Creating healthier communities: how to foster positive relationships, reputation and build trust

It’s widely recognised that we’re seeing a collapse of public sector trust and reputation throughout the UK. The NHS has been at the forefront of this loss of confidence, with unhelpful labels such as “broken NHS” circulating for some time. We’ve seen media headlines dominated by long ambulance wait times; difficulty accessing services; poor healthcare experiences and declining trust and satisfaction levels. Data from the NHS Satisfaction Survey shows that only 25% of the public say that they are happy with the service.

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust managed to buck this trend, achieving an impressive 78% public perception score and a 88% overall satisfaction rating. Orlo invited Ross Wigham (Director of Communications for Northumbria Healthcare) to our BIG Social 2024, to explain how they generated such exceptional public confidence.

Northumbria Healthcare covers an immense 2500 square miles in the North East of England – travelling the entire area is the equivalent of a trip to New York. The Trust also serves some of the poorest communities in the country, looking after more than 500,000 people and delivering 1.5 million patient interactions per year. The Trust carries out the everyday healthcare services of their communities such as minor procedures; maternity care, treating people in A&E and other acute services.

Northumbria’s high trust scores are therefore even more impressive, when you consider the social and geographical challenges they face. So, how did they inspire trust within such a large community, and across a range of services? Ross shared that their strategy centred around the following key elements:

When attempting to understand the challenges faced by communities, the first step is to listen deeply to them. Ross explored the importance of tuning into the concerns and needs of Northumbria’s residents. Through listening and engaging on social media, public sector comms professionals have the opportunity to get to know their communities, and to respond to their needs in real-time.

Ross also recognised that their communities craved real-life conversations, and so part of Northumbria’s new approach signalled a return to in-person events and interactions with teams face-to-face. This wasn’t the easiest option, given the wide geographical area covered by the Trust, however Ross and his team identified that this would be an invaluable way to gain quality feedback.

Ross explained that they ran World Cafe events with different community groups, to find out what was important to them. They also held Community Conversations – drop-in visits from the Trust to a GP practice or similar, to gather feedback from residents.

NHS comms professionals are often tasked with changing behaviour by running awareness campaigns, such as promoting mental health services. We know that significant cost savings can be found when teams focus on prevention rather than intervention, with the average cost per year to achieve good health sitting at £3,800 versus £13,500 once a health issue has been identified. However, these messages can be difficult to communicate from the point of view of a healthcare trust – top-down messages can seem insensitive, and often fail to cut through.

Ross spoke about the power of tapping into local well-liked community members as a way of delivering messages to a community more effectively. For example, Northumbria worked with the local basketball and ice hockey teams separately on campaigns around specific services, as well as local history societies and volunteer networks.

Community members who are already trusted by their peers are more likely to get a message across more effectively, and local residents are also more inclined to give them honest feedback. Northumbria was therefore still able to communicate appropriate messages and engage with communities around these topical issues, while also building trust.

Northumbria Healthcare employees approximately 12,000 people, encompassing not only doctors and nurses but drivers, cleaners, people who make uniforms, etc. Of course, these employees also live amongst the communities served by the Trust.

Ross identified that staff were feeling bombarded by internal comms, so he sought to streamline the lengthy bulletins they received. Now, they just get five important pieces of information per week. In order to plug any gaps, comms also created an online staff portal and Facebook group for staff, and employees have found these online spaces to be invaluable channels for sharing, problem-solving and accessing support. Providing clear comms for employees also enables them to advocate for Northumbria Healthcare within their own communities, thus further fostering trust.

In order to reward staff for their hard work, Northumbria Healthcare put on employee events such as ‘Wonderful Wednesdays’ with pop-up food trucks, concerts and awards offered to recognise staff. They also introduced some practical measures to relieve the impact of the cost of living crisis, such as free hot meals at lunchtime.

Ross explained that providing clear comms and recognising the efforts of staff have fostered positivity and trust amongst their teams, solidifying the relationship between Northumbria Healthcare and its communities.

The NHS is facing a significant recruitment crisis, with data showing that staffing consumes two-thirds of trusts’ spending. Northumbria Healthcare has therefore focused on building trust and positive relationships with younger community members, for example by giving local children ‘mini scrubs’ to get a taste of life working for the NHS. In fact, the children were inspired to consider a number of roles within the NHS – not just medical careers. With these community initiatives, Northumbria Healthcare is laying the foundation for future workforce development. This work forms part of Northumbria Healthcare’s ongoing Corporate Social Responsibility commitment.

As a result of Northumbria Healthcare’s strong presence on social media and digital channels, YouTube approached the comms team to engage in a partnership.

Healthcare teams have found that both patients and staff are more likely to consume a quick video than a leaflet. People have something to refer to post-diagnosis, allowing them to take on board important information about their medical condition. Video is more engaging as a format than print, and in Northumbria’s case has cost nothing to implement.

Also, by tapping into what people are actually searching for on YouTube, Northumbria are able to cater to the real questions within their communities rather than making assumptions about the support they are looking for.

Ross opened his session by stating that loss of trust is not a region-specific problem, nor even a UK-specific issue – it’s a challenge that most healthcare providers face internationally. Similarly, no-one has the answers for what will repair the damage caused in recent years and re-build trust within each community. Ross emphasised that Northumbria focused on a straightforward strategy that prioritised the following principles, and these elements could be repeated within any public sector organisation:

1. Community-driven insights: Northumbria Healthcare actively listens to and engages with local communities to understand what resonates. They put residents at ease by meeting them where they are most comfortable, and by leveraging trusted members of the community to inspire confidence.

2. Continuous feedback loop: Ross described ongoing dialogues not only with communities, but also with Board Members. By measuring trust on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis, Ross is able to identify what’s working, change course if necessary, and deliver the headlines to management to secure buy-in.

3. Long-term reputation building: Ross prefers consistent, day-to-day efforts to build and maintain reputation over flashy but short-lived campaigns.

It’s clear that building trust for Northumbria was never just a buzz word, it is a genuine vision that has touched every part of the healthcare’s comms and engagement strategy. By listening deeply to your audience, taking their feedback on board even when it appears to go against the status quo, and measuring progress – other organisations have the opportunity to follow in Northumbria’s footsteps.