5.4 Promoting IP: Your communication plan

Your IP programme has been developed, your directories and templates are in place and tested, and you're ready to go. Now, you need to tell people about it. You need a communication plan.

You will need to thinking about simple ways to explain IPs that will raise the interest of users and carers as well as the professionals you need to work with.

For a successful communication plan, you need to identify:

your objectives
the main messages
your stakeholders
the methods you'll use
the timetable you will work to
how you will put it into practice
how you will evaluate what you have done.

1. Objectives

Make sure they are SMART objectives – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timed. Who needs to know what, when by, and how are you going to tell them?

2. What are your main messages?

Why should people be interested in IP? You will need to think about different messages for different audiences. For example:

IP is at the heart of personalised care and empowering patients/carers and service users
IP meets standards for Better Health and those set by regulatory bodies, e.g. Health Care Commission and Commission for Social Care Inspection.
IP helps people receiving care across health and social services. It supports integrated care and personal care planning.
IP can strengthen and link to other initiatives already under way — patient choice, health care standards requirements, Expert Patient programme.
IP improves and helps effective communication and information sharing with service users and carers.
IP provides a reference point for service users and carers, helping them maintain and improve their own care.

3. Consider your many 'stakeholders'.

What do your service users need? What do carers need? Who needs to know about IP? How will you get those essential people on board? Have you got Board support so senior staff will back you if needed?

It may be helpful to look at your stakeholder list and plot their levels of power and interest. (See a list of likely stakeholders here . ) Who has the power to block what you are doing? Who is essential to implementation? The most effective approach is to focus your attention on the stakeholders who have a high degree of power and a high level of interest.

4. Methods

Consider the methods you will use to communicate to your stakeholders. There are many different methods, but here are some suggestions. On the next page you will find links to examples of some of these used by the sites.

Internal:

Report to organisation's board or committee to inform them about IP and why it is important to do. This is essential for top-down support. [links to resources will be added here]
Tell the professionals about IP – see if you can get on an agenda of regular meetings to publicise IP.
Ask if you can make a presentation about IP at meetings or internal forums. Explain why IP is important, and how it can be introduced in your organisation and be expanded over time.
Write articles for staff newsletters to increase their awareness of IP and what it means for your organisation. You like to read examples of briefings written by Mid Trent Cancer Network when they were introducing IP. (We have combined the briefings and poster into one PDF)
Dedicate a section of your organisation's intranet to IP, including documents about why IP is necessary, the benefits for patients, supporting evidence and useful contacts.

External:

Write articles for your organisation's website to announce IP is coming and what it is all about. – link to example, to come
Write articles for other organisations' newsletters and websites and for the local press. This is also a good way of alerting partner organisations in different sectors (health to alert social services and vice versa)
Send letters or leaflets to patient and public involvement groups and other forums for users and carers. Your organisation may have mailing lists of local people who like to be kept updated of health and social care changes. This is also a good way to recruit people to an information prescription event to discuss how IP could work and find out what users would like.
Plug into existing group networks.
Publicity is essential: think about how you could share publicitiy with your local authority or voluntary sector or service area partners. In the resources box on the right, there are examples, designed and used by pilots, of publicity posters and leaflets.

5. Timetable

Where do you want to be 6 months from now? In a year? Work backwards from your end date and think what needs to be done by when. If necessary adjust your end date to make sure what you are planning is feasible, allows for consulting users and staff and has some time to sort out any problems that may occur.

6. Putting it into practice

Earlier in this resource ('First steps' section) we included some information on project management. When thinking about communication, the key thing is to concentrate on the three basic questions – 'What do users want?' 'How can I motivate professionals?' 'What information does my organisation already have and what more do I need?'

Engaging stakeholders will shape where you start and what services you cover. There is no pressure to start a fully comprehensive service immediately – better to start small and grow good quality IP over time. Good quality means tailored and useful information that really meets the service users' and carers' needs.

7. Evaluation

You will need to evaluate how effective your communication efforts are being. Are you achieving your communication objectives? If not, what else can you do? Do you have champions who can spread the message to areas proving more resistant?

When you are developing your plan, you might like to re-visit the 'Frequently Asked Questions' page of this resource.

Next page: publicity materials from the pilot sites

More resources