To help colleagues in Primary Care Networks and hard-pressed frontline primary care roles create their own effective communication and engagement strategies with patients and communities we developed and delivered a series of practical, online workshops.
Objective
NHS England South West commissioned SCW to help identify challenges facing the evolving Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and develop a series of workshops, seminars and learning opportunities to help address them. This included how to improve communication and engagement with patients and communities.
What we did
We developed and delivered a series of workshops, seminars and learning opportunities to a wide range of PCN representatives across the region.
This included half-day online workshops offering facilitated discussions, practical exercises and ‘take away’ templates to enable PCN managers and leaders to create their own targeted communication and engagement strategies to help them work effectively with and for their local communities.
Whilst created and facilitated by SCW’s highly experienced communications and engagement specialists, the sessions were specifically designed for non-communications professionals, e.g. practice and PCN managers and clinicians, to help them think through questions, approaches and requirements for effective communication and engagement with their communities and partners.
The sessions were highly practical and interactive, using online whiteboards for collaboration and discussion, and sharing template documents for development and completion during and after the workshop. The resulting strategies were aimed at building trust and understanding with patients, communities, partners and stakeholders in order to improve health outcomes and help manage demand and expectations.
Activity
Communications and engagement
Developed and delivered effective communication and engagement strategies for primary care
Outcome
Participants came away from the workshops with outlined communication and engagement strategies tailored specifically to their communities, with the added benefit of input, constructive challenge and collaboration from peers within the region.
Delegates gave an average 4.5 star rating (out of 5) in terms of how enjoyable and useful the workshops were, how well they met expectations and how likely participants were to recommend them to others.
