Communications and Engagement Strategy

Communications and engagement strategy summary

1 November 2013

Contact:

Andrew Hobson, Communications and Engagement Lead:

Email:

Telephone: 020 3049 9989

  1. Foreword

Wandsworth Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has important work to do. The Member Practices of the CCG believe it is essential that the population we serve understands who we are and what we do. Local people need to know what services they can access and how local services can meet their health-care needs.

We know that for our Communications and Engagement Strategy to be effective we need to develop an imaginative and innovative range of approaches to reach out to our patients, carers and their communities. Wandsworth has a vibrance and diversity which is created by the co-existence of the many communities within the borough boundaries. These include a long standing settled Asian community alongside a relatively transitory young mobile professional population as well as significant pockets of deprivation in wards including Graveney, Latchmere, Queenstown, Roehampton and Tooting.

Wandsworth CCG needs local people to tell us how services should be delivered so that we can help make them accessible and fit into their lifestyles. We are committed to ensuring there are plenty of opportunities for patients and the public to tell us what they think and will ensure we have ongoing dialogue with local people, listening to their views, testing out ideas and sharing information and insights.

We have already established twenty clinical work streams with patient representatives so that local people can input into our work. As we move forward we want to make sure the public are there with us on the journey of service re-design as we consult, develop service specifications, consider tenders, and monitor contracts.

As a new organisation we need to make sure that right from the beginning we communicate regularly with our patients and the public about how their feedback, including comments, complaints and suggestions, has shaped the health services that we have commissioned and that this in turn can lead to more patients being satisfied with local services and health and well-being outcomes improve.

As we move forward, we will continue to focus on encouraging strong clinical engagement from member practices so that we can make sure clinical insight has a tangible impact and can really add value to the commissioning process going forward.

I know that our relationships with our key partners including Wandsworth Borough Council, St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust and South West London and St George’s Mental NHS Trust will continue to strengthen as we work together to improve the health of local people.

We welcome the challenges ahead of us and, with our partners and local people, we are committed to delivering our vision and the communications and engagement objectives set out in this strategy.

Dr Nicola Jones MBE

MBChB DRCOG MRCGP MBA

Chair

Wandsworth Clinical Commissioning Group

  1. Introduction

Wandsworth Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is dedicated to commissioning the best possible services for the people of Wandsworth. In order for us to do this we need to make sure we communicate and engage with our patients, the wider health and social care community and our local stakeholders. This strategy has been developed to help us do this.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 set out a radical new vision for the health service in England.

As part of this vision, CCGs have taken on commissioning functions from Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and manage the bulk of the NHS budget. NHS England will hold CCGs to account and will commission other primary care practitioners such as dentists, chemists, opticians, and specialist services.

This strategy establishes a framework to enable us to communicate and engage in a consistent and effective way with all of our audiences.

It is vital that the patients whose healthcare we will commission, local people and stakeholders understand who we are, what we do and get involved in our work.

This Communications and Engagement Strategy is underpinned by, and builds on, Wandsworth Clinical Commissioning Group’s:

  • A Strategy for Delivery Effective Patient and Public Involvement. The CCG’s approach to PPI is summarised under objective 2 of this strategy and the approaches in section 8.

And

  • Equality Delivery System: Scoring and Equality Objectives The CCG’s communications and engagement work for equality and diversity is summarised under objective 5 of this strategy.
  1. Local context

Wandsworth Clinical Commissioning Group consists of forty-six GP practices across three localities:

  • Battersea
  • Wandle
  • and West Wandsworth.

We are determined to make engagement central to our work, particularly in terms of patient involvement.

  1. The Vision and underpinning values for Wandsworth CCG

The vision for Wandsworth CCG is encapsulated in the phrase better care and a healthier future for Wandsworth. This will be achieved by being:

Patient focused:

Our first responsibility is to our patients, their carers and to the people and communities of Wandsworth. We will involve and engage them in designing services, support them to co-produce systems of care and empower them to look after their own health and help others to do the same.

Outcomes driven:

We will measure our success by the improvements we are able to secure in the health of local people and the range and quality of services provided. We will commission services based on evidence of clinical effectiveness, patient experience, and in response to defined local and national strategic priorities.

Principled:

We are part of the NHS and will ensure that we uphold its principles and values as reflected in the NHS Constitution. We will demonstrate honesty and integrity in all of our work. We will be thoughtful and transparent in our decision-making and governance. We will be responsible stewards of public money, ensuring that we make adequate provision for adverse times.

