MCPOL01 Media Policy by Provide Community

Media Policy

Version: V3

Ratified by: Finance & Investment Committee

Date ratified: 07/02/2024

Job Title of author: Communications and Media Manager

Reviewed by Committee or Expert Group Finance & Investment Committee

Equality Impact Assessed by: Communications and Media Manager

1. Introduction

Provide Community is an established and highly respected organisation that delivers health and social care across Essex, East Anglia, Dorset, and the North of England. The organisation has a reputation for delivering award-winning professional services and has developed strong relationships with local communities, service users, commissioners, stakeholders, and partners.

Good media management enables Provide Community to enhance its reputation and share information and good news about its services and achievements with local communities, external stakeholders, trade press and influencers. It also enables Provide Community to protect patient confidentiality and avoid intrusion into care.

2. Purpose

This policy covers print media (newspapers, magazines and trade press), broadcast media (radio and television) and digital media (online newspapers, web stories, news and blogs). Please note there is a separate social media policy for colleagues.

This Media Policy applies to all colleagues employed within the Provide Community Group (CIC colleagues and all subsidiary companies), it also applies to Non-Executive Directors, Workforce Solutions, volunteers, and agency staff.

3. Protecting Confidentiality

Provide Community places great emphasis on the need for the strictest confidentiality in respect of our patients and services users, as well as individual colleague matters.

We will not divulge any information to the media unless we are given permission from the individual (and/or their next of kin if appropriate).

All requests for interviewing/photographing patients or individual colleague media requests must be made through the Communications and Media Team.

Provide Community has a responsibility to our commissioners and funders. Therefore, unless information is already known to be in the public domain or we have the express permission of our commissioners or funders, no information relating to contracts, service level agreements or funding streams will be released to the media.

4. Media Enquiry Procedure

To ensure that our media management is effective, timely and efficient, all contact with the media must be through the Communications and Media Team by emailing provide.communications@nhs.net

The Communications and Media Team use a system to distribute, manage and respond to all media enquiries.

If you or your service are contacted directly by the media, do not comment. Pass the enquiry directly to the Communications and Media Team who will manage the enquiry and respond accordingly. The same applies for any requests for interviews whether this be in print, for radio or TV.

Media enquiry procedure flow chart

Interviews

Communications and Media Team work on a response with the relevant service

Communications and Media Team circulates the response for sign off

Communications and Media Team issue the response, monitor coverage, and log the enquiry information.

All media interviews (print, TV or radio) will be signed off by and co-ordinated by the Communications and Media Team.

A Member of Provide Community’s Senior Leadership Team, or the Chairman, will usually represent the organisation as our designated spokesperson. Where appropriate, and if the opportunity requires specialist knowledge, a colleague from the specific service will be briefed for the interview.

Media enquiry

Colleague

The Communication and Media Team will provide training and support for interview, supporting key message development.

5. Contact with the Media

Proactive promotion

Press releases are an effective way of promoting the many achievements of the services and individuals across Provide Community. If you wish to use the media as a proactive promotional channel, please contact the Communications and Media Team who will be able to work with you and agree a process using the systems they have in place. To contact the team email provide.communications@nhs.net

The Communications and Media Team has a forward-planning media system If you are working on a project or piece of work that permits a good news story to be released, you are asked to let the team know at an early stage so that they can work with you to develop and issue this through our media distribution system. It is important press releases are issued promptly, to ensure the news is current. The Communications and Media Team can also support you in sharing this good news piece through other appropriate channels such as social media, and internally through our corporate channels.

The system Provide Community uses to manage all media distribution and monitoring has a huge database of journalists, bloggers, radio and TV presenters, trade press and influencers across the UK whom the Communications and Media Team work closely with to develop relationships.

It is important that all proactive media releases are distributed by the Communications and Media Team, who will ensure that the correct processes (including sign off) have been followed; this also applies to other proactive communications such as radio broadcasting.

The Communications and Media Team proactively monitor all issued press releases and provide monthly analytics and detailed evaluation on their success and effectiveness along with any feedback received.

Protecting our reputation

At Provide Community we are committed to protecting the reputation of the organisation and its workforce, and to ensuring that public confidence in our services is not damaged by inaccurate or misleading reporting.

By the Communications and Media Team managing our media relations centrally, we are able to respond promptly and consistently to media enquiries

The Communications and Media Team proactively monitor all media outlets regarding Provide Community’s media presences, through a robust system.

Colleagues need to be aware that there are some day-to-day activities that they may be involved with, which can sometimes attract media attention, for example:

• sending out letters that potentially could be forwarded to the press

• commenting at an external meeting or at a public board meeting

If you become aware of an issue that is a potential media issue, then please alert the Communications and Media Team immediately who will support you and notify your line manager. Email: provide.communications@nhs.net.

There is a misconception that the media are only interested in the negative health and care service stories. In reality, local newspapers, radio stations and television broadcasters are always on the lookout for positive stories about health and care issues across the country, which brings great opportunities for Provide Community.

6. Crisis Communications

During a crisis or incident, the Communications and Media Team will work with the incident response team (including the on-call Director) in line with our Major Incident Plan.

The appropriate messaging will be agreed to share with colleagues, the media, key stakeholders and the public through appropriate channels, along with any subsequent updates. It is important that colleagues share the signed off messaging with any contacts to ensure this is consistent and accurate.

