particular, to plan and implement communications and engagement activity on behalf of the CCG. 1.2 Context BaNES CCG was established in April 2013 and is responsible for planning, commissioning (buying) and monitoring local health services for the population of BaNES. The CCG is responsible for commissioning a wide range of services including mental health services, acute and urgent hospital care and community health services. In 2015 we also took on a joint commissioning role with NHS England for some primary care services. Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 2 of 13

We serve a resident population of 177,643 and a registered population of 197,040 with a budget of 221m. The CCG is led by local GPs, from all 27 practices within Bath and North East Somerset. It is their clinical expertise and patient insight that ensures the CCG plans and designs a range of health services that improve outcomes for patients, address local priorities and meet the rights of patients under the NHS Constitution. The CCG aims to improve outcomes and quality of services for the people of BaNES to ensure their health and wellbeing and this is achieved by working in partnership with other organisations including Bath & North East Somerset Council, health care providers and the voluntary and community sector. We believe our role as a high performing CCG is to lead our health and care system collaboratively through the commissioning of high quality, affordable, person-centred services that support people to take control of their lives and receive care and treatment in their own home or local community. This overall aim is summarised in just three words; Healthier. Stronger. Together. The CCG has six core values which inform everything we do: 1. A focus on continually improving the quality of services. 2. To be credible, creative and ambitious on behalf of our local population. 3. To work collaboratively and be respectful of others. 4. Be focused, committed and hardworking. 5. Be alert to the needs of our population, particularly those who are most vulnerable. 6. To operate with integrity and trust. The CCG and the Council work closely together to join up NHS health and social care services. This integrated approach is better for helping people manage long-term conditions such as diabetes and for easing pressure on hospitals by providing improved home care services for those that need it. The CCG is also a key member of the B&NES Health & Wellbeing Board which includes senior leaders from across the local health and care system and meets bi-monthly to agree joint strategies to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population and reduce health inequalities. The CCG established a new in-house communications function in September 2014 with three roles of Head of Communications, Communications Manager and Digital & Publications Officer all in post by January 2015. 1.3 Listening to and involving the public in our decision-making The CCG is committed to encouraging the public, patients and carers to be involved in decisions relating to their care and treatment; making arrangements for the public to be engaged in CCG governance arrangements; listening and acting upon public and patient feedback at all stages of the commissioning cycle (see figure 1) and publishing evidence Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 3 of 13

of how we have acted upon patient and public feedback by adopting a you said, we did approach. It is only with everyone s insight and by ensuring two-way communication that we can seek to improve the patient experience, ensure better health outcomes and improve health services. Figure 1 above Engaging with patients and the public at every stage of the commissioning cycle The public, patients and carers have the opportunity to help develop, hear about and feedback on our plans as part of the Your Health, Your Voice patient and public engagement group. This group comprises 20 core members of the public who meet every couple of months and a further 21 virtual members who contribute via email and phone. Together this group support the CCG s public and patient involvement work on commissioning issues and acts as a critical friend to the CCG in terms of reviewing proposed service changes. Members of Your Health, Your Voice make a much valued contribution to our planning and delivery process. They have a direct line to decisionmakers with feedback from the group shared at CCG Board meetings. Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 4 of 13

The CCG s Lay Member for Patient and Public Involvement (PPI), as a member of the CCG Board, has a key role to ensure the CCG puts patients at the heart of everything it does, that patient views are heard at every level of the organisation and that the CCG responds in a timely and effective way to feedback and recommendations from the public, patients, and carers. The PPI lay member chairs Your Health, Your Voice and the Vice Chair is also a patient representative. The CCG is committed to fulfilling its duties with respect to the NHS Act 2006 (section 14z2 (2)) and Health and Social Care Act 2012 to: Enable patients and carers to participate in planning, managing and making decisions about their care and treatment, through the services we commission. Ensure the effective participation of the public in the commissioning process itself so that services reflect the needs of local people. We are also mindful that future changes in the way that primary care services are commissioned (such as joint commissioning) may require the CCG to undertake additional patient consultation where previously this would have been the responsibility of NHS England. This is in accordance with Section 13Q of the NHS Act 2006 which is very similar to section 14z2 but relates specifically to involving patients in primary care commissioning decisions. For major commissioning projects (such as the your care, your way community services review) we will prepare bespoke communications and engagement strategies to set out our plans for how we will engage with the public and patients and how we will use their insights to inform CCG decision-making about services. The level of public involvement will vary depending on the complexity of the changes proposed. Information about consultation exercises will be publicised widely including on the CCG website, disseminated via printed and broadcast media and paper copies of relevant material will be provided on request for those who do not have access to the internet. 1.3.1 Community-wide engagement In line with our Equality and Diversity Strategy, our communications and engagement activity must be relevant and meaningful to those people who have characteristics that are protected under the Equality Act 2010. Bath and North East Somerset, whilst being a largely prosperous and healthy area, does, nevertheless, have pockets of social deprivation. We must reach out to people in the local community that experience difficulties accessing health services or have health problems that are caused or affected by their socio-economic circumstances. By working in partnership with the organisations, charities and voluntary groups that represent these protected communities, we can tailor our engagement activities to make them accessible and relevant and tap into their existing networks of contacts and communications channels. Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 5 of 13

