area reviews communications plan template...1 area reviews communications plan template contents...

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1 Area Reviews Communications Plan Template Contents Introduction 1 Current Situation 2 Audiences 3 Aims 4 Messages 4 Strategy and Tactics 5 Timings 12 Appendix 1 – Communication audit matrix 13 Appendix 2 – Internal and external analysis 14 Appendix 3 – Audience identification 16 Appendix 4 – Questions and answers 18 Appendix 5 – Communication working agreement 20 Appendix 6 – Choosing a PR agency 22 Appendix 7 – Content calendar 23 Introduction The purpose of this template is to provide assistance to further education and sixth form colleges in managing their communications activities during the area review process. Area reviews are one of the biggest challenges facing colleges at the moment. Within the Association of Colleges (AoC), our aim is to support all our members to the best of our ability. Effective communication will be critical both during the area review process and once the recommendations have been announced. This template provides you with ideas of how to manage the communications during the initial process. We will be developing a template for post-recommendations, which will be available from January 2016. The initial area review process takes place over a four-month period. AoC’s website has a section dedicated to area reviews, and includes an outline of the work carried out in this period. For those not already aware, area reviews were announced by the Government in July 2015 within their document Post-16 Education and Training Institutions Review. This set out the Government’s aim to “move towards fewer, often larger, more resilient and efficient providers.” Their policy document states the following:

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Page 1: Area Reviews Communications Plan Template...1 Area Reviews Communications Plan Template Contents Introduction 1 Current Situation 2 Audiences 3 Aims 4 Messages 4 Strategy and Tactics

1

Area Reviews Communications Plan Template

Contents

Introduction 1

Current Situation 2

Audiences 3

Aims 4

Messages 4

Strategy and Tactics 5

Timings 12

Appendix 1 – Communication audit matrix 13

Appendix 2 – Internal and external analysis 14

Appendix 3 – Audience identification 16

Appendix 4 – Questions and answers 18

Appendix 5 – Communication working agreement 20

Appendix 6 – Choosing a PR agency 22

Appendix 7 – Content calendar 23

Introduction

The purpose of this template is to provide assistance to further education and sixth

form colleges in managing their communications activities during the area review

process.

Area reviews are one of the biggest challenges facing colleges at the moment. Within

the Association of Colleges (AoC), our aim is to support all our members to the best of

our ability. Effective communication will be critical both during the area review process

and once the recommendations have been announced. This template provides you

with ideas of how to manage the communications during the initial process. We will be

developing a template for post-recommendations, which will be available from January

2016.

The initial area review process takes place over a four-month period. AoC’s website

has a section dedicated to area reviews, and includes an outline of the work carried out

in this period.

For those not already aware, area reviews were announced by the Government in July

2015 within their document Post-16 Education and Training Institutions Review. This

set out the Government’s aim to “move towards fewer, often larger, more resilient and

efficient providers.” Their policy document states the following:

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“We expect this to enable greater specialisation, creating institutions that are genuine

centres of expertise, able to support progression up to a high level in professional and

technical disciplines, while also supporting institutions that achieve excellence in

teaching essential basic skills – such as English and maths. This will need to be done

while maintaining broad universal access to high quality education and training from

age 16 upwards for students of all abilities including those with special educational

needs and disabilities.

“We know from experience of Structure and Prospects Appraisals and early area-based

reviews that restructuring can help to improve opportunities and outcomes for

students and secure operational and financial efficiencies.

“We are therefore announcing that the Departments for Education and Business,

Innovation and Skills will facilitate a programme of area-based reviews to review 16+

provision in every area, and do so quickly. These reviews will provide an opportunity

for institutions and localities to restructure their provision to ensure it is tailored to the

changing context and designed to achieve maximum impact.

“Our focus will be on FE and sixth-form colleges, although the availability and quality

of all post-16 academic and work-based provision in each area will also be taken into

account.”

