Using communication to tackle inequalities
 

How has your background shaped your work?
It depends how deep you want to go! I come from a single-parent family and was a scholarship girl at a posh boarding school. So I had a lot of experience of ‘the establishment’ and the power structures that dictated what was a ‘proper’ way to do things, including communication.

I rebelled against that, and I’d always loved writing, so it seemed natural to apply it to social justice. After school, I studied social anthropology, which helped me think through what language and content resonates with different people – the fundamental meanings that sit underneath different concepts.

I went freelance very early in my career. That included a decade at The King’s Fund during the noughties, which grounded me in health. Working on policy papers, I became very interested in making content relevant to wide audiences, including people with lived experience but also staff. (I later helped write the NHS People Plan – a strategy aimed at everyone, from porters to directors.)

Other experiences broadened my repertoire too. I learned qualitative research skills at uni, I was a Samaritan, and I’m a qualified coach. So I’ve had lots of training and experience in active listening with people from all walks of life. I’ve also got a kid with very complex, lifelong needs, so I engage with the health and social care system from a user perspective too.

All those experiences mean I’m not scared to go to dark places or tackle difficult topics, which offers another dimension to my work.

What’s the most important principle for you when developing health content?
Empathy. When you’re communicating about health and social change, what you do can tackle inequalities or can reinforce them. Helping your audience engage with your content means understanding and caring about where they are at.

For example, with patient information, I’m a big believer in providing warmth. When you’re in a health crisis, really good health content can make you feel heard, and not alone. Those are really profound things – and they reduce demand for services.

Unfortunately, communications is often seen as a ‘nice to have’, but when you actually look at what it is, it’s about relationships. If you’re serious about tackling health inequalities, that’s pretty important.

What’s the biggest misconception you see in your work?
That you have to know everything about a topic before you can start writing. Research can be a displacement activity – and the more information you have, the more work it is to pull everything together. And then you have the painful work of cutting it all away again afterwards. It’s a vicious cycle.

When I help people develop content, we start from the final product – the design, how many words (or seconds of footage) are needed – and work backwards. That way, you’re cherry-picking the elements you need rather than amassing volumes of research.

Also, it’s important to have sounding board. You need the detail, but also the big picture, and it’s hard to be in both those places at once. Plus, my coaching has confirmed that almost everybody feels like an imposter at some point. That’s where the shame comes in. So it’s good to have some reassurance.

What trends are you noticing in the sector?
The tide has really turned on user voice. About 15 years ago, as a judge for BMA Patient Information awards, you’d see submissions that had no user input at all. Today, it’s a basic requirement. And the Patient Information Forum’s PIF Tick standard (formerly the Information Standard) has specific requirements on engagement, which has had a big influence.

Linked to that is the wider awareness of health literacy and accessibility more broadly. More and more content uses normal language that reflects the way we speak. And if you don’t like reading, you can use video. It’s a breath of fresh air.

So, in some ways, content is being democratised in the way I always wanted to see. But as healthcare becomes increasingly community focused, there’s a growing need to understand the nuance of how to really connect with different groups.

What’s on the horizon for you?
I’m really loving finding new ways to help people and organisations communicate to tackle inequalities. I’m a bit unusual in that I do research, writing, filming and coaching. People say, ‘Are you a production company?’ and I say, ‘No, but we can make a film if that’s the best approach for this project.’

For me, it’s like the difference between using a pen or a pencil. The techniques I use to get there are just tools I can draw on to get to the end result.

For example, at the moment I’m developing a suite of YouTube shorts sharing NIHR research findings, helping an NHS innovation programme shape its first impact report, and coaching a policy lead at NHS England who is writing a high-profile report while navigating anxiety and job insecurity.

The techniques I’m using are different, but the principles are the same. Everything I do is about working in partnership to untangle complex ideas, refine clear objectives and develop a coherent narrative, with the structure and support to execute a plan.

Done well, all of these are transformational. I know I’m on the right path because my work makes me feel alive!

1. Start small. Overwhelm comes from doing too many things at once. For example, if you worry about posting on social media, choose one platform and focus on doing that really well.

2. Find a sounding board. Whatever you’re working on, don’t just be in your own head. Find someone you can trust to be a cheerleader as well as a critical friend.

3. Find what you love. There are a million ways you could approach any creative task, so take the time to work out what you enjoy and perhaps be a little bit playful.