2. Communications and engagement objectives 2015 2017 Our communications and engagement objectives are aligned to corporate objectives and are to: 1. Raise awareness of the role and value of the CCG in terms of how it provides health system leadership locally and how health and care services are run in BaNES. 2. Engage the public, patients and carers in decisions relating to their care and the commissioning or redesign of local NHS services. 3. Inspire the public, patients and carers to enter into meaningful dialogue with us and ensure their insight for how services could be improved and delivered in the future is acted upon. 4. Plan for and anticipate potential health developments locally or nationally that may impact on the CCG s reputation or offer opportunities for enhanced engagement with stakeholders. 5. Tailor national health promotion messages to ensure they are relevant for our local audiences and encourage behaviour change that improves health and wellbeing outcomes. 6. Improve engagement with GP members to draw on their clinical expertise to make a difference to local health and care services. 7. Strive for stronger employee engagement supporting effective delivery of business objectives through increased understanding and involvement. 3. Our approach We will place increasing emphasis on digital communications, in particular the web and social media, as two of our preferred channels for engaging with our different audiences. This is in response to the universal growth in usage of digital channels that penetrate every aspect of our daily lives. Whilst recognising the increasing value of digital channels to inform and engage, we do not underestimate the importance of traditional face to face communications. An important strand of our work will be to continue identifying opportunities to meet our stakeholders in person; whether via existing forums and events (e.g. Area Forum meetings organised by the Council) or by setting up our own meetings. A shift to deliver digital solutions can nevertheless offer operating efficiencies and be more convenient for our stakeholders; for example clearer signposting to support services on our website reduces the need to contact us by more traditional methods e.g. by phone or letter. Social media platforms also offer opportunities for the CCG to be more responsive and encourage and enter into dialogue and debate with stakeholders in real-time. Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 6 of 13

We will deliver consistent, coherent and resonant messaging as part of our communications strategy that will also seek to stimulate positive debate both off and online around health and care. And by placing more focus on listening rather than broadcasting we will encourage our audiences to enter into two-way communication with us and share their views on the issues that matter locally. 4. Key audiences The general public, patients and carers: The CCG has a strong story to tell but there is still limited recognition amongst the general public, patients and carers of who we are and our essential contribution to the local health and care system. We must engage more proactively with the public, patients and carers to help raise awareness of what we do and how everyone can support our work to improve health outcomes and the quality of local health services. Our GP members: GP engagement is an important area of focus. As a member organisation which requires clinical leadership to influence decision-making and transform Primary Care, we need to nurture good relationships and improve two-way communication with GPs across BaNES. With GP support we can also look to strengthen and expand the number of practice-based patient participation groups to contribute to and support our plans for health services. Employees: Our staff are a vital asset and the CCG s vision will not be delivered without their skills, expertise, commitment and passion. Therefore we will seek to improve communications with internal audiences to encourage the sharing of ideas across different teams, promote a sense of shared purpose and embed the CCG s core values. We also recognise that many staff are directly responsible for commissioning services so our communications needs to encourage them to incorporate patient, carer and public involvement into every stage of the commissioning cycle. Our first staff survey (November 2014) highlighted considerable dissatisfaction with CCG website and intranet so redeveloping these two digital platforms will be a priority in 2015. Partners, providers and voluntary organisations: We need to build engagement with partner and provider organisations and voluntary organisations such as Healthwatch (the local consumer voice for health and care) to ensure the CCG s values and our vision of high quality, effective health services for all is shared with the organisations that we work with. We must also use communications to encourage transparency and openness across different organisations so that patient feedback is quickly shared and acted upon. Working in partnership with partners and organisations like Healthwatch also means we can benefit from their expertise and network of contacts to better reach out to underrepresented groups. Healthwatch s insight, for example, has already proved invaluable for the planning phase of your care, your way. Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 7 of 13

