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Toolkit

Communications in health care improvement
Increase your understanding and use of communications to better plan, implement and spread your improvement work

Published

In this toolkit

Topics

What you'll learn

  • Understand how to reach and win the support of the people who are key to your project’s success.
  • Assure yourself, and demonstrate to others, that you are following best practice in communications.
  • See how communications can sustain interest in your project and encourage the spread of innovation and new ways of working.
  • Identify the materials and stories about your project that may help in recommissioning or seeking further funding.

Evidence indicates that considering communications from the beginning to the end of a project could be an important factor in the spread of successful health care improvement.  

By working through the four sections in this toolkit you can reassure yourself that you are following best practice at every point in your project and not missing any important steps. You can also access individual tools, templates and support materials, such as audience mapping or creating messages, as and when needed.

 

Planning for success

In this section, you'll learn how to:

  • understand the context you are operating in and be able to adapt your communications to it
  • learn how to identify the most important people to engage with; and therefore where to focus your time and resources
  • be able to record your analysis and your approach to communications in a simple communications strategy
  • understand what data and information to capture from the beginning of a project, so that you can demonstrate impact (for future funding or spread work) at the end.

Build your communications team

Good communications involve change, and you will need people to help you plan and deliver that change.

Before you think of the detail of a communications strategy and plan, it is helpful to think about who you will work with on this process.  

Previous leaders of health care improvement projects report the importance of bringing people in at the beginning of the process. Therefore, where relevant, co-create the communications strategy and plan. Plan to seek out different views and take them into account at the outset.

The audiences we cover in this section are:

  • colleagues and those who will help shape and deliver the communications
  • executives and those in positions of power/influence
  • patients, carers and community organisations.

Identify and prioritise your audiences

Audience mapping and prioritising is about identifying the people most relevant, willing and able to help you meet your project goals and objectives.  

If you understand what your most important audiences are, you can tailor your communications to their specific interests, needs and motivations.  

The better you know your audiences, and the more you tailor your communications to them, the more effective your communications will be. This may seem obvious, but it is often overlooked, even by seasoned communicators.

There are two stages to this part of this process:

Create a simple communications strategy

Good communications need to be organised, developed, and built. The first step in the process is to create a communications strategy.

Don’t let budget or time constraints keep you from setting objectives, identifying your most important audiences or thinking about how to keep these audiences engaged so that you can sustain and spread your work. Neglecting any of these steps could limit your project’s effectiveness.

A strategy focuses on the big picture: the what, why and who you need to focus on in order to deliver the greatest benefit to your project.*  

(*A strategy is related to, but different from, your communications plan. A communications plan sets out the actions you will take as a result of your strategy: the how and when of communicating to your audiences.)

Work through the following tools, preferably in the order set out below, to complete your communications strategy. 

 

Getting started

This section guides you through how to take the strategic planning from section one and turn it into action.

By working through this section you will:

  • understand how to create messages that speak to the particular needs and interests of your audiences
  • be able to choose the communications channels (eg printed materials, face to face meetings, social media) that are right for your project, audiences and budget
  • set this out in a simple communications plan.

Create messages for your audiences

Understanding your audiences enables you to communicate in a way that speaks directly to their interests. This helps your communications to stand out amongst the mass of information these busy people face every day.

The practical actions to work through here are conducting simple, cost-effective audience research and creating key messages - the information that, above all else, you want your audiences to remember and respond to.

Choose the right communications channels

Communications channels are all the different ways that it is possible to transmit a message or story to its intended audience. Websites, posters, reports, events, email and social media such as Twitter and Facebook – there are many different channels and the number is constantly growing.  

Being able to identify the ones that are right for your audiences, your project and the resources you have available is important.  

The decisions you make here will dictate how you allocate your time and budget, and will also give a strong indication of the communications skills you will need as your project progresses.

Create a simple communications plan

At this point, a significant amount of work and thinking has gone into shaping your communications approach. This needs to be distilled into a communications plan.

A communications plan sets out the how and when you will communicate to your audiences. It will enable you to plan your time, budget for your communications and ensure your activities are on track.

The communications plan template in this section provides a format to use. The intention is to summarise the key actions so that it is easy to follow. If necessary, additional documents can be attached to the main communications plan as appendices.

 

Sustaining interest

This section offers guidance on how to sustain the interest and engagement of your audiences.

By working through this section you will:

  • be presented with tips and ideas on how to keep your audiences interested and on board with the project
  • understand the power of storytelling in health care improvement
  • be able to evaluate and communicate progress to date, and to prepare your communications for the final project stage on spread.

