Northamptonshire COVID-19 Outbreak Prevention and Control Plan, July 2020

Communications and Engagement Plan SARAH NEWALL

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What is this document for?

This document details a comprehensive communications and engagement plan for the Northamptonshire system which sits behind

the main Outbreak Prevention and Control Plan. The overarching strategic aim is to assist in the prevention and control of the virus.

Our focus is to deliver proactive messaging and communications with a focus on behaviour change, together with active community

engagement in preventing and controlling further COVID-19 outbreaks.

To minimise further local outbreaks, we want to engage people across all segments of society with messaging around the need to

comply with social distancing, being alert to symptoms, accessing testing where needed and to self-isolate if positive or contact traced.

There is also a specific requirement to reach more targeted audiences.

We know to be successful in managing this together, de-escalating where needed and supporting our populations to comply with

necessary measures, we must be authentic and maintain trust. This means always announcing at the earliest reasonable point,

being transparent in reactive communications and respecting public concerns at all times.

Why do we need a plan?

All local authorities published a COVID-19 Outbreak Prevention and Control Plan in July 2020. The plans are in place to anticipate where

issues may arise, inform decision making in the event of an outbreak and ensure a rapid response when/if needed in:

Deploying intensive local testing, tracing and support, particularly of vulnerable groups and diverse communities with extra needs

Taking further action, if required, to contain the situation in specific settings, locations or communities with the creation of local ‘health

protection areas’

So, we need a coordinated communications and engagement plan to support the reduction of transmission of COVID-19 and help in

the prevention and management of local outbreaks for all groups and communities in Northamptonshire through the delivery of clear

and impactful messaging alongside coordinated engagement activity.

Our plan is informed by NHS England’s ‘Contain; Local Communities Communications Planning Guide and will adhere to Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group

on Behaviours (SPI-B) principles of effective guidance development and implementation (See Appendix.1) when delivered.

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Our Communications and Engagement Approach - the headlines

Our delivery model…Build, Bond and Respond

1. BUILD - Proactive Communications 2. BOND – Through Robust Engagement

3. RESPOND – Be Reactive & Responsive

To prevent outbreaks and spikes

We will build on the LRF’s existing #NorthantsTogether branding

We will use local intelligence alongside published literature on behavioural insights to shape local messaging

Amplification and reinforcement of the national campaign

Test and Trace messaging through local channels with tailored messages for key audiences

Robust two-way community engagement focusing on prevention and control

We will speak with, listen to and understand the concerns of local communities

We will ensure vulnerable groups and marginalised communities are heard

We will use existing channels as well as digital and social media to reach out and engage

A rapid communications and engagement response protocol in the event of local outbreaks/spikes or implementation of Health Protection Area.

We will work closely with the Public Health England regional communications team as well as key local stakeholders locally to keep residents informed

How we will manage and mitigate…

Governance Risks and Mitigation Aligning Messaging

This plan has been informed by members of Northamptonshire’s Public Health team and is owned by the Local Oversight and Engagement Board

It will be delivered in collaboration with the Strategic Coordination Centre’s (SCC) Communication Cell and led by Northamptonshire Public Health and County Council Communications team

It aligns with the SCC Communication Cell’s Tactical Objectives

Risks

Messaging may be overshadowed in the coming months and even confused by winter flu messaging

Community misinformation may occur

There is also a public risk of knowledge saturation, confused messaging which may conflict with neighbouring counties, or even postcodes, together with an overall sense of public apathy

Mitigations

This will be addressed with clear, timely action in tandem with an attempt to instil a sense of public pride in protecting one another

We will focus on robust cascade of messaging and aligning around 'action cards' which provide outbreak management advice for all sectors

In order to allocate expertise to activity the following will apply:

General enquiries and proactive work to be led by the Outbreak Plan Communications Lead

Information to inform this will be requested by appropriate communications professionals:

Care Homes, Schools etc. – Northamptonshire County Council communications team

Hospital settings/GP practices – NHS communications teams as necessary

Communities/Place based e.g. Universities, shopping centres – Public Health and Borough and District communications colleagues

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Our Communications and Engagement Approach - the headlines

