Primary Care & Mental Health Transformation Programme (PCMHTP) Communication Strategy. Version: 0.2

Transcription

1 Primary Care & Mental Health Transformation Programme (PCMHTP) Communication Strategy Version: 0.2 1

2 Version Control and Document Management The issue of this document requires the approval of the signatories below on behalf of the Programme Board. Name Title Programme Role Signature Date Kate Bell Head of Service Change and Transformation Programme Director Marjorie McGinty Senior Improvement Manager Improvement Lead & programme Management Distribution Version No. Date /06/2017 Initial draft /08/ nd draft incorporating KB changes issued to MM & KB

3 Primary Care and Mental Health Transformation Programme Communications Strategy Background In April 2016 NHS Lanarkshire has embarked on a unique and ambitious Primary Care and Mental Health Transformation Programme (PCMHTP). The pan Lanarkshire programme aims to transform our approach to how the public access general practice and how primary care services are delivered over the coming years. Our vision for the programme is to deliver the best possible health and social care to the people of Lanarkshire, through world-leading, high quality, person-centered services. The South and North Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCPs) Strategic Commissioning plans and Achieving Excellence (NHS) both set out the ambitions for the people of Lanarkshire to be supported to maintain their own health and wellbeing in the community or their own home, with hospital services only used for critical incidents or planned care. Effective communication and engagement are essential to achieving this vision and the programme objectives, as set out in the PCMHTP Programme Initiation Document approved by the programme board in August This communication strategy has been developed to ensure that we take an inclusive, structured and managed approach to PCMHTP communications and engagement to ensure effective benefits are achieved with results to support the public and NHS and social care staff work better together to improve access and continuous improvement of the service process and patient outcomes. Communication Aims and Objectives The specific communication objectives for the programme are to: raise awareness of the current and future challenges facing primary care and mental health services among target audiences; create knowledge and understanding of the PCMHTP to foster engagement in the process and trust in the outcomes; and To develop materials and messages to ensure effective information sharing on any new ways of working are shared well in advance with service users. Target Audiences The communications and engagement for the programme will take an equality & diversity approach to ensure we are inclusive in all necessary messages with translation and format taken into consideration. Our identified target audiences for PCMHTP communications include the public, carers, service users and organisations and agencies that represent the needs of specific groups. Therefore our approach will be both external and internal. 3

4 External Audiences The external audiences are listed below. These will be segmented further, where possible, when developing communication plans for each of the PCMHTP work streams. Further defining our target audiences at this stage enables better channel selection for reach and relevancy. Patients of primary care and mental health services and/or their carers General public in Lanarkshire Partner agencies and voluntary groups Professional bodies covering primary care and mental health Scottish Government health ministers Lanarkshire MPs, MSPs and Lanarkshire councillors Internal Ensuring staff are on-board with the collective efforts - sharing ideas, experiences and views to inform the process - is crucial. This will not only result in redesigning services effectively but will help to foster ownership and increased acceptance of change. It is essential that staff fully understand, engage with and are committed to all elements of the PCMHTP programme so they can proactively contribute to improving individual outcomes for people. This includes supporting, informing and advising their own service users/patients of the PCMHTP and what it means for them. Staff are also a valuable resource in disseminating information not only to patients but also to family and friends who in turn pass the information on. The list below covers NHS Lanarkshire staff and staff from both H&SC Partnerships. Primary Care and Mental Health Practitioners Primary Care and Mental Health Managers All staff (for general communications) Board members PCMH Managers are a key group here they are both an audience and a valuable face-to-face communications resource. We must equip them with understanding, information and the materials (briefing notes, Q&As, presentations) they need to disseminate information, promote dialogue and to create a voice for staff. Establishing regular updates that are cascaded through managers via team meetings provides an opportunity for questions, as well as a mechanism for feedback on areas that require clarification and for any suggestions or ideas. 4

5 Key Messages While information and stories will vary depending on the work stream audience, the key messages will underpin all communications activity and must be consistently used across all media and throughout the length of the campaign to be effective. These need to be as simple and as clear as possible, pitched from an audience perspective. Our key communication messages for PCMHTP are listed below. Transformation is needed to tackle the current and future challenges facing primary care and general practice. Ensuring patients have an improved experience in accessing the right person/treatment/place first time is at the heart of our transformation programme. The programme is not about saving money quality and safety are our key measures for introducing new ways of working. The PCMHTP supports NHS Lanarkshire s commitment to treat people in the community and to reduce inequality in health care. Clearly, we need to provide an understanding of the challenges facing PCMH services (listed below) that have led to the position that more of the same will not meet future need and demand. People are living longer so we have an ageing population with more complex health needs. There is a reducing number of clinicians coming into practice, particularly GPs. The public sector faces a continuing need to use all its resources more efficiently. These challenges need to be positioned in a national context to avoid any perception that they are peculiar to Lanarkshire, which could impact on our reputation. Principals of Approach Throughout all of our PCMHTP communications it s imperative that we answer the key question for our target audiences - what does this mean for me? Only by doing this will our communications become meaningful and relevant to our audience, enabling them to understand and accept the changes that are ahead. This needs to be underpinned by clear, simple, jargon-free information that meets the Plain English standard that NHS Lanarkshire is committed to. Communication for engagement is essential and therefore, in addition to any engagement activity via the work streams, our communications should be two-way wherever possible. We need to identify opportunities that enable this. 5