Keep your audiences engaged

Once a health care improvement project is underway, it can be a challenge to maintain levels of interest and engagement.  

Plan regular communications with the audiences you have already engaged. Much time and resource is likely to have been spent in capturing their attention, so it makes sense to invest a bit more in keeping it.

Here we look at various communications techniques that can help maintain interest. And we look at how to harness the power of storytelling in health care improvement.

Prepare to spread your improvement work

After planning, launching and sustaining your communications, the time has come to focus on how to spread the work and learning from your project. 

Before you embark on this phase of improvement communications, you will need to gather the evidence from your project that will demonstrate impact and learning. 

It is also an ideal time to take an objective view of your communications to date and look for areas where you can improve in the future.  

 

Spreading your work

This section focuses on how communications can help spread the learning and ideas generated by your project. 

By working through this section you will:

  • create a simple communications plan to support your spread work
  • learn the principles of extending your influence by engaging with networks and policy makers
  • learn how communications can help build a case for further funding of your improvement work.

Create a simple communications plan to encourage spread

Communications priorities, and the circumstances and context within which you are operating, may change throughout the life of your project.

Before you start working on the detail of your communications for spread, it is important to review all of the main elements from your original communications strategy: your objectives, your audiences, your main channels, etc.

You can revise your communications strategy document accordingly and then use the guidance and template here to set out a simple communications plan for spread.

Extend your work and influence

Your project's outcome and the learning gained through it may have the potential to influence wider organisational and even national policy. 

Two key elements for success in spread are having the right resource and extending your networks and influence.  

Here you will find guidance on how to engage with those who have the ability, or the influence, to change policy in an area related to your work. There is also guidance on how communications can help in bids for further funding and the extension of your original project.

 

Communications toolkit: the evidence

Evidence indicates that systematic, structured communications can support and enhance health care improvement initiatives.

This toolkit draws on the evidence available around communications and its relation to health care improvement, and has used the emerging insights to inform its content and structure.

As a useful summary, an evidence scan, based on 477 empirical research studies and published by the Health Foundation, highlights the following communications approaches as important in the spread of good practice in health care improvement:

  1. Ensure that you target a range of people when trying to implement change and spread improvement work. Include both clinical and managerial leaders.
  2. Involve the people you want to engage with as a priority early on in the project’s development. In this way you can listen to their needs and they can help shape development and outcomes.
  3. Create different messages to appeal to different audiences. Pay particular attention to communicating how your project can address other people’s priorities.
  4. Think about how you are going to communicate and spread the learning about your project from its outset. This includes setting aside time and funds for your project’s dissemination (informing others of its purpose and learning).
  5. When communicating with and engaging your audiences, make use of a wide range of communications approaches, such as social media, opinion leaders and professional networks.
  6. Recruit ‘change champions’ – those people with central or trusted positions within organisations. Evidence suggests that change champions or opinion leaders can influence uptake, especially among clinicians.
  7. Communicate within networks as well as to individuals. Peer involvement can be more influential in securing interest or behaviour change than the simple dissemination of information. For this reason, communications within professional networks can be effective in promoting the uptake of good practice.
     
 

Communications toolkit: glossary

A helpful list of frequently used words in the communications improvement toolkit and a definition of each term.

Communications strategy

A communications strategy summarises the key decisions that will direct your overall communications approach. A standard strategy includes what you need your communications to achieve (objectives), who you need to engage as a priority (audiences), what they need to hear from you (key messages), and broadly how you will communicate with them (communications channels).

Communications plan

A communications plan is your action plan that sits alongside your communications strategy. If your strategy is the ‘why’, ‘who’ and ‘what’ of your communications, the plan is the ‘when’ and ‘how’, and includes all the communications channels you will use to reach your audiences. It also identifies what actions need to be achieved over what timeframe.  

Communications objectives

What your communications must deliver to help you achieve your wider goals. Communications objectives should avoid focusing on the output (ie produce a leaflet for GPs), and concentrate on the desired impact (ie raise awareness of the benefits of our new service among GPs, to prompt an X% increase in referrals from primary care).

Key messages

The messages you think your audiences will remember and respond to above all else. Concise and clear statements that provide a focus for the content of your wider communications.

Audiences

The people you need to engage in order to bring about the change you wish to see. In health care improvement, this term is often interchangeable with ‘stakeholders’.  A strategic approach to communications encourages the identification of ‘target’ or ‘priority’ audiences: those who have the greatest interest, influence or ability to deliver your objectives.

Spread

The extent to which the learning and change principles from your project have been adopted in other parts of the organisation or system that could benefit from them.

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