Glimmer of hope in Manchester gloom

The mood at Communicate 09, the national NHS comms conference, was pretty gloomy this week.  Outside the old Victorian Palace Hotel in Manchester it was grey and damp; inside cold and dingy.   But what really brought the mood down was the collective awareness of the massive financial challenge facing public services in the coming year.

Keynote speakers including NHS chief exec David Nicholson and Sian Jarvis, Department of Health comms director, reasserted the size of the problem.  The NHS needs to find savings of around 15-20% once the current financial settlement ends in 18 months.  And before that, the NHS needs to manage what looks set to be a very tricky winter.  Swine flu and seasonal flu combined are expected to put severe pressure on services at the same time as pre-election politicking will place the NHS under a magnified – and often distorted – media microscope.

But I felt there was much to be positive about at the conference.  More of it might have come out had there been the lubrication of a little free booze, although I reluctantly accept that the department was probably right to the avoid the otherwise inevitable ‘NHS spin doctors booze on expenses’ FOI request.

At the NHS communications annual awards, the finalists all seemed to be incredibly strong examples of the very best of communications (as part of a team nominated for best leadership communications I would say that though!)  And it seemed to me that most were backed by strong evaluation, suggesting we’re finally getting the hang of proving our worth.

The conference also saw evidence that the NHS is preparing to meet the challenge from a strong base, with public and patient satisfaction and confidence at historically high levels.  The work that Leeds Met University presented on what good communications looks like in the NHS, which is being pushed out to chief execs across the service, has communications positioned as an executive function, bringing the voice of the public and patients into the boardroom.  NHS communications has come a long, long way in the last ten years.

I was quite taken by the suggestion of Matt Tee, permanent secretary of government communications, that beyond the challenges, there could be an exciting future for communicators.  One where there is much greater efficiency through more joined up working across local public services.  Councils and PCTs working closer together, sharing resources, working with other public services too.  Not only does this make financial sense, it makes communications sense.  How often are we trying to outshout each other in our attempts to get the public’s attention?

It might mean there are fewer public sector comms people.  But those there are will have more challenging, broader and ultimately more rewarding roles and will be more efficient and more effective.  It will mean better value for the public and better communications for local communities.  That sounds like a good thing to me.

I certainly hope we take the opportunity to build on our successes so far and make sure that some good comes out of the challenges ahead.

If you were there, I’d be interested to hear what you thought.  Why not leave a comment?