Using our publications experience to support a major city council

I’m so glad we decided to work with Sorted Communications to produce the Arrow. They delivered high quality work and they were always flexible and responsive, especially when it came to meeting tight deadlines. Above all, they were a pleasure to work with. It was great to know that the Arrow was in safe hands.

Ruby Bhattal, Head of Communications (at time of assignment), Nottingham City Council

In early 2022, Nottingham City Council’s communications team approached Sorted Communications for support with the production of their residents’ magazine, the Arrow.

The Arrow is produced three times a year and is designed to provide residents with an easy to digest summary of key information, improvement projects and special events. It is primarily shared digitally, but a limited number of copies are also printed to be placed in specific locations such as GP surgeries. During 2022, we worked on all three editions and were also asked to support with additional projects during their busy summer holiday period.

A landscape photo of Old Market Square in Nottingham, with Nottingham Town Hall in the background.

Liaising with multiple contacts on content, imagery and design

Working alongside a key contact in the council’s communications team, we liaised with people across the council to source draft content and imagery. Once received, our team carefully edited the content to make sure it was concise and easy to understand for a wide range of audiences, including applying plain English and removing jargon, acronyms and unnecessary information.

Using the page plan supplied, we then worked closely with the council’s preferred designer to bring everything together in an engaging and on brand digital magazine. This included sourcing additional images as needed, supplying branding for stand-alone programmes and reviewing and feeding back on draft versions.

Finally, we made sure that all contributors had a chance to give a thumbs up to their designed pages and liaised with the designer to make any last-minute changes.

For more information about Nottingham City Council, go to nottinghamcity.gov.uk.

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Keeping our clients on top of their virtual paperwork

We’ve enjoyed supporting many of our clients with complex comms projects over the years, but we’ve also been happy to step in to take care of the administrative tasks that so often fall by the wayside in busy in-house teams.

We’ve compiled reports, researched and updated media lists, transcribed hour-long webinars, and written up minutes of meetings – all to give our clients more capacity to tackle their strategic work and more urgent projects, knowing that the tactical tasks are in hand.

Compiling a communications report for stakeholders

When a healthcare organisation approached us for help in pulling together a report demonstrating all internal and external communication sent in the previous five quarters, we were happy to help.

This was a large undertaking, as it involved liaising with around 20 people with different roles and responsibilities across the organisation and its partners, to secure the examples needed.

Once we’d gathered all the content, we assessed each piece and categorised it by type of communication, frequency, audience, and intended impact. We collated the information into a table and transposed it into the client’s branded PowerPoint template, sub-dividing the table into five quarters.

As a final step, we created PDFs of the example communications and added them to the presentation as appendices, creating an 80+ page report ready for the client to present to stakeholders at their next meeting.

The resulting report was so well received that we now produce a slimmer version of it every month.

Updating media lists for a national charity

A national sight-loss charity had written a series of press releases about their new community campaign and wanted our help to compile a list of appropriate local media contacts to send them to.

This task involved checking and updating the contacts list the client already had, and turning to the internet to source others that might be suitable. The client already had national media covered, so the resulting list encompassed regional media, local newspapers, magazines, and individual journalists who had previously covered similar stories.

As press releases have an invariably short shelf life, this was a quick-turnaround job; we managed to update and expand the list within a day, ready for the client to get their message out over the following weekend.

Transcribing webinars and meetings

Several of our clients have asked us to help by transcribing webinars and meetings and then working on the transcript to produce a readable, user-friendly document that can be shared with attendees and other stakeholders.

When working on these tasks, we first run the recording of the meeting or webinar through our favourite transcribing tool Otter.ai, and then go through the transcript with a fine-tooth comb to correct errors, tidy up the content and format the document before sharing with the client. We can also use the transcript as a starting point to create blog posts and other content.

For example, when a healthcare client held a series of online workshops about impactibility and population health management, we stepped in to record and transcribe the webinars and turn them into short reports about each session. These reports detailed the main themes covered, including the benefits and challenges of impactibility raised by attendees at the session. This was a specialist subject, but our previous experience working with this client and in healthcare meant we were able to comprehend and contextualise everything being shared and ‘translate’ it into copy that would be accessible to a wider audience.

Facilitating these workshops, which often had between 10 and 20 participants, all with ideas to contribute, was enough of an undertaking for our client without the added administrative burden of making sure they were recorded and reported on. Having us there to take care of that side of things meant our client could focus on planning and facilitating the sessions.

An extra pair of hands

If you’ve got a huge project looming which needs all your hands on deck, leaving no-one to take care of the admin, or a complex administrative project which needs all your hands on deck plus some extra ones, just let us know. If it’s comms-related, even tangentially, we can probably help.

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Using case studies to demonstrate impact across the NHS

Case studies are powerful communication tools that show how an organisation’s products, services or solutions effectively address specific challenges or achieve particular goals.

Our role in supporting NHS clients

At Sorted Communications, we have supported several of our NHS clients in creating impactful case studies. Our involvement spans from interviewing key stakeholders to structuring content, designing visually appealing layouts and obtaining approval.

The case studies we have produced serve as examples of how the NHS has consistently delivered high-quality care across the country. These case studies not only shed light on the challenges faced by the NHS but also spotlight the innovative solutions it has developed to provide cost-effective, patient-centric care that benefits both individuals and communities.

