The NHS is used to sending out the flashing blue lights and sirens to health emergencies but are we facing a national emergency in our very own staff rooms? With an ageing workforce, many approaching retirement, thousands of unfilled posts, and increasing patient demand, NHS organisations across the land have seen the issue of recruitment and retention quickly climb the priority list.

The challenge, as ever, is ensuring we have the right people with the right skills in the right place at the right time to meet service and patient needs. But while all NHS organisations recognise this challenge, some have been far more successful in addressing it through innovative and creative campaigns.

The interim NHS People Plan, which was launched in early June, is focused on tackling a range of workforce challenges in the NHS including making the NHS the best place to work. This includes paying greater attention to why staff leave the NHS, taking action to retain existing staff and attract more people to join.

Join us, Touch Design and @NHScommsorg, for an evening of radical revelations about tackling recruitment and retention.

@NHScommsorg was set up in 2014 to support NHS and other health communicators to share best practice. Following a number of successful events, they have teamed up with Touch Design to organise an event focused on recruitment. We have some of the most forward-thinking, award-winning NHS communicators speaking about their work to improve the way their organisation fills the roles that other organisations cannot reach, including local, regional and national campaigns.

Antony Tiernan (@AntonyTiernan), director of communications working with NHS England and NHS Improvement, will chair the event. Antony has an illustrious career in health communications and in 2018 was named as one of the UK’s top PR people by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Phil Bastable (@PHBKent) is deputy director of marketing with NHS England (@NHSEngland) and NHS Improvement (@NHSImprovement).

Phil led the development of the multi-million pound We are the NHS recruitment campaign, which launched to coincide with the NHS’s 70th birthday and was named as Campaign’s most liked advert of 2018. He has worked on many other marketing campaigns since joining NHS England in 2013 and previously worked for the Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Trade and Industry, Home Office, Metropolitan Police and Inland Revenue. His portfolio of work includes the Met Police’s Safer Streets campaign and the Inland Revenue’s self-assessment campaign which starred Mrs Doyle from Father Ted.

Paul Chapman (@PaulChapman09) is Health Education England’s national allied health professions programme manager.

Paul led the Health Education England and Government Equalities Office national programme to support health care professionals return to the Health Care Professional Councils register. The programme attracted more than 750 enquires in an 18-month period seeing more than 250 qualified clinicians returning to the register. Paul will share the success of the Return to Practice campaign and how use of social media engagement - #iamreadytoreturn - with key stakeholders such as the allied health and healthcare science professional bodies provided a platform to engage with an experienced former workforce looking to return to work.

Melanie Wright (@wrightmelly)is the assistant director of communications at East Midlands Ambulance Service(@emasnhstrust).

Melanie will be joined by Jackie Moore, assistant director of workforce, to talk about a recruitment campaign that achieved outstanding results - attracting more than 10,000 applications for nearly 500 frontline positions. The campaign quickly transcended its initial brief and became part of the living values of an improving and re-energised organisation. The #EMAZING programme of design, branding and communications has been adopted by employees from the chief executive and chair to the newest recruits. It has become symbolic of celebratory success in EMAS and a term often used by colleagues and members of the public.

This event is brought to you by:

@NHScommsorg- set up by Antony Tiernan(@AntonyTiernan), in 2014 to support NHS and other health communicators to share best practice.

Touch Designare award-winning specialists in health branding and graphic design.
They have a very healthy client list of healthcare organisations, from statutory NHS trusts to voluntary sector and private sector companies. Touch is headed up by creative director, Scott Hingley(@teamtouchdesign).

www.touchdesign.co.uk

scott@touchdesign.co.uk

People unable to attend the event can watch it live via Periscope(by following @teamtouchdesign). Alternatively, you can join the conversation on Twitter via @NHScommsorg or by using the hashtag: #NHScomms.

Monday 15 July 2019 - Event timings:

5.30pm – arrival/refreshments

6.00pm – speakers and Q&As

7.00pm – refreshments/networking

7.30pm – close

Call Kirstie on 0115 950 9394 or email Kirstie@touchdesign.co.uk for more information.