6 Leadership communication on the PCMHTP is important in terms of endorsing the status of the programme and in setting out the vision for all audiences. It s important then that we have leadership visibility across and throughout our communications. Given the comprehensive nature of the audience and the anticipated changes, taking a multi-media approach, using a variety of channels to re-enforce and confirm messages and information will be the most effective approach. Communication Actions While there are communication actions in relation to the PCMHTP, many of the activities will flow from the eight work streams. Individual communications plans, with schedules of activity, will be developed with each work stream. These will include more defined target audiences in relation to each work stream s area of work, as well as pitching the key messages within context. Work stream communications plans will be managed in line with the PCMHTP communications strategy to ensure consistency, avoid confusion and to co-ordinate timing of activity. A more detailed action plan of scheduled activity for PCMHTP communications will be developed once the communication plan has been agreed by the board and subsequently added as an appendix to this strategy. A template of the communication plan is attached as Appendix 1. Key external and internal communication activities in the schedule will cover: establishing a regular PCMHTP update cascaded via managers for face-to-face briefings with PCMH staff; creating PCMH pages on both the NHSL web site and FirstPort including a video message from the programme sponsor, Val da Souza, and quotes from leaders within the Scottish PCMH transformation arena; a road show of presentations sharing the vision and progress to key committees and senior management teams across NHS Lanarkshire and the H&SC Partnerships; identifying milestones and stories to create a schedule of proactive media releases and photographs; regular features in the Pulse, updates in the Staff Brief and through H&SC Partnership communication channels; rolling out a new campaign in support of the right person first time approach. The campaign will take the form of a series of videos and posters (potentially including bus backs and billboards) around meet the experts /The Professionals to build knowledge and to 6

7 encourage people to recognise the value of health practitioners other than their GP. The campaign would signpost to and be supported by information on the website; an electronic newsletter/update for the eight work stream teams to promote connectivity and visibility across the programme; full use of social media channels, identifying opportunities and establishing a PCMH hash tag; and developing a creative theme for the programme that will provide an identity, or brand, for the campaign helping patients to put the various pieces of the jigsaw together and make sense of the picture. Integral to this is good story telling, which will make our communications feel tangible and real. We ll identify and develop compelling human interest stories around, for example, ANPs, physiotherapists, community pharmacists, optometrists and mental health services. This enables us to demonstrate and evidence how the PCMHTP outcomes will be effective way forward, providing real benefits for patients. Costs The communications costs identified GP Recruitment and Retention marketing and communications activities, including the right person first time campaign. Other activities are based on using existing channels with the main input being staff time. Any other costs in relation to the individual work steam communications plans will be identified, costed and spend approved by the relevant budget holder, in line with procurement regulations. Risks The key risk associated with PCMHTP communications is in the public or media interpreting the programme as a mechanism or smoke-screen for a reduction or loss in service. Providing an understanding of why transformation needs to happen, alongside consistently evidencing the benefits for patients, will help mitigate the risk of negative perceptions or headlines, as will public and staff engagement in the process. However, the risk of a negative impact - not only in terms of perceptions or damage to reputation but on our ability to effectively implement the outcomes - is far greater if we do not proactively manage our communications in a planned and strategic way. A table of identified risks is attached as Appendix 2. 7

8 Evaluation We will look at building targets into our activity to describe and quantify the reach of any communication and engagement and, where possible, measure the effectiveness of the different approaches against our communication objectives. Our key measures of success for the communication strategy will include: positive media coverage; social media and online activity (likes, re-tweets and page-visits); patients accept and engage with the new ways of working; positive responses from patient satisfaction surveys; positive feedback via staff; minimal levels of complaints; and support from local politicians. Regular update reports on the progress of the implementation of the communication strategy will be submitted to the PCMHTP Steering Group. 8

9 Appendix 1 Communications Plan Template Audience Activity Channel Date Status Lead 9

10 Engagement Events Dates Stakeholders Topic Reach 10

11 Appendix 2 Communication Plan Risks Risk Level Mitigating Action Owner 11