If you have any questions around the message, or are approached by the media during an incident, please email provide.communicaitons@nhs.net and the Communications and Media Team will be able to support you.

Depending on the nature of the incident, it may be necessary to establish a telephone helpline or a single email address specific to the incident to be used and this will be communicated as necessary.

EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT

TEMPLATE: Stage 1: ‘Screening’

Name of project/policy/strategy (hereafter referred to as “initiative”):

Media Policy

Provide a brief summary (bullet points) of the aims of the initiative and main activities:

Continue to build the good reputation and the story of Provide Community and all subsidiary brands with local, regional and national media outlets.

Ensure it is clear to all colleagues that any element of media: enquiry or promotional story is managed strategically by the Communications and Media Team for consistency.

Project/Policy Manager: Hana Gunfield, Communications and Media Manager Date: 10 January 2024

This stage establishes whether a proposed initiative will have an impact from an equality perspective on any particular group of people or community – i.e. on the grounds of race (incl. religion/faith), gender (incl. sexual orientation), age, disability, or whether it is “equality neutral” (i.e. have no effect either positive or negative). In the case of gender, consider whether men and women are affected differently.

Q1. Who will benefit from this initiative? Is there likely to be a positive impact on specific groups/communities (whether or not they are the intended beneficiaries), and if so, how? Or is it clear at this stage that it will be equality “neutral”? i.e. will have no particular effect on any group.

It will be equality neutral.

Q2. Is there likely to be an adverse impact on one or more minority/under-represented or community groups as a result of this initiative? If so, who may be affected and why? Or is it clear at this stage that it will be equality “neutral”?

It will be equality neutral

Q3. Is the impact of the initiative – whether positive or negative - significant enough to warrant a more detailed assessment (Stage 2 – see guidance)? If not, will there be monitoring and review to assess the impact over a period time? Briefly (bullet points) give reasons for your answer and any steps you are taking to address particular issues, including any consultation with staff or external groups/agencies.

No - we will ensure that regular review takes place as part of our monthly evaluation

Guidelines: Things to consider

Equality impact assessments at Provide take account of relevant equality legislation and include age, (i.e. young and old,); race and ethnicity, gender, disability, religion and faith, and sexual orientation.

The initiative may have a positive, negative or neutral impact, i.e. have no particular effect on the group/community.

Where a negative (i.e. adverse) impact is identified, it may be appropriate to make a more detailed EIA (see Stage 2), or, as important, take early action to redress this – e.g. by abandoning or modifying the initiative. NB: If the initiative contravenes equality legislation, it must be abandoned or modified.

Where an initiative has a positive impact on groups/community relations, the EIA should make this explicit, to enable the outcomes to be monitored over its lifespan.

Where there is a positive impact on particular groups does this mean there could be an adverse impact on others, and if so can this be justified? - e.g. are there other existing or planned initiatives which redress this?

It may not be possible to provide detailed answers to some of these questions at the start of the initiative. The EIA may identify a lack of relevant data, and that data-gathering is a specific action required to inform the initiative as it develops, and also to form part of a continuing evaluation and review process.

It is envisaged that it will be relatively rare for full impact assessments to be carried out at Provide. Usually, where there are particular problems identified in the screening stage, it is envisaged that the approach will be amended at this stage, and/or setting up a monitoring/evaluation system to review a policy’s impact over time.

EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE: Stage 2:

(To be used where the ‘screening phase has identified a substantial problem/concern)

This stage examines the initiative in more detail in order to obtain further information where required about its potential adverse or positive impact from an equality perspective. It will help inform whether any action needs to be taken and may form part of a continuing assessment framework as the initiative develops.

Q1. What data/information is there on the target beneficiary groups/communities? Are any of these groups under- or over-represented? Do they have access to the same resources? What are your sources of data and are there any gaps?

Q2. Is there a potential for this initiative to have a positive impact, such as tackling discrimination, promoting equality of opportunity and good community relations? If yes, how? Which are the main groups it will have an impact on?

Q3. Will the initiative have an adverse impact on any particular group or community/community relations? If yes, in what way? Will the impact be different for different groups – e.g. men and women?

Q4. Has there been consultation/is consultation planned with stakeholders/ beneficiaries/ staff who will be affected by the initiative? Summarise (bullet points) any important issues arising from the consultation.

Q5. Given your answers to the previous questions, how will your plans be revised to reduce/eliminate negative impact or enhance positive impact? Are there specific factors which need to be taken into account?

Q6. How will the initiative continue to be monitored and evaluated, including its impact on particular groups/ improving community relations? Where appropriate, identify any additional data that will be required.

Guidelines: Things to consider

An initiative may have a positive impact on some sectors of the community but leave others excluded or feeling they are excluded. Consideration should be given to how this can be tackled or minimised.

It is important to ensure that relevant groups/communities are identified who should be consulted. This may require taking positive action to engage with those groups who are traditionally less likely to respond to consultations, and could form a specific part of the initiative.

The consultation process should form a meaningful part of the initiative as it develops, and help inform any future action.

If the EIA shows an adverse impact, is this because it contravenes any equality legislation? If so, the initiative must be modified or abandoned. There may be another way to meet the objective(s) of the initiative.

Further information:

Useful Websites www.equalityhumanrights.com Website for new Equality agency www.employers-forum.co.uk – Employers forum on disability www.efa.org.uk – Employers forum on age