This template is not a directive, but instead provides ideas for approaches which aim to

assist colleges. It starts with the current situation section below, and includes areas

such as audience identification, messages and tactics to use. Before starting to plan

your communications, speak to your senior management team, as there may be

ongoing discussions within the college, and other partners, which can help direct you

to the most appropriate communication approaches.

Alongside this document, AoC staff are available to provide support and advice on

communications. Their details are as follows:

Chris Walden – Director of Public Affairs and Communications

([email protected]) Tel: 0207 034 9914

Andrea Jones – Senior Communications and Membership Manager

([email protected]) Tel: 0207 034 9979

Piran Dhillon – Public Affairs Manager ([email protected]) Tel: 0207 034

9915

Sarah Scott – Media and PR Manager ([email protected]) Tel: 0207 034

9973

If you feel there is a subject area that is missing from this template, please contact one

of the team who will be happy to help, and will add it to later editions of this document.

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Current Situation

The first stage in any planning process is to consider the current situation. This helps

to recognise what the issues being faced are, as well as providing a full understanding

of the college. The information gathered within this process can be useful for

communications further down the line. The following provides an overview of some of

the areas you may want to consider.

Overview of the organisation

This consists of details of your college, including:

Area you cover

Number of students (broken down by 16 to 19-year-olds and post-19)

Number of apprentices

Number of staff (broken down by teaching and support staff)

How many students on average enrol each year (broken down by age)

College budget

Details of the employers you work with

The purpose of this exercise is to make sure that the communication team has a full

understanding of the organisation. This will assist in identifying the importance of

different audiences and developing messages. The information can also be used as a

factsheet for the media and stakeholders.

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Communications audit

In order to be able to plan, it is useful to have a clear understanding of what your

current communication channels are and how they are used. This should consider the

following:

Internal communication channels (intranet, staff briefings, newsletters)

Social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn)

Website and any microsites

Stakeholder communication channels (newsletters)

A matrix can be used to compile this, which is available at Appendix 1.

Internal and external factors

It can be beneficial for the communications team to carry out exercises to look at

internal and external factors relating to area reviews. Two systems that can be used

for this are:

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis

Political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal (PESTEL)

analysis)

This can provide the communications team with a full understanding of all of the

issues, which will be useful in developing tactics and approaches.

Appendix 2 provides matrices for both of these exercises.

Audience

The following includes the core audiences you will need to consider with any

communications around area reviews. This is not an exhaustive list, and will have

different local variations.

Governors

Staff

Unions

Students

Students Union

Parents

Employers/partners who work with the college

Potential students

MPs

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Councillors

Officers of the council

Other colleges

Universities

Schools in the area

Media

o Trade

o Local

o National

Influential local people

Local enterprise partnerships

Chamber of commerce

Appendix 3 provides tools to help develop your audience list, along with a matrix to

help identify primary and secondary audiences.

Aims

From the outset you should have aims for the communication work. The following are

suggestions:

Ensure that internal audiences are kept up to date with the area review process.

Provide timely, accurate, consistent information to stakeholders.

Develop a partnership working approach with other colleges for a strategic

communications approach.

Messages

Creating and maintaining a limited number of key messages promotes consistency

across audiences and channels, whether it is a media release, website update or staff

meeting. Contradictory statements weaken a college’s position and can lead to the

perception that it is hiding something and that nothing it says is to be believed.

It is therefore essential that messages are consistent, open and honest and the fewer

people involved in writing or delivering them, the stronger they will be. The below

provide ideas of core messages you may want to consider using for all communication

activities.

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When developing these, it is important to understand that negative messages may not

be in the best interest of the college. While you do not need to be positive about the

reviews, the messaging should try to be neutral.

Area reviews have been introduced by the Government. The Government’s

stated purpose of the reviews is to assess the economic and educational needs

of the area and the implications for post-16 education and training provision.

The Government’s aim is to achieve a transition towards ‘fewer, often larger,

more resilient and efficient providers’1 and more effective collaboration across

institution types.

