Corporate communications and engagement strategy

Our communication, engagement and consultation capability underpins many aspects of our work. It supports much of our community safety work, enables effective working across the Service, facilitates staff engagement and contributes to a positive workplace culture.

It also allows us to share information and engage with communities, provide reassurance about the value and sustainability of the Service, and promote our reputation as a trusted emergency responder and employer of choice.

Our ambition

Our corporate communication and engagement strategy supports our ambition to be an outstanding fire and rescue service in the following ways:

• By creating a broad awareness of, and demand for the services we offer across all communities, particularly those which present the highest levels of risk
• By promoting our reputation as service provider and an inclusive employer of choice, generating high levels of trust, satisfaction, respect and confidence amongst the public, partners and other stakeholders
• By maximising the effectiveness and efficiency of our communication, engagement and consultation activities, through a process of evaluation and continuous learning
• By enabling all staff to feel informed about our ambition, goals and plans, and engaged and motivated to contribute
• By being open and honest about our performance, celebrating our successes and embedding learning where there are opportunities for improvement
• By encouraging and enabling two-way conversations with staff and with our communities, to ensure that everyone can feel informed and have their say on the way we deliver our services
• By ensuring that all our communications align to our values and the Core Code of Ethics, and promote a positive culture

Where we want to be

During the life of this strategy, we aim to:

• Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our internal and external communication and engagement activities, ensuring consistency of branding and equality of access
• Develop and embed an integrated approach to internal communications based on our understanding of the internal audiences and adaptive to their information needs
• Establish a rolling programme of communication and engagement, aligned to the community risk management planning cycle, to promote the work of the service and build the levels of engagement from communities in the development of future plans and strategies
• Support our communications professionals and those who are required to undertake media duties through role appropriate training and continual professional development
• Further develop our external communications approach, building on insights gained from previous work, to ensure that all our community facing communication, engagement and consultation activities are effectively presented and targeted, to reach their intended audiences

Operating context and drivers for change

We have a wide range of stakeholders, both internal and external, and the effective management of those relationships is a core component of our activities. We must tailor and target our communication, engagement and consultation activities to ensure we are reaching the required audiences, in ways that meet their needs and expectations.

There are statutory aspects to our work:

• As a category one responder we have a duty to "warn and inform" the public during the course of a significant emergency incident •
• he Fire Services Act includes a duty to educate and inform the public
• The National Framework sets out duties to make appropriate provision for fire prevention and protection activities, and to be accountable to communities for the services we provide
• We have a duty to consult the public on any significant changes to service, and to consult on the development of our community risk management plan
• As a public sector body, we must comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty and the Website Accessibility Regulations
• Several fire standards include expectations or requirements in relation to communication, engagement and consultation, notably the Communication and Engagement, Community Risk Management Planning and Leading the Service standards

The scope of our communication, engagement and consultation work is broad and includes:

• Providing timely and effective public messaging in time of emergency to provide confidence and help keep people safe
• Supporting our service delivery teams to communicate effectively with stakeholders and diverse community groups, to deliver safety messages and encourage behavioural change
• Supporting engagement activities and communications that promote us as an employer of choice
• Providing a broad range of information, advice and guidance, in an accessible way, to serve the needs of communities, stakeholders and partners
• Providing information about the Service, our plans and performance, to ensure transparency and enable public scrutiny
• Undertaking effective community consultation and providing the means for ongoing dialogue to seek feedback and to help inform the way we do things
• Building effective relationships with partners and other agencies to support collective community and safety messaging
• Providing effective internal communications to deliver timely and relevant information, according to the needs of different staff groups, encourage staff engagement and promote a positive workplace culture Every contact that we have with our stakeholders, whether direct or indirect, will contribute to their perception and understanding of the service. We must therefore ensure that we are consistent in our branding, style and tone of our communication, that we make best use of every opportunity to promote the services we offer, enhance and maintain the reputation of the Service and build trust within our community. During the life of this strategy, we will review our use of corporate branding and imaging across all of our communications channels, seeking opportunities to improve consistency and make best use of our buildings, fleet and other community touch points to promote the work and reputation of the service.

