If there’s one thing that comes up time and time again in conversations with communicators, particularly in the public sector, it’s the common theme of people outside of the profession do not entirely understand what we do. Particularly the amount of hard work, skill and professionalism that goes into it.
by Paul Compton
This is why I believe networks of communicators can be a force for good. I was proud to be elected as chair of one such network, FirePRO, in 2018. FirePRO was founded in the early 2000s as a network of communicators working in the fire and rescue sector.
The value of this network is shown by the fact that it still thrives today, not just as a group of like-minded people meeting to chat – although there’s definitely no problem with that – but as a free membership body, with a constitution, an annual conference, training programme, and now a set of official standards of what good communications and engagement is in the sector.
This, to us, is a huge step forward, as it not only provides a consistent understanding of best practice for communications teams, it also sends a big signal to everyone – particularly leaders – about the broad church that we cover, just how much expertise goes into it and why that needs to be supported.
Fire and rescue services cover wide area of communications practice. As a category one responder, we are required to have robust crisis and emergency communications arrangements. Communications practitioners in the sector also cover a wide range of activities from media relations and internal communications through to behaviour change marketing campaigns that aim to keep people from needing an emergency call out.
The reach and impact fire and rescue has within communities across the country is huge, and often proof that communications can be an intervention that saves lives.
The fire standard also covers engagement, including the duty to consult around changes to services. Combined together, it puts a strategic approach to building relationships with the many stakeholders that fire and rescue services need to communicate and engage with.
Development
Work on the standard first began before the pandemic, with the FirePRO National Committee meeting in a small room in the depths of the London Fire Brigade offices. Many post-it notes were sacrificed, a serious amount of coffee consumed, but a great buzz of feeling like we were creating something beneficial: for us, for our colleagues, and for every one-person comms team out there, just trying to get through the day to day.
We had some very clear aims and principles. Our aim was to set something that brought a consistent idea of what was good communications in the sector – whether the audience was chief fire officers or communications and engagement practitioners. Our principles were that they would be adaptable for any service no matter size or governance model (and therefore achievable) and that, where possible, we would draw upon established best practice from across profession rather than recreate anything.
There’s a plethora of great learning, insight, published works, frameworks and more about how to do communications and engagement. Sometimes the barrier for communicators is filter what is relevant and will add the most value to their work, specific to their area.
From the initial concept, the standards were developed, tested through engagement with people in and out of the sector – communicators, leaders, industry bodies such as the CIPR and Local Government Association – and refined.
In fire and rescue, we have a national body for standards, known as the Fire Standard Board. This is in its relative infancy, and communications was way down the list of their priorities. But we were 1. Arriving with a near finished product. 2. Determined as hell. We were bumped up the priority list and formed a great working partnership to guide the standards through a final consultation, and then approval.
So, what now?
We are immensely pleased to now have a baseline for our brilliant fire and rescue colleagues to work to, whether they work in communications and engagement roles or in other parts of the Service – delivering good communications is everyone’s business, after all.
As is the normal cliché with any development once you’ve reached the launch, the work really starts now.
However, my role will be more supportive of the next steps as I hand over the reins of FirePRO to its new chair, the brilliant Jack Grasby, who has also been instrumental in the development, and will now take these standards off the page and put them into practice.
We’ll be working with fire and rescue services on how the standards can be used in their organisations. FirePRO has also shaped its training programme for the year - which includes the annual conference - around the standards.
We’d also like to work with other sectors to share learning. Only central government currently have similar standards in place. We strongly believe these standards will be a force for good and we’ve already had great feedback from people within the sector – particularly leaders - about how much they opened their eyes to the expertise that goes into our profession.
Even if you don’t work in fire and rescue, these standards are worth reading as the majority of what is in the standards could be applied in other areas, or be shown to people who may need a little educating.
Paul Compton is the outgoing chair of FirePRO and Head of Communications and Engagement at Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. You can say hello on Twitter at @Paul_Compton
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