Communications plan considerations

About this guidance

Effective communication is highly important in the implementation of Right Care Right Person (RCRP). It ensures your staff and officers, partners, stakeholders, members of the public and the media understand its purpose and role.

This guidance sets out considerations and messaging for your communications plan.

Considerations

Aim of RCRP

Understanding the aim of RCRP forms the basis for all engagement. RCRP is about ensuring that vulnerable people are given the right support by the right agency when they need it.

Police officers are often left looking after people with mental health or social care needs who require specialist medical care that our officers cannot provide. This also has an impact on the vulnerable person, who may not be receiving the right care from the right agency. This can escalate the situation or make matters worse.

Threat to life

RCRP will not stop the police attending incidents where there is a threat to life. We have a duty to protect our communities and we will continue to do so. RCRP is about working with our partners in health and social care to make the necessary changes to service provisions to ensure that vulnerable people are given appropriate care by the appropriate agency. 

Communication is a shared responsibility. Achieving positive results depends on enabling others, including capturing the views of service users to understand the impact of change.

• See further communications guidance in the Communication authorised professional practice (APP)

Key messages

While each force will create a bespoke RCRP communications plan that's tailored to local needs and partners, these key messages help ensure consistency across local and national communications.

Use the following key messages to form the basis for your communications materials.

• RCRP is focused on giving the most appropriate and beneficial care to all members of our communities.
• The police are not always the right agency to respond to all incidents. There are circumstances where our partners in health or social care are best placed to offer help and support to vulnerable people.
• RCRP will not stop the police attending incidents where there is a threat to life. We have a duty to protect our communities and we will continue to do so. 
• We are working with our partners in health and social care so they can make the necessary changes to their service provision and ensure that vulnerable people are given appropriate care by the appropriate agency. 

Adapting your message

The messaging may need to be adjusted for different stakeholders depending on their role or their concerns. Messages that resonate with one stakeholder group may not resonate with another.

Make sure the content of what's being released and the tone used is culturally appropriate. It should consider any known communication preferences of identified groups.

• See further guidance on community engagement in the Engagement APP

Audiences

Identifying and prioritising stakeholders

Identify your stakeholders as specifically as possible – who does the project need to engage? Once stakeholders have been identified, they can be prioritised.

Mental health and responding to people requiring health and social care can attract significant media interest. The influence of social media should also be considered and monitored during any RCRP changes.

For stakeholders with:

• high interest and high influence – these individuals can form the basis of an effective coalition of support for the project
• high interest and low influence – their interest should be protected and voices heard
• low interest and low influence – their priorities are not those of the project but monitoring is still advised
• low interest and high influence – their priorities are not those of the project and these individuals may be a risk or an obstacle to the project

Diversity in communication needs

At this stage of planning, think about the different communication needs and cultural differences of your stakeholders and draw up your communication strategy accordingly. 

Stakeholder mapping will vary from area to area, depending on the complexity of partnership structures, geographical differences and demographics. Consider differentiating on the basis of internal and external stakeholders as follows and develop key contacts for each.

• See further guidance on community engagement in the Engagement APP

External stakeholders

External stakeholders may include:

• the general public – service users, the families of service users and the general public
• the NHS – integrated care boards, general hospitals
• mental health trusts – mental health hospitals, children’s mental health teams, crisis teams, private mental health hospitals
• the ambulance service
• local government
• national government
• media
• coroners
• the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC)
• His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS)
• the Care Quality Commission (CQC) or Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW)

Internal stakeholders

Internal stakeholders may include:

• frontline officers and staff
• control room staff – see Control room considerations in the Senior responsible officer (SRO) role guidance for more information on creating organisational culture change
• custody staff
• safeguarding staff
• press office and digital team responding to media enquiries and social media comments
• police and crime commissioner (PCC)
• legal services

Communications strategy template

Key points to consider in development of a force communication strategy are as follows. See our Engagement and communication APP for further guidance.

• Download the communications strategy template as an editable Word document

Introduction and background

Set the scene. Explain the context in which the communication strategy has been developed. Set out what you already know about the situation and your stakeholders. What research has been done to inform the communication strategy?

Scope

What will and won’t be addressed through the strategy? 

Roles and responsibilities

Outline who is responsible for what. This may include explaining the relationship between communication and business change.

Stakeholders 

Set out who the stakeholders are, as well as how they are being prioritised, engaged and contact tracked. 

Aims and communication objectives

Give the SMART objectives of the communications strategy here. There will be a number of objectives – possibly a different set for each stakeholder group – and these will change over the life of the project. 

Strategic approach

Explain the strategic approach here. For example, is this a campaign that simply needs to ‘tell’ stakeholders something or does it require a co-creation approach, with stakeholders contributing to the debate and shaping the decisions? 

Key messages and narrative

What is the overarching narrative? The narrative gives the rationale for the change and explains what is going to happen.

Key messages go into more specific detail. Give the key messages here. Messages will be different according to the stakeholder group. They should be designed to deliver the communication objectives. 

Channels

Talk here about what channels will be used to deliver the communication strategy. For example, will existing trusted channels be used or is there a need to create new channels? What channels will work best for your stakeholders? Explain how they will be used – for example, what type of content will go into each channel.

Media and external relations

This section may or may not be needed depending on the nature of the project. If the project is largely external facing, then the whole strategy will reflect the need to work with the media. However, even when the project is mostly internal, there will still be the potential for media interest. 

Risks and dependencies

Explain that risks and issues should be captured and tracked within the appropriate risk register. Highlight any dependencies for the successful delivery of the strategy. This might include budget or other resources.

Resources and budget

Who will do it and how much will it cost? 

Sign-off protocols

Set out how communication messages and products will be signed off. 

Evaluation

Explain how the strategy will be evaluated. This should be against the objectives that have been set and agreed. 

Reporting

Set out how and when performance against the strategy will be reported.