Collaborative:

We are responsible to our fellow Members, the Practices of Wandsworth. As members we will co-operate to ensure that local services are delivered to the highest standards and that we collectively commission services of high quality, the best value possible and which are responsive to patients' needs.

We will work collaboratively with partner organisations to ensure that care is co-ordinated and patient-centred.

Progressive & Professional:

We are responsible to our employees, and will support individuals and teams to experiment and succeed, to learn and develop. We will treat people with respect and value diversity. We will enable people to fulfil their responsibilities to their families. We will encourage innovation and experiment with new ways of working, learning from mistakes and celebrating successes.

It is worth noting that every element of our vision and underpinning values rely on effective communications and engagement, and we feel they provide a solid context for this strategy.

  1. Defining communications and engagement for Wandsworth CCG

5.1Communication and engagement objectives

Wandsworth CCG has five communications and engagement objectives which we have developed. They are to:

  1. Build and maintain public and stakeholder confidence in our CCG and its leadership
  2. Meaningfully engage with patients, carers and communities to ensure their systematic involvement in the commissioning of health services for local people
  3. Encourage strong clinical engagement from constituent practices and wider local professional groups to ensure that clinical insights have a tangible impact and add value to the commissioning process
  4. Make sure we have open and transparent governance and leadership in our CCG
  5. Promote equality and provide evidence for Equality Delivery System for protected groups through our work and publication of equality objectives

5.2Communication and engagement principles

We will use the following guiding principles in all our communication and engagement activities:

Be open and transparent in everything we do

Provide meaningful and timely communication

Work in partnership with all our local stakeholders

Communicate in a clear, concise and inclusive manner

Promote high quality communications with all stakeholders

Ensure good communication is part of our everyday work

Promote a culture of equality across the CCG

5.3Legal and statutory duties

This strategy takes account of the communications and engagement duties that will become our responsibility as a CCG once we are authorised. These duties include:

  • The legal duty to involve current and potential health service users or representatives in everything to do with planning, provision and delivery of NHS services [1]
  • The legal duty to consult local authority overview and scrutiny committees on substantial developments or variations in the provision of services[2]
  • The statutory duty to produce an annual report on consultation and an annual report, including the annual accounts
  • Statutory duty to hold an Annual General Meeting to present the annual accounts
  • NHS Patient Experience Framework
  1. Core CCG messages

We aim to:

  • lead the NHS locally by listening to patients and the public
  • invest money where it’s needed
  • improve local services and people’s health
  • reduce health inequalities

When writing messages for all of our audiences we tailor them specifically for the project we are working on and for the audience we are writing for, while keeping in mind our corporate purpose at all times. We have a selection of core messages that we use in all of our communication work that are central to our role. These include:

About us

  • Wandsworth Clinical Commissioning Group is responsible for the health of people who live and work in Wandsworth
  • We work to develop and improve NHS services
  • We have a strong commitment to equality and diversity
  • Find out more about Wandsworth CCG, go to
  • Talk to PALS for free, confidential advice, information and support about local NHS services on 020 8812 7640 or at

6.1Presenting a consistent identity

It is important that our vision and values are reflected in everything we do and everything we say. We will make sure that all members use our branding consistently by developing and introducing some simple guidelines for reference. These will be used alongside the wider NHS Identity guidelines.

6.2Leading the local NHS

This strategy will provide ways of making sure that the public profile of the organisation and its leaders are raised so that local people know who is buying and monitoring their local health care services.

We want to be seen as an open and listening organisation that has the needs of local people at its heart and delivers real benefits through collaborative and partnership working.

  1. Stakeholder mapping and analysis

Stakeholder group 1: Patients, carers and community

We will communicate with and engage our patients, carers and the community, including targeting those whose voices are seldom heard, in all aspects of our work. We will continue to work closely with Wandsworth LINk as it becomes Wandsworth Healthwatch, the local authority and the voluntary sector to achieve this.

Stakeholder groups 2 and 3: CCG leadership, member practices, support staff, provider staff and other primary care

NHS clinicians and staff are the most powerful influencers of the public’s perception of the health service. Internally we will make sure that all member practices understand and have the opportunity to input into our work at a level that is acceptable to them.

More widely, clinicians and other NHS staff can become opponents to issues and initiatives if they are not aware of them, the drivers behind them or what it will mean for their patients or themselves. We know that keeping clinicians and staff fully briefed and engaged is critical to our success.

