Care Services Improvement Partnership

Top tips on communication

Learning on communication was generated throughout the programme. Here are some top tips that were generated at certain phases and in reports

Phase 1 learning (preparation and launch)

Communication and issues related to communication are recognised as a key component of success
Time needs to be spent at the beginning of the project to ensure individuals are kept informed
Too much jargon in communication leads to difficulty engaging some people.
Service users and carers can be very helpful in both writing and reviewing communications to ensure it is understandable
An emergent approach to a programme hinders communication
Communication must be priority early in the process
Tensions may be created – who is leading the process? – for example whose headed notepaper is being used?
Resources are an important part of successful communication

Phase 2 learning (diagnosis and solution design)

Move away from the jargonse
Useful sites to support this are The Improvement Network's A-Z Jargon Buster and the Plain English Campaigns guides

Highlight Reports

Market place event is useful in spreading message
http://www.hlst.ltsn.ac.uk/resources/events.html#15
http://www.kdl.to/guides/corpevntpln.htm
Distilling key messages of large outputs from MHIP modelling and visioning into a coherent summary has helped to make communication more manageable without losing stakeholder input.
Feeding back to workshop participants should be sooner rather than later or they feel ignored, and won’t offer support the next time.
Communication -without this the programme has a mixed and varied identity that few can relate to.
Having a wide range of stakeholders at launch events is key to their success.