The HEART of ICS communication and engagement

Over the last three years we’ve been working with some brilliant integrated care systems (ICS) and integrated care board (ICB) teams to help them deliver great campaigns, develop their teams and deliver their strategies. As part of that work we’ve developed a model for communication and engagement within health and care systems.

This model helps to explain the core purpose of specialist communication and engagement, and the specialisms that fall within the remit of a communication and engagement function. As many organisations are undergoing significant change and ambiguity, we thought we’d share it with you all.

We’ve called it the HEART model. We’ve adapted it from Government Communication Service best practice and incorporated our own knowledge of working within the health and care system.

We believe that integrated, strategic communication and engagement is essential for health and care systems to effectively operate and improve the lives of citizens. Sometimes communication teams can be drawn into administrative and tactical work that takes them away from their core purpose and limits their overall effectiveness. This model can help teams to evaluate their role and re-centre on where their expertise truly lies. We have described the core purpose of communication and engagement in integrated systems using the mnemonic HEART.

The core purpose of communication and engagement in integrated care systems is to:

Hear, listen to and involve our diverse communities and people

Explain policies and decision making

Achieve operational effectiveness and evaluate our impact

Reputation management

Transform behaviour

We've identified seven core specialisms that fall within the remit of communication and engagement teams in integrated care systems. Whilst some organisations may decide to functionally have these specialisms reporting to different directors, each specialism is an essential part of the communication and engagement mix and they need to be considered in an integrated way.

Seven core specialisms

Workforce communication

Engage the workforce on your ICS priorities; support policy and service changes, champion a positive culture, facilitate effective listening and workforce voice and help deliver your ICS strategy and priorities.

Community engagement

Ensure patient, public and voluntary and community engagement, involvement and consultation are integrated into plans and service design; deepening equitable decision making and relationships and improving outcomes.

External relations

Communicate plans, policies and progress; build strong stakeholder relations to inform ICS plans and decisions; use public affairs to influence change.

Strategic communication

Develop and deliver communication and engagement plans, informed and evaluated by data, insight and input from policy and operations colleagues as part of overarching delivery plans.

Marketing

Behavioural and attitudinal campaign delivery; promote services and policies and support operation of services using storytelling to capture hearts and minds.

Digital communication

Ensure digital and social channels of communication engage two ways and support operational effectiveness. Create channel appropriate content and social listening to maximise impact.

Media management

Build relationships with the media, showcase ICS delivery and impact, manage risk, issues and identify opportunities to protect and enhance reputation.

We’d love to hear from you about how we can improve the model and if you think there is anything we’ve missed?

If you'd like a copy of the full model please message or email us [email protected].