Other important audiences include the media, politicians, regulatory bodies e.g. CQC and Monitor, NHS England and Department of Health. For a list of our key stakeholder groups see appendix 1. 5. Key initiatives for 2015 2017 In addition to core operational activity such as handling media enquiries, updating online content and helping produce documents such as the Annual Report, a number of key initiatives have been identified: 5.1 Develop the capacity and capability of the Communications Team by setting up an electronic media monitoring and evaluation service, developing a performance dashboard, updating our brand guidelines and core messaging, developing a weekly content calendar to inform social media and PR activity, establishing a more robust system for logging media enquiries, supporting professional development and developing and maintaining a key stakeholder database for example for local groups, charities, forums etc. 5.2 Build stakeholder engagement by supporting roll out of the Ipsos MORI NHS 360 stakeholder survey 2015 and 2016 and use the results to inform the communications and engagement strategy. Undertake a proactive engagement programme with MPs, councillors and parish councillors following the General Election May 2015 to provide briefings on the role of the CCG and our priorities. 5.3 Deliver improved digital communications in order to ensure an excellent user experience and to effectively engage staff and external stakeholders by reviewing and redeveloping the CCG website, staff intranet and GP portal (sulis.com). Review and develop our social media strategy to increase our presence on Twitter, Facebook and other online platforms to create a digital participation space where anyone can join, contribute or start a conversation about health and care. 5.4 Build on Your Health, Your Voice Our plan is to expand membership of this group and set up new face to face or virtual participation forums so we can seek views from children, their families, students and young adults as well as those living in more remote, rural areas. We will do this by tackling the barriers associated with language, age, access to information and disability so we reach those that find it most difficult to get their views heard. We will achieve this through a range of activities such as outreach events, online surveys, PR, social media and use of patient stories. We will also seek to collaborate with GP practices to help strengthen patient consultation through their individual patient participation groups. 5.5 Build our media & PR capacity. The Communications Team is responsible for all engagement with the print, online and broadcast media and proactively manages the CCG Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 8 of 13

profile. Our aim is to develop a media relations strategy that increases the amount of positive coverage for the CCG and what we do. In addition to proactive media activity, the team can be in the front line handling tricky issues relating to local health service delivery, quality or safety issues. We will build on existing good relations with communications teams at the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Council and other partner and provider organisations to ensure coverage is as balanced and accurate as possible. We will put more emphasis on using patient stories to bring to life the issues that matter to people and to motivate and inspire the public to find out more about the CCG and how to get involved in our work. 5.6 Improve GP engagement through development of a new online GP portal and refreshed e-newsletter. One of the CCG s priorities is to support primary care in transforming the way it provides services to the local community. This scaling up in the way GPs operate and changes to the way services are delivered in addition to directives at a national level for how should primary care should be organised and operate can lead to loss of confidence and destabilisation locally. The Communications Team will have a role to play in communicating latest developments and guidance to GPs in a way that is relevant and succinct. We will also work with CCG colleagues to improve engagement via monthly GP Forums and Cluster surgery meetings. 5.7 Enhance staff engagement which can have a significant impact on productivity, financial effectiveness and delivery of services. The Communications Team s key aim is to help staff make the connection between their work and the overall goals of the CCG, build a sense of common purpose across all teams and encourage behaviours that fit with our values. 2015/17 will see us develop the main internal communication channels (intranet and e-bulletin). These channels support engagement by providing relevant, useful messages and accessible tools to enable staff to do their job and understand the CCG s strategic priorities. We are also supporting delivery of the staff survey action plan and will lead on the engagement programme for and delivery of the staff survey annually. In 2015/17 we will also review the format and regularity of different team meetings held across the CCG to make these more standardised and consistent as well as how successfully we are cascading information from Board meetings and other committees to the rest of the organisation. A specific programme of activity will be around engaging our commissioners to ensure patient, carer and public participation in every stage of the commissioning cycle. The aim is to ensure a culture of transparency and public and patient engagement across all our commissioning projects and sharing of best practice with colleagues. As part of this we intent to develop an engagement toolkit so we can better equip commissioning leads to undertake their own engagement activity. Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 9 of 13

5.8 your care, your way community services review throughout the next two years we will continue to lead on public engagement for this review of community services and ensure we get everyone s views on a future service model that meets the needs of our local population. This initiative has provided an excellent opportunity to map out our stakeholders anew and help us identify the local organisations, forums and support networks to help support with our engagement activity and enable us to reach out to the most vulnerable groups. 6. Measurement and evaluation There will be ongoing evaluation and an annual audit of our activity to ensure we understand what is working well, make changes where things are working less successfully and ultimately deliver impactful and effective communications. Rigorous objective setting, project monitoring and evaluation helps to deliver continuous improvement and to demonstrate cost effectiveness across all communications activity. The Communications Team will undertake a wide range of activity but by understanding the scope for each project and desired outcomes, it is possible to develop a supporting communications evaluation plan that includes the relevant performance metrics that can be grouped into five main categories: Inputs the details of the actual activity that has been undertaken, including the channels used to communicate for example the number of press releases distributed, number of partner organisations contacted or number of press adverts placed. Outputs the number of people who had the opportunity to see or hear the activity (reach), regardless of whether they recall or recognise it such as the number of people attending a public meeting, quantity and quality of media coverage or media enquiries handled. Out-takes metrics that consider the impact of activity on people s awareness. This could be measured through pre and post-activity attitudinal surveys to explore how understanding of local health services has improved as a result of our activity. Intermediate outcomes these capture any action taken by the target audience as a result of our activity, for example increased public attendance at a CCG Board meeting following PR activity or rise in number of visits to website following local event. Outcomes- outcome metrics look at the effect that an activity has had on the overall communication and engagement objectives that it was put in place to address such as increasing understanding and awareness or increasing participation in a consultation exercise. Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 10 of 13

