East Midlands Specialised Commissioning Group (EMSCG) was one of several SCGs set up by the Government to deliver world class health care commissioning. Kindred ran a media training session with the EMSCG to ensure the organisation could effectively communicate through the media about its decisions on the commissioning of rare conditions.

Kindred ran a one-day intensive media training session for the senior management team as part of a wider programme of work establishing a reactive and proactive press office and communications function for the organisation.

The training was carried out to reflect the current media climate, including common criticisms of commissioning decisions and ‘postcode lotteries’ for certain treatments.

A media training session was run for one day for a group of senior staff including the director of the organisation and department heads.

Each person was trained to develop and deliver key messages and act as a spokesperson for their specific areas of expertise, with the director acting as the lead.

The session was designed to build general media and interview skills and also to prepare attendees for media handling around the launch of the organisation’s policy on IVF. Bespoke scenarios were created around the IVF policy involving mock interviews in print, radio and broadcast situations.

We also considered how press handling processes should work with the relevant Primary Care Trust communications teams, to ensure joined up communications across the other regional health bodies.

The organisation has a range of expert spokespeople who are able to articulate the organisation’s decisions through the media and maximise balanced reporting.

Testimonials

“The team are complete professionals. They show a real passion for the job and we learnt so much from the sessions”

Adrian Evans, Commercial Director, Affinity Healthcare

“A great insight. It really helps to be trained by ex-journalists with national experience”

David Teasdale, Managing Director, Masterfoods

“The course was great. It was really interactive and practical. David really helped to improve my confidence in dealing with the media”

Hazel Rees, Commissioner, Youth Citizenship Commission

To contact our Media Training team call James Simpson on 0207 612 8819 or email james.simpson@kindredagency.com