This college has been included in the XXXX area review.

We will continue to focus on providing excellent education and training to our

students during the process.

The country needs strong, resilient and locally responsive colleges to provide

high quality technical and professional education. XXX College will be essential

if the economic recovery is to be sustained through the development of a highly

skilled workforce.

For general messages about what colleges are and do, we have developed the

following narrative:

Further education colleges provide high-quality technical and professional education

and training for young people, adults and employers. They prepare more than 3 million

students with valuable employability skills, helping to develop their career

opportunities.

Colleges are inspirational places to learn because education and training is delivered by

expert teaching staff in industry-standard facilities. From basic skills to postgraduate

degrees, colleges offer first rate academic and vocational teaching, in a range of

professions including engineering, hospitality, IT, construction and the creative arts.

Sixth form colleges provide high-quality academic education to 16 to 18-year-olds

enabling them to progress to university or higher level vocational education.

1 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/post-16-education-and-training-institutions-area-based-

reviews

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Strategy and tactics

To provide regular updates to staff and internal audiences and have effective

internal communication processes in place.

Internal communications is critical in any change management process, and includes

staff and governors. It is likely to be a time when staff will be getting nervous about the

future and their positions within the college, as well as having a detrimental impact on

the overall morale. As such, internal communications should be proactive. Some

points to consider for internal communications are:

Consistent messages

Internal audiences should receive any messages prior to them being sent externally,

whether to stakeholders or the media. All messages, whether provided internally or

externally, need to be consistent.

You should also assume that any messages provided internally will be made available

externally.

What will this mean to me?

Messages in internal communications need to be put across in a way that answers this

question. Staff will be worried about the future and their position, so it is important to

acknowledge this and make sure that questions are answered.

Some of the questions to consider answers for include ‘ will this mean redundancies?’,

‘will the college close?’ etc. At the moment, it will not be possible to answer many of

these questions, as the area review process is in its initial stages. However, you should

be open, honest and reassuring. If you don’t know the answer to a question, explain

that the process is ongoing and you will update as soon as you can.

A potential tactic for this is to develop a question and answer service on your intranet.

Appendix 4 has some suggestions for possible content.

Reminder about the communications policy

If your college has a communications policy in place, make sure that staff are aware of

this. If you don’t have one, you may want to consider developing one. This policy sets

out what is expected from staff when raising any college issue externally. For example,

this should highlight that a college staff member shouldn’t speak to the media directly,

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but instead all media enquiries should be forwarded through the communication/

marketing team.

Unions

Keep the unions involved as part of your wider engagement work. Again, the messages

should be consistent with internal communications, focusing on this being part of

Government reforms and that you’re working on behalf of students, staff and the wider

community.

Tactics to consider:

Updates and FAQs on an intranet system. This can provide the latest

information on area reviews, and links to where people can find more details.

You may want to consider having a monthly update from the principal/chair of

governors

Regular updates for managers to provide to their teams.

Share any comments you provide to the media internally with staff. This will

ensure that they are kept aware of any messages before they are published.

To implement a shared communication protocol with other colleges in the area

review.

An effective way to handle the communications around the area reviews could be to

put in place a protocol between colleges. This could outline:

Shared messaging

Sharing of ideas/good practice around internal communications

Agreement to a shared approach to communication with stakeholders (shared

MPs)

Agreed statements to share with the media

Agreement to keep up to date with any media enquiries

Agreed approval process

A template of this protocol has been developed at Appendix 5. This is a suggested

approach which you may want to consider as a way to assist in the process. It is aimed

primarily at your marketing/communication teams to help with the sharing of

information and good practice.

Alternatively, colleges may wish to consider engaging a PR agency to deal with external

messaging and media management. Appendix 6 outlines some considerations when

selecting an agency.

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To manage social media communications

The main differences between social media and other channels are:

Message speed – bad news can travel much faster to a wider audience.

Conversely, a college can collect information on public perception to an incident

far faster and disseminate its own key message to social media audiences with

greater speed.

