Humber and North Yorkshire ICS
Partnership Communications Review
We reviewed communications across health and care partners, creating a practical roadmap for stronger collaboration, clearer leadership and better use of shared resources.
The Challenge:
As Humber, Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership prepared to become a formal Integrated Care System, it needed to understand how communications teams across its partner organisations could work more effectively together.
Strong relationships and successful joint campaigns already existed, particularly through the pandemic. However, competing organisational priorities, uncertainty about the emerging system and inconsistent direction made collaboration difficult to sustain. Teams needed a shared approach that connected regional ambitions with the distinct needs of local communities.
The Approach:
We undertook an independent communications review, holding nine in-depth interviews with communications leads from acute trusts, clinical commissioning groups, emergency services and local authorities.
Our discussions explored what already worked, what better collaboration could look like and the practical changes needed to achieve it. This constructive approach gave colleagues space to discuss challenges openly while recognising the relationships, expertise and commitment already present across the partnership.
We identified four priorities: clarity, leadership, involvement and flexibility. These informed a phased set of recommendations, including stronger communications representation at board level, a co-designed regional strategy and more structured professional networks.
We also proposed a practical pilot in which colleagues from different organisations would contribute skills and capacity to a shared campaign, supported by a named lead, agreed priorities and clear responsibilities. Local teams would retain the freedom to adapt shared messages for their communities.
The Outcomes:
The partnership gained an evidence-led assessment of its communications strengths and barriers, alongside a practical roadmap covering immediate actions, the following six months and longer-term development.
The review brought colleagues’ experiences together into an agreed narrative, giving leaders and communications teams a shared basis for decisions about priorities, resources and accountability. It established clear recommendations for turning the appetite for collaboration into a more consistent way of working, including a shared annual delivery plan and opportunities to pool expertise and reduce duplication.
“We engaged Ben from Grey Fox to work alongside us with a network of senior communications leads in our health system customer to look at a way forward for a professional community of practice.
Ben's measured and diplomatic engagement using an appreciative inquiry approach was positively received at a time when people were under great pressure, and his outcome report has provided clear insights and direction.
We welcomed Ben's balance of communications experience and organisational development expertise, and his sound counsel throughout the project, without which we wouldn't have achieved the same outcome.”
Mary Bewley
Director of CommunicationsNHS North East & North Cumbria ICB