A political party in Scotland recently announced that if they won power they would merge health boards to save money. Of course, it’s the job of politicians to look for ways to make the public pound go further. There’s plenty to debate about what the optimum size for health boards might be, but that’s not what this blog is about. I was moved to put finger to keyboard by the use of one phrase: ‘spin doctors’.
by an anonymous comms pro
The argument was that health boards would be made more efficient by reducing the numbers of managers, and ‘an army of spin doctors’. It’s an unfortunate choice of words.
In my job, it can be helpful to choose a medical analogy. (You’ll often hear me explaining that awareness raising without a call to action it like prescribing antibiotics for a cold: it might be what the client wants, but it’s not going to work, it wastes money, and causes more problems in the long run.) In this case, I wonder what the reaction would have been to a politician referring to doctors as ‘quacks’. I’m guessing not great: it’s rude, and inaccurate. The same goes for spin doctors.
It’s fair to look at how we can make our teams more effective. My team will concur that I am constantly banging on about measureable outcomes. Talk about public relations officers, communications professionals or engagement specialists, sure. But spin doctors? That’s not a term I recognise for myself, my team or the other hard-working public communicators in the NHS, and across the public sector.
The Oxford dictionary defines a spin doctor as ‘a spokesperson employed to give a favourable interpretation of events to the media, especially on behalf of a political party’. NHS communicators are employed by and accountable to their boards, not political parties. When I worked in local government under councils made up of a variety of political hues, it was in politically restricted posts for this very reason: to ensure that communications was not politicised.
Giving favourable interpretations, then? Is that what we do? All NHS Scotland employees – and communications teams are NHS employees too – are bound by a code of conduct underpinned by the public service values of honesty and integrity, accountability and openness. We are required to be impartial.
Like many in the sector, I am also a member of the CIPR and bound by their code of conduct to ‘maintain the highest standards of…integrity…and personal conduct; deal honestly and fairly in business with employers, employees, clients, fellow professional, other professionals and the public.’ Doesn’t sound like there’s much room for interpretation there.
One of the reasons I chose to work in the public sector is because being open and honest isn’t just the right ethical approach for public services, it’s also good communications practice. Listening, being a trusted voice and building mutually respectful relationships helps organisations to improve both their performance and their reputation.
So we’re not political, and the information we share is honest and accurate. What about being spokespeople for the media? Personally, I’d recommend having a senior professional in the relevant field speak to media on any given topic, but yes, sometimes that response will come from a member of the communications team. Sometimes it’s very useful to have people with the skills and experience to work with the media – during a global pandemic for example, when you might not want to spare a nurse to answer press enquiries.
Overall though, the proportion of our work which involves the media is diminishing, as we increasingly reach our audiences directly via social media, the web, and planned campaigns. We increase the numbers of people getting vaccinations; explain how people can access virtual appointments; help people to give up smoking; and promote jobs that need filling – some of my team’s most successful work has been in recruitment marketing to essential front-line roles.
The average public sector communications team’s job includes engaging with the public on service changes; updating the website and social media, often with photo or video content we produce ourselves; publicising and running events; keeping colleagues informed via an intranet and internal newsletter; evaluating behavioural change campaigns; graphic design and print; and, in some cases, answering Freedom of Information requests. And of course the pandemic saw a huge increase in workload across all specialities. Does that take an army? My current team, including web and engagement specialists, makes up 0.08% of my organisation’s employees.
We also pick up all sorts of things that don’t fit a conventional job description. Like getting a signature on a legal document from an in-patient whose wife lives on an island over a hundred miles away and needs it urgently. Or responding promptly to DMs from one of our ‘regulars’ who obviously needs a chat and a bit of human connection. We do this because, like nurses and doctors and everyone else working in the NHS, we really care.
So in today’s connected world, the media is just one tool in an ever-increasing box, and communications professionals need to be constantly updating their skills, while working under pressure, and with compassion.
Spinning a lot of plates, in other words. But not spin doctors, please.
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