Two way conversations – most social media channels require authentic, two way

dialogue. Using social media as if it were a publishing tool (say, in the same way

you use your online press office) isn’t going to work.

Set up digital listening posts as part of your everyday communications activity. You

should be tracking college mentions on Google news alerts, Technorati, Twilert and

other monitoring media as standard. These will provide the dashboard you’ll need to

track an issue across the social media space.

There is no need to proactively speak about area reviews on your social media

networks. However, you do need to follow what is being said. When to intervene and

engage would be as follows:

To answer direct questions

To correct falsehoods being spread

To deter scaremongering about the college’s future

Be open and understanding. Responding with impersonal statements or institutional

jargon won’t work. If you are addressing someone’s genuine worry or concern, have

empathy with their situation and be rational and respectful using everyday language.

Outline next steps and tell your story. As with traditional media statements, use the

opportunity to explain what you are doing and when you are doing it and to include,

where appropriate, key messages about your institution.

To manage media enquiries

During the initial area review process, it is advised not to proactively go to the media

about what is happening within the college. If approached you should provide a

response, rather than say “no comment”. During this period there is the risk of

speculation which would be unhelpful for the reputation of the college. The following

sets out how to manage media enquiries and interviews.

Preparing for media interviews for area reviews

Consider the audience. The general public is unlikely to know much about the

further education sector so don’t use any jargon, keep your tone

conversational and keep your messages simple. Think about the one thing

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you’d like them to take away from hearing/seeing/reading your interview and

base your strategy around this.

Area reviews are, in part, the Government’s response to significant funding cuts

to colleges since 2010. It will therefore be helpful to have the facts about

funding cuts at a national level to hand.

Control the interview and talk about how your college is involved/taking a

leading role in your area review and how the outcome could potentially benefit

the local community. It is important to ensure you highlight the college’s

strengths as a leading local organisation and that your focus continues to be on

providing high quality education and training for students.

Think ahead of the three main positive points you want to make and bridge

back to them.

It is likely there will be little awareness among the general public about area reviews

and there may be concerns about what this means for provision locally. This gives you

an opportunity to talk about all the good work your college is doing and what you have

on offer:

Examples are powerful, memorable and bring colour to an interview. Prepare

two or three examples of things that your college is doing particularly well e.g.

employer links, an industry specialism, apprenticeships.

Tap into the Government’s agenda for education and skills. For example,

mention how your college is helping to achieve more apprenticeships, how you

are improving the productivity of the workforce and tackling the country’s skills

shortages etc.

Useful lines and information

Current useful figures regarding funding:

Spending on 16 and 17-year-olds is 22% lower than 11 to 16-year-olds. It is a

further 17.5% less for 18-year-olds.

Adult education funding has been cut by 28% this year alone (2015).

For up to date information on funding visit http://www.aoc.co.uk/term/funding-

finance.

Useful lines about the important role of colleges:

The country needs strong, resilient and locally responsive colleges to provide

high quality technical and professional education. Colleges will be essential if

the recovery is to be sustained through the development of a highly skilled

workforce.

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Further education colleges are resilient and resourceful and as a sector we

provide more than 3 million students with high-quality technical and

professional education and training which lead directly to a job.

Colleges have a key role in helping to prepare people for the workplace,

ensuring people have the right skills for the role and increasing the country’s

productivity.

Sixth form colleges are resilient and resourceful and we provide first rate

academic teaching, helping thousands of young people enter university every

year.

The education and training we offer is inspirational because it is delivered by

expert teaching staff in industry-standard facilities. For example, [INCLUDE

EXAMPLE FROM YOUR COLLEGE]

Colleges offer first rate academic and vocational teaching, in a range of

professions including engineering, hospitality, IT, construction and the creative

arts. We work closely with [INSERT INTERESTING EXAMPLES OF COURSES IN

THESE SECTORS AND/OR EMPLOYERS YOU ARE WORKING WITH].