For some projects it may be appropriate to include a small number of key performance indicators (KPIs) so we can track how successfully a project is progressing against its objectives and provide timely information to step in and modify the approach if necessary. 6.1 Performance Dashboard During 2015 the Communications Team will develop a communications performance dashboard, effectively a monitoring tool, to define, track and report on progress against a number of metrics on a monthly basis. The aim is for this dashboard to be submitted at CCG Board meetings as part of the Integrated Quality and Performance Report and to underpin an annual audit of communications and engagement activity. The tool will include number of press releases issued, overview of media coverage achieved (including tone of voice), social media following (e.g. number of new likes and new conversations), website visits, google rankings and number of outreach events attended. We will work with the Nursing and Quality Team to explore the relationship between their quality dashboard and our communications and engagement dashboard to understand how or if performance metrics for engagement activity such as PALs, complaints and Friends and Family Testing (which are the responsibility of the Quality Team) should be incorporated on the communications and engagement dashboard. As part of this it is proposed that Communications and Quality teams work together to improve the way we exchange information and share expertise (with respect to patient participation) across the two teams to further drive up standards. Our dashboard and communications activity must be regularly measured against Equality and Diversity standards that the CCG has set and submitted to the Audit Committee for review. 6.2 Benchmarking There are 211 CCGs nationally. We will explore ways to benchmark ourselves against similar CCG communication functions and seek to share insights on challenges, best practice and resource allocation. 6.3 Reporting It is proposed that an update on progress for our communications and engagement strategy is submitted to the Joint Commissioning Committee twice annually for review and feedback. 7. Resources The CCG Communications Team is a small function with limited financial resource. Therefore successful delivery of this strategy is reliant on staff across the CCG sharing information and alerting the team, at an early stage, to new developments or issues so we have time to plan for these. Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 11 of 13

Whilst a shift to using digital channels for communications activities should result in cost efficiencies, they do require staff resource to manage and the intention is to identify a number of digital champions across the organisation to share responsibility for uploading content to the website and using social media on the CCG s behalf. Innovation is the Communications Team s watchword and we will keep abreast of the latest technological and media industry developments as well as the initiatives working successfully in other parts of the country to identify new, creative and effective ways to engage with our audiences. 8. Conclusion A number of CCG projects will either begin or will accelerate in development during 2015/16, as set out in the CCG s operational plan. Therefore this communications and engagement strategy will be regularly updated to ensure it continues to support the CCG s overall aims and the objectives of the different commissioning work streams. The Communications Team has a vital role to play to ensure that the CCG is successful in improving the health outcomes and quality of health services for the people of Bath and North East Somerset. Adopting a digital-focussed strategy, supported by face to face engagement, the team will encourage two-way dialogue between the CCG and our key audiences: patients, carers and the public; GPs; CCG employees; and partner organisations such as the Council, providers and voluntary and community sector organisations. We will make the most of our limited resources by focussing our efforts on delivering our key initiatives and we will continuously monitor our progress through a new performance dashboard that will measure outcomes as well as outputs. Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 12 of 13

Appendix 1 Key stakeholders include, but not limited to: General Public, patients and their carers. GPs, practice managers and other practice staff. BaNES CCG employees. Bath & North East Somerset Council. The Media. Pharmacists. MPs, Parish Councils, Elected Members/Councillors. Patient Groups such as Healthwatch. NHS providers including Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust, Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, North Bristol NHS Trust, South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. Sirona care and health, an independent community interest community providing integrated community and social care services. Care UK (which provides NHS 111 services), Bath and North East Somerset Enhanced Medical Services (BEMS+) and Bath and North East Somerset Doctors Urgent Care. Voluntary and community organisations such as Age UK and The Alzheimer s Society. Local independent providers including BMI Bath Clinic and Circle Bath. Hospice care including Dorothy House Hospice, St Peter s Hospice, Children s Hospice South West. Housing Associations. NHS/other public sector and regulatory bodies including NHS England, Department of Health, neighbouring CCGs and Monitor. Associations/clinical bodies including British Medical Association, General Medical Council, Local Medical Council, West of England Academic Health Services Network (WEAHSN) Communications and Engagement Strategy 2015-2017 Page 13 of 13