Our Objectives

Our immediate actions and routine – refining our ways of working

To support Public Health Northamptonshire and partners in the county-wide management of local outbreaks

To ensure communication to members of the public, media and wider stakeholders and partners is clear, accurate, timely and proportionate

To reinforce existing national messaging via existing and new and innovative targeted communications and public and stakeholder engagement channels

To promote NHS / Public Health England messaging on Test and Trace as part of a targeted public awareness campaign. In doing so, to inspire more people to get tested and to encourage people who are contacted by NHS tracers to self-isolate for 14 days to contain COVID-19 and stop the spread of the virus

To ensure the residents of Northamptonshire understand the social distancing and infection control measures in force an any given time

To demonstrate national and local collaboration in containing outbreaks

To reinforce to the residents of Northamptonshire that they need to ‘play their part’ if together we are to reduce the risk of transmission within their communities, by following Public Health advice.

Deliver activity through our Build, Bond and Respond Model

We will immediately update implement a robust multi-agency stakeholder mapping to

ensure rapid dissemination of messages and effective engagement routes and opportunities. Up to date intelligence has been documented by the Northamptonshire’s COVID-19 Social Impact Cell and will be built upon.

Implement a swift sign off process involving as few people as possible is in place, with two

appointed spokespeople: Lucy Wightman MFPH, Director of Public Health to deal largely with the technical side of things and Councillor Ian Morris to deal with policy. County council Leader Councillor Matt Golby and Public Health Consultant COVID-19 Lead, Rida Elkheir, will deputise.

Embed a strong link between data escalation points and rapid messaging to the public and partners

This will be achieved via the daily 15-minute situation report (sitrep) which began in July with a Scientific and Technical Advice (STAC) Public Health Consultant, an Outbreak Communications Lead, Clinical Commissioning Group Testing Lead, Public Health

England Lead, Environmental Health Officer Lead, Intelligence Lead, and Consultant on council duty working together to analyse and respond.

Weekly data reports, down to Lower-layer Super Output Area (LSOA), are now shared alongside clear actions for the day, with subject matter experts agreeing areas of concern. Currently the data will be received on a weekly basis but has been requested more frequently to ensure a timely response to issues identified.

Develop more granular ‘warn and inform’ message targeting through this intel. We can now issue infection prevention and control advice to residents to be extra vigilant in their area. With data which shows a specific area of concern we are armed to help people in the community make informed choices and to provide partners/stakeholders and staff with the information needed to take supportive action to mitigate risk.

Based on this enhanced capacity we will implement a messaging escalation protocol,

details of which are below

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Message escalation as a highest priority: Our intelligence-based messaging escalation protocol

The table below shows a four-tiered message status escalation system. The exact escalation trigger points are to be confirmed by the Public

Health Team and may be nuanced and place based rather than cross county based. Accompanying messages for each tier can be found in

Appendix 2.

Public Message Status Staff Understanding

Stay alert

No increase in risk but to remain vigilant

Be aware

Small area of increasing case numbers or high cumulative case rates

Be prepared

Significant outbreak in the area/setting

Stay at home Significant and serious increase in cases with high risk of onward

transmission over a wide area

1. Mindful of how a change in messaging focus may be received in the health care system as well as in the community, we will ensure that

staff, borough and district colleagues, partners and stakeholders on the ground understand what each message status actually means

in terms of risk and the required action and that the community understand the behaviour change required.

2. Protocol will ensure that once this data and status is ready to publish it will be shared with district and borough colleagues, partners and

stakeholders before being issued through media and social media channels.

3. A weekly data report on infection rates at district / borough and Middle-layer Super Output Area (MSOA) level is now being shared with

the local media and published on the Northamptonshire County Council website. This will include key messaging to the public to help

them understand what the data means and any behaviour change which may be required, and the relevant public message status could

also be included if appropriate. Accompanying key messages according to tier can be found in appendix 2.

