Award dedicated to NHS staff

BakerBaird scooped its ninth PR award in six years from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations this month and dedicated it to the staff of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR).

Co-producing a campaign with the NHS LLR team, the project was to promote a £2m funding scheme to kick-start staff or patient inspired projects which would make a real difference – quickly.

 Due to funding requirements, the campaign needed to reach staff in the middle of ‘winter pressures’ a time when staff are at their most stretched, with winter related ill health creating spikes in patient visits and staff sickness. The threat of omicron was also unknown, with some estimates suggesting sickness and absence of staff could reach up to 40% in certain teams.

One example of a staff inspired project has had a huge impact on those who suffer from anxiety. It created  a ‘meeting pod’ equipped with built-in video conferencing,  enabling people to make virtual consultations, with a hearing loop and tools for the visually impaired. This promotes self-care and enables people to maximise their own abilities to be resilient, stay safe and care for themselves with access to support.

The target of the campaign was to generate at least 75 project bids expending £1million in year one, reaching 30,000 staff. The response exceeded all expectations with a total of 250 applications in the first six months alone.

By creating a strong theme around space and rockets, linking to Leicester’s space heritage, we created an eye-catching, engaging and shareable campaign, featuring an animation and bespoke graphics and GIFs, funnelled through social media and internal NHS and voluntary sector comms channels.

Richard Morris, Director of Operations and Corporate Affairs, NHS Leicester City CCG said: “Our expectation was this campaign would be ‘slow burn’ with staff pressured and in the middle of winter pressures and omicron.

“We were astonished how the launch ‘took off’. Senior managers, staff and patients are delighted, it will make a meaningful impact on many hundreds of staff and the tens of thousands of patients they care for.”

Stuart Baird, co-founder of BakerBaird said: “It’s great to receive acknowledgement from our peers in the Chartered Institute of Public Relations but we know the real plaudits go to the caring staff in healthcare across who want to do their best for the patients every day.”