Our advice to be reactive in the initial period is to ensure you have the mechanisms in

place to deal effectively with the internal and stakeholder communications. Some

colleges may wish to do this as well as being proactive with the media. There are

benefits to this by being able to manage the timing of when the media are involved and

control the message released. However, you will need to be careful with any timings

on this as by going to the media at the start of the four-month review period could lead

to increased speculation in the media, as there will be limited information available.

To provide timely, accurate information to stakeholders

Your college will have a range of stakeholders, as identified within the audience section

of the plan. The core messages can be duplicated across all types of stakeholders.

However the tactics used will be different. The results of the communication audit

outlined earlier will be useful here to identify how current channels can be used for

specific types of communications.

At all times external communications should follow internal communications, not

precede them.

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Members of Parliament

When a review is announced the local MPs will be informed by the Department for

Business, Innovation and Skills. It is still important for you to make contact with your

MP(s) too, and when writing/emailing/speaking to your MP(s) about the issue it is

recommended to consider the following:

Explain the background and what the Government is proposing in simple,

jargon-free language

Discuss the likely impact this will have on the college and more importantly your

students (the majority of whom will be the MP(s) constituents)

Explain the timeline and local stakeholders that will be involved and or affected

by area reviews

Reaffirm at every opportunity that despite the uncertainty and irrespective of

the overall outcome, your priority is and will continue to be educating and

training your students and serving the community

Students and parents

As yet, area reviews haven’t been widely publicised. Therefore it is unlikely that

students and parents will know about the proposals. The following approaches are

suggested for communicating with this group.

Prepare text for your website. This should include the core messages already

outlined and highlight that it is business as usual for the college. Wording such

as the following could be used: “The priority throughout the area review process

is to ensure students studying at the college continue to have high quality

education and training”.

Ensure course tutors are provided with core messages and are prepared for the

possibility of students asking them about area reviews. This is particularly

important for those who have over a year left in their studies, as they will want

reassurance that their course will continue.

Consider including these messages on any standard communications you

provide to students, whether it is through web messages or student newspaper.

Liaise with the Students Union and ensure they are kept informed of the

progress of the area review.

In implementing these approaches, it is worth remembering that these actions could

lead to media enquiries. Therefore colleges need to be prepared for this possibility,

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with a holding statement, as outlined earlier. However, it should not prevent you from

proceeding with communicating to students.

Potential students

Through the area review process it is important to remember that it is business as

usual within the college, including preparing marketing activities for future enrolment.

At the same time, you will need to consider ensuring that potential students and their

parents are informed of the area reviews. The following provides suggestions for this

work.

In a similar way to current students, consider preparing a web statement on

area reviews linked to your enrolment pages. This should again outline in plain

English that the priorities throughout the area review process is to continue with

the high quality education and training on offer.

In preparation for any open days/events, ensure that staff involved are aware of

area reviews and prepared to answer questions about it with the core

messages.

Employers and partners

Employers and other partners the college works with should be kept informed of the

area review process. It is important to make sure this group is briefed as the reviews

relate directly to the economic impact in the community.

If you already send information out to this group, you should consider including a

regular update on area reviews. If you don’t already do this, it may be worth

considering doing so. it should focus again on the core messages that this is a

Government initiative and that as a college it is business as usual as the process takes

place.

Other stakeholders

During the audience identification stage of the plans you would have identified a range

of other stakeholders. It is worth considering the most effective way of engaging with

these stakeholders, such as through e-marketing, website or face to face briefings.

It is likely that a number of stakeholders, for example councils, local enterprise

partnership or chamber of commerce, will be shared between more than one college.

Therefore it is suggested that this engagement work could be carried out jointly. This

should focus again on the core messages.

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It is always important to ensure that any staff members who are responsible for liaising

with stakeholders are fully informed on the area review process and the core

messages.

Timings

Some communications during the area review process will need to be more regular

than others. As such, it is recommended that a content calendar be developed to

assist with the timings and ensure regular communications. A template of this is

provided at Appendix 7.