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OUR COMMUNICATIONS AND

ENGAGEMENT PLAN IN ACTION:

PLANNING DETAILS

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1. BUILD Proactive Communications

Preventing and managingID-19 outbreaks/spikes

Headline priorities

a) Messaging - A focus on ‘People Protecting People’ and encouraging personal responsibility. We will implement a strong emotional

connection, to result in desired behaviour changes. The mantra will be that we are a Northamptonshire team of 747,622 – let’s not let each other down.

b) We will be clear and transparent about the ongoing situation and need to report local levels of risk/restrictions – possibly an interactive map to check local health protection zone status.

c) We will share pre-planned and approved localised messaging. Adapt to support our intelligence-based messaging escalation protocol

as needed. These will be circulated to all county public sector communications colleagues via the SCC comms cell as required for

distribution through county social media and other regular communications channels.

d) The national COVID-19 campaign has comms assets and PHE key messages generated on a rolling basis, content will be accessed from the PHE Campaign Resource Centre at: https://coronavirusresources.phe.gov.uk. We will adapt for local need as relevant.

e) Local print, web and broadcast media advertising to promote key national messages is also purchased by central government and a national paid media plan is cascaded weekly. We have requested this plan and complement this activity as indicated by local intelligence needs.

Building on what works

Building on the existing Northamptonshire System Comms Cell Communications Plan and strengthening links between the Health

Protection Board and operational arms.

Building on existing communication routes and channels via the Social Impact Cell as well as exploring targeted ways to reach out.

Amplifying key national messages while giving local relevance e.g. through case studies and recognised community leaders.

Target tailored and appropriate messages at key local audiences identified through local insight gathering.

Responding to community concerns and making people feel engaged.

Harnessing existing county-wide stakeholder channels to further messaging channels.

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Phase 1 - Urgent Communications Actions Status

1. Prepare web content, media releases, social media messaging and community rapid response messaging - to be signed off by all parties and ready for use in preparation for a spike. Similar action for tiered messaging.

In planning

2. Outbreaks in distribution centres and factory settings have revealed high instances of car-pooling and commuting from bordering counties. We will support these employees and their communities with targeted messages that also support any possible language barriers amongst these individuals. We will address urgently through liaison with Environmental Health Officers with a multi-language information cascade via employers and Health and Safety Executive channels.

In planning and delivery

3. A bank of tailored Public Health high risk setting specific branded letters need to be drafted and signed off. In addition, a letter is required for publicans to explain the importance of the Track and Trace system.

In planning

4. Rapid stakeholder mapping

5. Creation of an events calendar

6. Digital targeting of Northamptonshire’s hard to reach groups with Facebook ads, Snapchat etc… targeted digital ads to complement existing activity in the #NorthantsTogether channel flow.

To do

7. Targeted language translation of audio and visual marketing materials. To do

8. During the nation-wide lockdown earlier in the year it was noted in Northamptonshire that levels of compliance varied significantly between different demographic groups. This needs to be examined, understood and addressed.

To do

9. An examination/investigation of different language media channels on air or distributed across the county needs to be actioned.

To do

10. Marketing Uplift - targeted mail drops / door drops (linked to postcode data when usable), outdoor sites – bridges, road signage, buses, bus shelters, poster sites, shop windows, Domino’s pizza boxes, washroom media, petrol nozzles – cost pending and aligned to level of risk.

To do

11. Consider door drops to households in key areas: essential that materials are available in multiple languages and ideally pictorial to use new campaign assets as above.

To do

12. Further reach out to the business community via the Chamber of Commerce and to top 20 main employers with an ask to cascade messages to internal staff audiences using existing channels with wage slip messaging if possible. Contact Health and Safety Officers at the large employers across the county to share messaging via existing channels.

To do

13. The shielding population will emerge from isolation on 01 August which will require targeted messaging. To do

14. NCC Schools Cell to contact Further Education colleges to ascertain support needed from the LA

15. On July 24 the wearing of face masks in shops and supermarkets will become mandatory. Messaging needs preparing.

To do

16. Driver testing and gyms open on 25 July – messaging and clarifications required. To do

17. Proactive comms to schools to support their return in September To do

18. Harness local influences support of our messaging. To do

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Phase 1 - Urgent Communications Actions Status

19. Harness NHS assets and clinical settings such as GP waiting rooms / hospitals with marketing materials. To do

20. Speak to travel providers/cinemas/parish council to see if key messages can be displayed on current electronic messaging portals.