In developing and delivering our activities we aim to be:

• Clear - ensuring that our messaging is always clear and easy to understand
• Consistent - working to standards to deliver high quality outputs, ensuring all outputs are aligned to our branding, values and the Core Code of Ethics
• Considered - ensuring our proactive activities are delivered in a well-planned and co-ordinated way
• Accessible - ensuring our products are accessible and inclusive
• Relevant - using insight and data to understand our communities and tailor our activities to reach their target audiences effectively
• Truthful - ensure our messaging is factual and accurate
• Measurable - where possible, measuring the effectiveness and impact of our activities, and feeding learning into future activities in a process of continuous improvement We use a range of different communication channels, choosing the most appropriate channels for the intended audiences.

We use the PESO model to define this.

Life of this strategy

The landscape for communication and engagement is constantly evolving. Over the life of this strategy there are some key drivers for change.

The ways in which people seek and consume information, and the sources they use are continually evolving, with significant growth in areas such as social media. We need to adopt change to align to the continued growth of digital communications and ensure we always use the most effective channels to reach our intended audiences. Building on work started in the previous plan period, we will develop a communications framework that clearly identifies the most appropriate channels and processes for each type of activity based on the needs, behaviours and attitudes of the target audience.

The communities of Nottinghamshire continue to diversify and that can have an impact on the profile of community safety risks. We will continue to develop and maintain our understanding of and relationships with communities to be able to adapt to changing needs. We will draw learning from the evaluation of the communications we deliver, and the insights offered through other strategic analysis and community engagement activities.

Public perceptions of the fire service are influenced through communication and media coverage. We can reinforce our positive culture and reputation and position the Service as an employer of choice through the direct and indirect messaging within our communications. We will continue to champion inclusivity in our communications and maintain our position of having one of the most accessible websites in the fire and rescue sector.

There is a continuing drive to improve efficiency and effectiveness. We need to ensure that we maximise the value and impact of our activities, through robust evaluation and continuous improvement. We will establish a suite of metrics and benchmarks to enable us to identify and track areas of improvement in both our internal and external communications. We will develop a clear and joined up approach to internal communications that takes account of the varying information needs and habits of different staff groups. This will be supported by a framework that clearly identifies the most appropriate channels and processes for different types of activity and audience, ensuring that colleagues at all levels of the organisation have timely access to relevant information, and that our activities encourage broader engagement and culture development.

Resources/ delivery model

We have a small Corporate Communications team who manage all our main internal and external communications, marketing and public relations activities. This team oversees and facilitates all proactive external and internal communications, including producing resources and developing and managing campaigns. It also co-ordinates reactive communications, such as media enquiries. The team provides out of hours cover to respond to any requirements for immediate or urgent communication, such as "warn and inform" messaging during significant emergency incidents, or a business continuity event.

The corporate team work closely with the Community Safety and Fire Protection teams, to develop and deliver a community engagement plan, and with the Organisational Development and Inclusion team, to develop and deliver a programme of communication, engagement and consultation for cultural development and promoting the service as an employer of choice.

Collectively we engage with an extended network of people, community groups and organisations to help us develop our services and support communication, consultation and engagement with diverse communities.

We outsource specialist areas of communication when necessary, such as graphic design work, specialist video and multimedia imagery, and when appropriate community consultation. We are well connected with partners in Nottinghamshire, working closely during emergency incidents or when delivering safety events. We also work with fire services across the country to network and share best practice.

Delivering the strategy

Over the life of this strategy, we will deliver the following:

Outcomes

The successful delivery of this strategy will result in:

• High levels of engagement with staff, communities and partners
• Staff feel more informed, feel a part of change and connected to our service values and ambition
• Clear understanding of corporate narrative such as values and journey to outstanding
• Inclusive language and accessibility of information
• Consistency in communications and branding
• A strong, positive culture that doesn't have hierarchical barriers
• Communications tailored to audience needs that are easily accessible and allow for two-way dialogue
• Increased awareness of the community about the services we offer
• Strong reputation and trusted brand within the community and the sector
• Staff are trained and confident to fulfil media, communications and engagement activity