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Appendix 1

Communication Audit Matrix

This tool can be used to identify current communication channels, how much they are used and who is responsible for managing them.

Channel Audience Engagement levels

(readership, followers, users)

Frequency used Who’s responsible for

managing

Internal Communications

Social Media

Stakeholder Communications

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Appendix 2

These tools are to be used as part of an analysis of internal and external factors.

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis looks primarily at internal factors and how external factors can provide

opportunities or threats to the college.

Strengths

What is your organisation

particularly good at?

Weaknesses

What are the things you need

to improve in your

organisation? Internal factors

Opportunities

What trends are happening

that you could exploit?

Threats

What threats are there for

the organisation?

External factors

Positive Negative

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PESTEL Analysis

This looks at the external factors. Some of these may not be relevant for the area review

process, but are worth considering.

Political

What is happening politically in the

environment in which you operate?

Economic

What is happening within the economy?

Sociological

What is happening socially in the markets in

which you operate, cultural norms and

expectations, population growth rate, age

distribution, career attitudes?

Technological

What is happening technology-wise that can

impact what you do? How will it impact your

products or services?

Legal

What is happening with changes to

legislation? This may impact employment,

access to materials, quotas, resources,

imports/ exports, taxation etc

Environmental

What is happening with respect to ecological

and environmental aspects?

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Appendix 3

Audience Identification Table

This tool can be used to help identify audiences for communication. It is a useful guide to

consider different groups to communicate with. Identify each specific group within each

area sector.

Area Audience

Media

Financial

General Public

Customers

Internal

Influential groups

Government

Partners

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Power/Interest Matrix

This matrix helps to identify who your primary and secondary audiences are. Place

your identified audience into the table of how much interest in the issue and power

they currently have.

The tool can also be used to help identify any specific movement you want a particular

stakeholder to have in terms of their interest/power. For example, this tool can help

identify where you want particular groups to shift to in terms of their interest/power.

This can help to identify how much engagement will be needed to move groups from

one quadrant to another and so focus community/engagement efforts.

Po

we

r

Level of interest

Low High

Low (Minimal Effort)

(Keep informed)

High (Keep satisfied)

(Key players)

Students Students

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Appendix 4

Area reviews – questions and answers

This is not an exhaustive list, but rather an example of some questions and answer you may

want to consider.

What are area reviews?

In July 2015, the Government announced its intention to conduct area reviews of post-

16 education in England. These will be conducted between September 2015 and March

2017.

The Government’s stated purpose of the reviews is to assess the economic and

educational needs of the area and the implications for post-16 education and training

provision. The Government states that this approach is designed to achieve a

transition towards fewer, larger, more resilient and efficient providers and more

effective collaboration across institution types.

The Government has said the aim of area reviews is to “move towards larger, more

resilient and efficient colleges which are able to support greater specialisation and

higher levels of expertise to ensure progression for learners through professional and

technical routes.”

What are the timescales involved?

The area review process is expected to be completed in four months, between [insert

dates]. We will then be provided with recommendations, which will be considered by

our Board of Governors.

Who is involved?

There are [insert number] colleges involved in the XXX area review. These are:

[list of colleges]

The process will also include:

FE Commissioner

XXX Local Enterprise Partnership

Regional Schools Commissioner

Can students still apply for next year’s courses?

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Yes. Students should continue to apply for a programme offered by XXXX College in

the usual way.

The priority throughout the area review process is to ensure students studying at the

college continue to have high quality education and training.

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Appendix 5

Communication Working Agreement

[Please note: this is a template agreement, with suggested inclusions, which can be modified

to fit your college area needs.]

The purpose of this agreement is to support the effective communication activities of

all colleges during the area review process.

By agreeing to this protocol all colleges in the XXXX area review agree to the following.

Messaging

We agree to use the following as core messages during the area review process:

Area reviews have been introduced by the Government. The Government’s

stated purpose of the reviews is to assess the economic and educational needs

of the area and the implications for post-16 education and training provision.