To do

Phase 2 - Ongoing comms planning Status

Delivery of cobranded / styled, tailored action cards developed by the Public Health Team and Safer Public Spaces Task Force for all high-risk settings.

In planning and delivery

Social media – continue to build on the #Northants Together branding with accompanying key messages on Twitter

and Facebook.

In planning and delivery

Harness partner comms with external and internal staff audiences: Pharmacies, Police, Political networks. Cascade messaging to audiences via partner and stakeholder lists.

In planning and delivery

Gather case studies of survivors’ families for the media – to serve as a warning to the public. To do

Key message platform

Intelligence tells us that there is confusion about what individuals can/can’t do so there will also be an ongoing focus on behaviour-based

messaging via our social media and wider channels. See example below. See further detailed key message platform in Appendix 2.

Behaviours which Increase Risk of Virus Spread Behaviours which Decrease Risk of Virus Spread

Mixing with more than one household Staying at home with your family/household

Staying in a room for a long time with people Keep your distance break the chain of infection and contain the virus

Not wearing a face mask under a roof that’s not your own Wear a mask under a roof that’s not your own

Travelling on public transport Wearing a mask on public transport

Going to the pub and not wearing a face mask Wearing a mask in shops

Not following shop and pub guidelines Do as you are guided to by pub staff

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Audiences The priority audiences to plan against in addition to all residents, as detailed by NHS England, are:

Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME)

Single mothers with young children

65+ year olds

18 - 24-year olds

25 – 64-year-old workforce

Key stakeholder audiences in Northamptonshire

Defining other audiences

Audiences will be further segmented based on local intelligence and targeted with communication channels mapped to audience.

Specific outbreak-related audiences as required. These include eight distinct high-risk settings: Care homes, schools, those living in

houses of multiple occupancy in shared accommodation, prisons and detention facilities, health care settings, industrial office settings

(54 food processing and meat packing sites), public open spaces alongside specific community or place-based outbreaks.

Media – RADIO: BBC Radio Northampton, Heart Northants, Inspiration FM, Corby Radio, Smooth Northamptonshire. PRESS:

Northamptonshire Telegraph, Northampton Chronicle and Echo, Northants Live

Health and care stakeholders and public service partners

Community leaders

Business community - independent shop keepers, restaurant and pub owners, service providers

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Proactive communications activity timeline

Date July 20 - 26 July 27 - 02 August 03 - 9 August 10-

16 August 17-23 August 24 and beyond

Communications Activity

Develop tailored Action Cards for high risk settings with Public Health Map all partners/stakeholders and hard to reach audiences to comms channels new and old Obtain Design and Print Quotes for mail drops List top 20 employers in the County – by workforce numbers and contact details List all local influencers including celebrities, sportspeople, community leaders, faith leaders, emergency services, voluntary sector Obtain quotes for digital targeting. Action all urgent communications

Refresh all channels aligned to NHSE key messaging with hard to reach/high risk settings in mind

Facebook, Snapchat ads promoting all key messages including where the Mobile Testing Units will be on a daily/weekly basis

Approach local influencers to reinforce and share messages: Request Webinars, video clips and

quotes and encourage use of social media channels to share messages.

Targeted Mail drops / door drops (linked to postcode data when usable), Outdoor sites – bridges,

road signage, buses, bus shelters, poster sites, shop windows, Domino’s pizza boxes, washroom

media, petrol nozzles – cost pending and aligned to level of risk

Routine social media, reactive comms and bi-weekly Media Bulletin including data, mobile Testing Unit areas and update and general message promotion

Reach out to main employers’ comms leads and Health and Safety Officers to piggyback internal

staff messaging channels

Reach out to high risk settings with cards – establish contact base and develop relationships

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2. BOND – Through Robust Engagement

Listening and engaging to build trust and authenticity

Headline priorities

a) We will engage and reach out to those who are vulnerable or at higher risk as well as those who may be less likely to comply with guidelines and restrictions. The key vulnerable groups and communities to include are:

1. People who are clinically at higher risk of more serious illness and poor health outcomes due to COVID-19

Black and minority ethnic communities

People with long term conditions and people who are “shielding”

Older people

Deprived communities

2. People who may have difficulty accessing COVID-19 prevention or protection measures as they are socially isolated or

excluded and marginalised

People from deprived communities

People for whom English is not their first language

Traveller communities

People with no fixed abode

Carers

3. People who work or reside in a high-risk setting

Building on what works

Engaging through existing system links, support and collaboration will be vital to this activity:

To be distributed via appropriate system operational and comms colleagues e.g. PH consultants, environmental health, Safer Public Spaces group, business impact cell, etc.