We will develop clear and consistent core messages for these audiences so that they can use them with their audiences. Clinicians are also patients and members of the public so will be influenced by general and local media.

We are developing an internal communications plan with different groups both to keep them informed and to ensure that their creativity and energy are engaged in the shaping of WCCG. Critical to our success is:

  • aligning our members and staff with our mission and strategic goals and making sure they understand their role and contribution
  • communicating and embedding our organisation’s values
  • keeping members and staff informed of developments and organisational performance on a regular basis
  • providing opportunities for feedback and two-way dialogue

Our approach to internal communications will also support and reinforce the behavioural and brand values of our organisation, including working collaboratively, listening and understanding the views of others, and openness in decision-making.

Stakeholder group 4: Health and social care partners

We will establish relationships with a number of key health and social care partners in order to provide them with an understanding of our work and priorities and engage them as appropriate.

We will work closely with some of these partners and it is vital that we establish robust working relationships and quickly gain their understanding and commitment to our work. For example, in some areas we will be looking to jointly commission services with the local authority and links to them in a range of other areas, public health for example, will also be extremely important to the success of our work.

We will establish strong working relationships with our Health and Wellbeing Board; we want to work alongside all partners on the Board to complement and support borough-wide work and specific projects.

Stakeholder group 5: Influencers

We will work closely with the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee for Wandsworth and will have regular meetings with our local MPs to update them on our progress and future priorities. We will also meet with local councillors as required, both at local Health Overview and Scrutiny Committees and at bespoke meetings.

We recognise that these influencers have a political role and are answerable to constituents. It is important, therefore, that we make sure they are fully informed about our priorities and progress as they are in a position to provide accurate information about us and the work of the CCG to local residents. We will also ask for their help in ensuring wide engagement with our work.

Appendix 1 shows an early outline of the core stakeholder groups we will engage with. It is in development but once complete will go into detail for each group:

  • Our current involvement
  • Relationship managers for that group
  • The stakeholder’s group preferred method of engagement
  • The organiser responsible for making sure communications and engagement with the group is timely and relevant

When tailoring our communications and engagement activity for each group we will think about:

  • Their barriers to engagement
  • What’s in it for them?
  • What do we want them to do?
  1. Communications and engagement mechanisms and approaches

8.1Mechanisms

We will employ a range of mechanisms in our communications to make sure that we reachall of our audiences with appropriate and timely communications, and that we can engage in a two-way dialogue.

  • Relationship managers
    These will be drawn from the member practices and will play a vital role in engaging with stakeholders and the public about our work. Support will be given to relationship managers in their role including comprehensive briefings and training as required.
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database

The PPI team use this database to track and record all contacts, meetings, and engagement activity to help build relationships and knowledge.

  • Website and intranet

We will develop a website and make sure that it is regularly updated and maintained. We will make it easy to navigate and make sure it is accessible. We will also explore the use of web technology such as Webinars.

We will develop an intranet for all of our member practices. We will explore different ways of making this a more interactive channel by utilising discussion forums for example.

  • Working with partners
    We will work with our community partners, including Health and Wellbeing Boards, LINks/Healthwatch and voluntary group umbrella organisations, to engage with their networks and agree joint approaches to meaningful involvement.
  • Patient Groups
    We will work with all member practices to help them establish and develop their own Patient Group.

We will continue to develop a network of patient leaders across the CCG area who will be supported to be involved in improving health services and outcomes from commissioned services. These representatives will be drawn from a range of groups including patient reference groups in each GP practice, local health guides and champions, and specific patient interest groups.

  • E-updates and newsletters

We will work closely with our member practices, regularly keeping them up to date with CCG developments and cascading information to all practice staff through a regular newsletter or update.

  • Surveys

We will survey all of our members to find out what they are interested in and how they like to be communicated with. This will inform the ongoing development of this strategy.

  • Face to face meetings

We will use face to face meetings to engage with our member practices and support staff, and also with our external partners and stakeholders, including patients and the public.

  • Briefings

We will use briefings to highlight important issues to our ambassadors and relationship managers, as well as to brief relevant people in other NHS organisations.

  • PR plan

This plan will lay out a schedule of PR activity that will support our vision and objectives. It will plan for specific announcements/events as well as more generally on activities to raise the CCG’s local profile as well as that of the Board.