The Government states that this approach is designed to achieve a transition

towards fewer, larger, more resilient and efficient providers and more effective

collaboration across institution types.

This college has been included in the XXXX area review to ensure the most

effective provision for our students and local community.

We will continue to provide excellent provision to students during the process.

The country needs strong, resilient and locally responsive colleges to provide

high quality technical and professional education. XXX College will be essential

if the economic recovering is to be sustained through the development of a

highly skills workforce.

[These are suggested core messages which can be adapted to your needs.]

Media engagement

We agree to share information between colleges in relation to any media enquiries we

receive. This includes:

Details of any media enquiries we receive asking for any comment about the

area review process, and the responses given.

Details of any interviews we have given, whether broadcast or print on area

reviews.

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[The sharing of media enquiries between colleges is a useful way of monitoring the level of

interest. By providing these updates in colleges you can ensure that messages are consistent

during the initial process, so avoiding conflict.]

Stakeholders

We agree, where possible and practical, to send shared messages to stakeholders. This

could, for example, be a shared message to an MP or council which covers more than

one college.

[Some colleges will have shared stakeholders. By publishing joint messages you will portray

a collaborative approach to communications.]

Good practice

We agree to share good practice of internal communication activities. This could

include ideas of what internal communications have been effective in sharing the

messages with staff and, conversely, any issues we have faced.

[Not all colleges in your area review will have the same abilities, knowledge or resources to

develop internal communication activities. Staff are your most important resource and

ensuring they are kept updated regularly is critical for morale. Sharing good practices

between your marketing/communication teams will be beneficial to all.]

Internal communications

We agree to share messages and agree times for internal messages to be sent to staff.

[Staff members will undoubtedly have friends and colleagues within neighbouring

institutions who will share information about area reviews. To negate any wrong

information being provided/shared, and to ensure your staff feel kept informed, it is worth

considering having processes in place to send updates in parallel with other colleges.]

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Appendix 6

Choosing a PR Agency

If you are thinking about instructing a PR agency to help during the area review

process, here are some points to consider to help you choose the right agency. These

tips aren’t exhaustive but might help you when inviting PR agencies in to pitch for your

business.

Further education knowledge: Can the agency demonstrate that they have achieved

successful campaigns and coverage in your target publications. Do they understand the

further education sector, the current issues affecting it as well as the influential

journalists, bloggers and people within the sector?

What media is best for your campaign: PR stands for public relations so you should

check whether the agency understands what the best way is to reach your target

audience, i.e. whether your news is best pitched to a journalist or might work better

over social media. It goes back to target audience awareness and what they read and

access regularly.

Check out their reputation: Have a look at the agency’s client list and ask to speak to

them. Ask if they are pleased with how the agency works and their achievements.

The pitch: Does the pitch demonstrate that they’ve understood your brief and target

audience? Are their creative ideas realistically achievable?

The PR Team: Make sure you ask who will be working on your PR day to day and ask if

you can meet them as it isn’t always the people that pitch for the job. Enquire about

their experience of the sector and get feedback on their past campaigns.

Costs and methods of charging: Agencies have a variety of ways of charging for their

time working on your account. Enquire about fees and expenses and whether

expenses are included in your retainer fee.

Evaluation and Measurement of success: This is very important as this is how you

will know whether their work, your messaging and your campaign is successful. Find

out what measurements the agency will use to evaluate the campaign. Also ask them

how they will be reporting on their success based on your objectives.

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Appendix 7

Content Calendar

This template is for a content calendar is order to help track regular communication and updates with particular audiences.

Week

Subject Responsible Delivery

Week

1

Week

2

Week

3

Week

4

Week

5

Week

6

Week

7

Week

8

Week

9

Week

10

Week

11

Week

12

Internal message 1

Internal message 2

Internal message 3

Stakeholder note 1

Website update 1

Website update 2

Letter to MP