Northamptonshire Health and Care Partnership’s Community Engagement Toolkit https://northamptonshirehcp.co.uk/get-involved/ will be used to guide and shape engagement activity. There is also a tool called Citizen Space which could be used.

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We will continue to use our key groups and engagement routes as detailed below

All #NorthantsTogether comms channels/activity

COVID comms cell – comms colleague briefings and weekly meetings

COVID comms cell – media brief and top line brief

Community leader’s forum(s)

Newly established COVID cell links e.g. Social impact cell contacts / faith groups / police networks

Health and Wellbeing Forum membership

Established community networks - access via local engagement and comms colleagues: Neighbourhood Watch, Parish Councils

Education Cell – regular communication via head-teacher’s email bulletin

Housing and Accommodation Cell – direct links with rough-sleeping community

Northamptonshire County Council Internal Staff Teams: Community Safety, Environmental Health, Housing, Neighbourhood Wardens, Park Rangers

NCC Contracted Services Staff Teams: housing, highways, civil enforcement, refuse collection

Harnessing existing county-wide stakeholder channels to further messaging channels

Phase 1 - Urgent Engagement Actions Status

1. Two-way grassroots community engagement in supermarkets across Northamptonshire to target vulnerable groups. Opportunity to share marketing materials to explain and address any questions while surveying the messaging response on the ground

To do

2. Targeted BAME outreach: redeploy street ambassadors/Community Wardens to support public health messaging, ideally multi-agency and including people drawn from the local community

To do

3. Return to weekly meetings with community faith leaders organised by a member of the Social Impact Cell. Offer them a written briefing on behalf of Public Health with the language translation as required and spend the meeting listening about any issues which we can help with regarding adherence or non-compliance of community behaviours around the virus

To do

4. Map community festivals and events and work with Social Impact Cell on change in behaviour related engagement

To do

5. Map of Capable Guardians drawn up by the Emergency Planning team to be harnessed as a channel to ensure a flow of community intelligence

To do

6. Door drop and two-way engagement to all open shops, takeaways and other food outlets and aim for high visibility of messages where people may congregate or queue. We need to be confident of resource and safety in delivery

To do

7. Support people who work in or run shops or similar environments to understand the COVID-secure guidelines and the current outbreak situation

To do

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Phase 1 - Urgent Engagement Actions Status

8. Work with appropriate colleagues to deliver messages to our existing influencers, develop a clear narrative and brief key influencers such as:

Business leaders and employers

School leaders, Early Years providers and young people’s organisations – the strongest evidence of a local outbreak is the is the number of new infections in children (many between the ages of 12 and 15)

Universities – continue links PH have already established

Emergency services

Voluntary and community organisations e.g. Voluntary Impact Northamptonshire, Kettering Volunteer Centre, South Northants Volunteer Bureau and Daventry Volunteer Centre

Managers and staff at Food Banks, etc

Sporting celebrities i.e. Northampton Cricket Players, Northampton Saints rugby players, etc.

To do

9. Reach out to the community to target people with learning disabilities via volunteer groups To do

Phase 2 - Ongoing engagement planning Status

1. Brief and engage management teams of factories local to the affected areas and where many residents work – provide messaging material for dissemination, suggest content for communications to employees and answer questions about local implementation of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures and social distancing

In planning and delivery

2. Continued working with the Safer Spaces Task Force which aims to promote COVID-secure workplaces and public places across Northamptonshire. Areas of focus include public transport, active travel, retail and town centres, schools and educational facilities and COVID-secure workplaces

In planning and delivery

3. Input towards the delivery, in terms of messaging, of the Community Resilience planning, Care Homes cell, etc – including the offer of template letters to residents’ families from the Public Health team

To do

4. Work closely with district and borough councils to reach local communities - as this is a key requisite of SCG strategy. Colleagues will need to be empowered to support.

