COMMUNICATIONS


How to build a communications strategy when it is not your day job


Care providers are constantly communicating with external audiences, whether it’s the receptionist on the phone to families or the photos posted to the Facebook page. Nathan Hollow explains how unconscious communication can become purposeful messaging that supports an organisation’s overall goals.


A provider I know spent months organising a summer music festival. Based on an idea from their residents, local bands were invited, a stage was set up in the garden, families and the community came along, and the home’s chef crafted a special festival menu. By all accounts it was a wonderful day. At least, that’s what I was told. I can’t prove it because nobody took a usable photograph. The team did what they were meant to: they


focused wholly on making sure the people they support were able to have an incredible time. But with just 10 per cent more planning and some conscious thought about how the activity could be fully leveraged to support the wider goals of the organisation, what was undeniably a great activity could also have been a great public relations initiative, delivering 100 per cent more value.


You are already communicating Every provider communicates constantly, whether they have chosen to or not. How the phone is answered. What the manager says to visitors. The reviews sitting on carehome.co.uk. The photos on the Facebook page. The email that goes out after an incident. The trick, of course, is to make sure you’re being purposeful in what you say – and what you don’t – as well as where and when you say it and to whom.


So, the question is not whether you need to start


communicating or if you should develop a public relations strategy, but whether the one you’re currently accidentally executing is supporting your organisational goals. In that paradigm, to put it simply: are you ready


to capitalise on your best day, and are you prepared to navigate your worst? Read on if you’d like some pointers to help you give a confident ‘yes’ to both.


What is it all for? Start with an honest assessment, because ‘to raise our profile’ is a wish, not an objective. For most operators, most of the time, the purpose of any communications work is commercial: building the community awareness that feeds the top of your


THE CARE HOME INDUSTRY HANDBOOK 2027 19


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