To do

5. Community patrol – brief traffic wardens and lollipop men and women to talk to people and collecting intelligence where people aren’t following rules

To do

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Robust Community Engagement Activity Timeline

Date

July 20 - 26

July 27 - 02

August 03 - 9

August 10-16

August 17-23

August 24 and beyond

Robust Community Engagement

List major supermarkets across the county and make contact Establish budget/print and design supplier for and staffing resource for on the ground engagement Carry out all urgent actions Establish partner/stakeholder channels network lists and ensure they are up to date

3.

Supermarket presence - two-way grassroots Community Engagement to target vulnerable groups. share marketing materials, take questions and surveying messaging response on the ground

Targeted BAME outreach: deploy street ambassadors to support public health messaging, ideally multi-agency and including people drawn from the local community.

Door drop to all open shops, takeaways and other food outlets and aim for high visibility of messages where people are congregating

door drops to households in key areas; essential that materials are available in multiple languages and ideally pictorial to use new campaign assets as above. As above, informed by postcode data and intel.

Messaging input, to Community Resilience planning, Care Homes cell - including the offer of template letters to residents’ families from the Public Health team.

Work closely with district and borough councils to reach local communities - a key requisite of SCG strategy. Colleagues will need to be empowered to support

Continued working with the Safer Spaces Task Force which aims to promote COVID-secure workplaces and public places across

Northamptonshire. Areas of focus include public transport, active travel, retail and town centres, schools and educational facilities and COVID-

secure workplaces.

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3. RESPOND – Be Reactive & Responsive

Outbreak/spike response communications and engagement approach

In the event of a significant and serious increase in positive cases with high risk of onward transmission over a wide area, and before, it is

paramount that as many people as possible are sharing as many messages, in as many formats as possible, across as many channels, across

the county.

Headline priorities

Phase 1 - Urgent Actions Status in the event of a spike

1 Brief key media about the situation and approach; issue a proactive press notice setting it out

2. Set up an ongoing proactive briefing strategy for media and community leaders with the opportunity to ask questions to the DPH to reinforce shared responsibility and manage ad-hoc media enquiries

3. Share key messages across Northamptonshire, which are: clear and transparent about the ongoing

situation, available in the language of the local community, sensitive to the cultural needs of the

population, ‘Behaviourally specific’ i.e. clearly communicate the actions that people need to take,

when and how

4. Interrogate the existing clarity of messaging across all Northamptonshire County Council’s

communications channels

5. Based on the severity of your outbreak the communications lead should liaise with DHSC press office to coordinate national and local messages

6. Immediate grassroots public engagement

7. Business engagement; businesses are community focal points and should be used to provide

leadership, support dissemination of messaging and adherence to guidance

8. Mobilisation of PHE comms and engagement

9. Ensure rapid routes to communications channels via stakeholder lists

Local leaders, MPs, LA assets

Local and partner websites

Local and community radio, local press, social media, digital targeting

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Phase 1 - Urgent Actions Status in the event of a spike

Mail drops / door drops, outdoor sites – bridges, road signage, buses,

bus shelters, poster sites, shop windows

Pharmacies, Police, Political networks, Town and Parish councils, trade bodies

Transport providers, voluntary groups, community networks, business owners, unions, charities

Clinical settings / hospitals / NHS assets, GPs

Education providers

Faith networks

Phase 2 - Ongoing rapid response planning Status

1. Clarify process for informing constituency MP/ Leader / Ward Councillors of any information regarding an outbreak

To do

2. Prepare a reactive statement to issue to press in response to queries about individual cases and settings outside regular press briefing. This will focus on a general overview of work ongoing to prevent transmission of the virus in the area, rather than commenting on individual positive cases

3. Include the public messaging to encourage identification of symptoms, those with symptoms to get tested, and those contacted by NHS Test and Trace to follow the guidance they receive

To do

4. Appoint media spokespeople/ deputies and Outbreak Lead for the communications team Done

5. Continuation of bi-weekly media briefings In planning and delivery

6. Harness the work of Northamptonshire’s Safer Spaces Public Taskforce In planning

7. Ensure MP enquiries centrally about local situations will be shared locally In delivery

8. Offer proactive media opportunities to outlets to focus public understanding of how they can get a test and that NHS Test and Trace is there to support them to identify contacts and advise those at risk of unknowingly passing on the virus.

To do

9. Consider if any boundary areas are impacted and require notification In planning

10. The national and local teams should keep each other regularly updated on the communications situation and media interest

In delivery

11. Learning from Leicester City In terms of media interest, it is important to be aware that international news outlets, as well as the business as usual players, will be looking for a response, In aiding resident confusion, they have found a postcode checker map extremely useful

Ongoing

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Phase 2 - Ongoing rapid response planning Status

13 Preparing Comms Formats

Press releases / briefings, radio content, Q&As, webinars, digital ads

Posters /signage

Leaflets, newsletters, emails, texts, E-bulletins

Targeted mail drops / door drops (linked to postcode data when usable)

Outdoor sites – bridges, road signage, buses, bus shelters, poster sites, shop windows, Domino’s

pizza boxes, washroom media, petrol nozzles – cost pending and aligned to level of risk

To do

12. Mobilisation of key influencers – celebrities etc To do

13. Input towards the delivery, in terms of messaging, of the Community Resilience planning, Care Homes cell, etc – including the offer of template letters to residents’ families from the Public Health team

In planning

14. Work closely with district and borough councils to reach local communities - as this is a key

requisite of SCG strategy. Colleagues will need to be empowered to support

In delivery and planning

15. Community patrol – brief traffic wardens and lollipop men and women to talk to people and collecting intelligence where people aren’t following rules

TBA

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Key messages

Standard messaging will continue but will also depend on the nature of outbreak and response. It will also be determined by where the outbreak has occurred and will be tailored to each of the eight high risk settings. See appendix 4 for scenario protocols and details. See possible messages to be agreed on the day.

Key Message Yes/No

Alert that cases are rising– remind of guidance and restrictions – create

greater urgency and impact

Acceleration of testing / tracing asymptomatic people e.g. students, staff

closure of specific setting(s)

Closure of certain businesses and venues

Cancellation of organised events/ large gatherings

Closure of outdoor public areas

Working from home where possible

Stay at home messages

Audiences

Audiences will vary depending on the nature of the issue: They could be high risk setting specific, all or some of Northamptonshire’s residents, relevant stakeholders, businesses, influencers, community leaders. *With this in mind, a setting specific protocol is detailed in appendix 3. The communications team is currently populating each setting specific protocol with the specifics of emails and phone numbers/prepared statements etc.

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Outbreak Response Communications and Engagement Activity Timeline

Date

July 20-26

July 27 – Aug 02

August 03-9

August 10-16

August 17-23

August 24 and beyond

Outbreak Response

Communications and Engagement

Establish budget and provider for URGENT design, print and digital targeting. Establish staffing resource available for grassroots engagement Establish comms protocol and immediate contact details for all areas of high-risk settings

In the event of a local spike – Activate all actions as detailed in Northamptonshire COVID-19 Outbreak Prevention and

Control Communications and Engagement Plan

Locate Public Health template letters if exist

for seven high risk scenarios. Draft and sign

off if necessary.

Prepare all work as detailed in the plan.

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Evaluation

Lead Contacts

For all three separate plans; proactive communications, robust community action and a comms and engagement response, it is essential to ensure that the audiences are receiving and acting on messages. With this in mind, an accompanying evaluation strategy requires development to include:

Metrics on implementation of communications and messages (e.g. door drops, media plays, etc.)

Recruit members of the community for rapid evaluation to inform the iteration of the communication strategy via virtual focus groups, interviews and or ethnography (e.g. socially distanced door knocking)

Online / telephone population survey targeted to Northamptonshire postcodes

Outbreak Comms Lead Sarah Newall SNewall@northamptonshire.gov.uk

Public Health Media Relations Specialist Kathryn Hall KHall@northamptonshire.gov.uk

Northamptonshire County Council Head of Communications Liam Beasley lbeasley@northamptonshire.gov.uk

Northamptonshire Strategic Coordination Centre Comms Cell nccg.urgentresponsecomms@nhs.net