Raising awareness of innovative approaches in healthcare

We were involved in a project aimed at raising awareness about innovative healthcare approaches within a specific area of the NHS. The client tasked us with creating a suite of compelling case studies to support their communications efforts. This project was carried out in two phases, with each case study fitting into one of four categories: health inequalities, commissioning approaches, strategic clinical networks, and patient stories.

The Sorted team conducted interviews with a wide range of stakeholders nationwide, including doctors, clinical leads and project managers to gather comprehensive insights. We crafted the case studies using guidance documents and templates provided by the client and set up an internal quality control process to ensure consistency of style. The result was eighteen in-depth case studies, each highlighting the positive transformations happening in this specific area of healthcare.

Demonstrating charity impact

In early 2023, we worked with a hospital-affiliated charity that wanted to effectively communicate their work through case studies. This charity, apart from fundraising, distributed grants to various hospital departments and wanted to demonstrate the impact of these grants on patients, staff and the public. Using grant applications and other source materials, we drafted three case studies that showed the impact of their work. They portrayed the stories of the individuals involved and the motivations behind each project. Additionally, each case study featured a clear call to action, encouraging readers to donate to the charity.

Engaging case studies across healthcare areas

Currently, we are working with a longstanding client to develop engaging case studies covering several healthcare areas. Our interviews involve various healthcare professionals including GPs, pharmacists, dentists, clinical leaders, community nurses, and a patient who had received support from his GP for cancer care. Many of the case studies have a focus on reducing health inequalities, and they are published online for both staff and public interest.

Highlighting success stories through content creation

We’re also working with another client to create a series of case studies that highlight successes from the perspectives of both patients and healthcare professionals. These case studies have been drafted through online interviews with provided contacts and are designed to be visually engaging, and suitable for both online and print use. We maintain regular communication with the client, actively participating in team meetings for briefings and updates as needed.

Make your success visible

Case studies are invaluable tools for sharing progress and knowledge, provided they are written effectively.

If you need help in creating compelling case studies to demonstrate the impact and value of your work, please feel free to get in touch with us today.

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Creating and refining tender bids

Putting together a tender bid or grant application can be a lengthy exercise. Often, it requires input from numerous different people within an organisation, or across multiple partners, which can lead to repetition, omissions and an inconsistent style. It can also be easy to run away with the story of what you’re selling, offering or proposing and forget to answer the very specific questions you’re being asked.

For that reason, a whole range of clients have turned to us to help collate, write, standardise and quality check their submissions.

Helping an NHS trust craft persuasive research grant applications

We’ve worked with a leading London-based NHS trust on several occasions to support them with grant applications for research projects. These applications are all incredibly complex and often involve a range of different partners across healthcare, academia and industry.

For one particular project we were responsible for converting notes and bullet points from a variety of stakeholders into an engaging, concise and accurate narrative about the project, its goals and the proposed approach. Working with one key point of contact we highlighted gaps in the information provided and suggested areas where the messaging could be strengthened with more precise information.

We managed version control by holding the master file and sharing via email and by using shared file storage systems such as Dropbox.

Thanks so much for your help with our research grant application – you’ve been amazing.

Christina Sothinathan, Innovation Business Partner, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust

Quality checking tender bids for a mental health services provider

When a growing mental health services provider wanted to ensure the highest standards in their tender submissions, they turned to us for support with editing, proofreading and sense checking the content against their clients’ requirements.

In this instance, the submissions were being worked on by several people in their team and the content was largely well-formed. We were asked to review the content in each submission section by section to ensure consistency of style and tone, and to check that it clearly answered the question being asked and didn’t unnecessarily repeat content from elsewhere.

We worked on the documents directly in Microsoft SharePoint, tracking our changes and adding comments where we felt the content could be improved.

Making sure our client’s proposals always hit the mark

A longstanding client of Sorted Communications is a health economics consultancy which regularly seeks our support in reviewing their proposals. Often these are bespoke proposals and so there is rarely an application form or guidance notes to refer to. In these cases, we focus on making sure the content flows and tells the story our client is trying to tell in the most concise and engaging way.

We may also need to move the content into the client’s branded template, add in standard pages, such as ‘About us’, and make sure the proposal follows the client’s designated structure. Finally, we check carefully for consistency in tone and style and complete a full proofread to ensure there are no distracting typos or grammatical errors.

Supporting an academic health science network to secure funding

We have also supported an academic health science network with applications for funding for several research projects. Our focus is on making the content they provide for the proposal’s key evidence sections clearer and more organised. This content comes from different team members, so our job is to edit it into a cohesive and engaging narrative.

We also proofread the submissions in full, carefully editing it where needed. On one occasion, we needed to shorten the document from its original 11 pages to a concise 6-page version as requested by the funder, whilst making sure all the important information remained. Throughout this process, we kept the writing style and tone consistent. We also reviewed each section to make sure it directly answered the specific questions asked and avoided any unnecessary repetition of content.

Telling clear and compelling stories

As a result of our expertise, our clients can submit their proposals, bids and applications with the confidence that their story has been told compellingly and clearly – with no risk of the recipient being put off by poor grammar and spelling errors.

We regularly receive fantastic feedback and gratitude from our clients for enabling them to focus on developing their plans rather than spending hours worrying about how to get them down onto paper. What’s more, many of them return to us time and time again when they have a new submission on the horizon.

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Supporting a non-profit organisation’s rebrand

When the brand communications team at a leading non-profit organisation asked for our support in reviewing its marketing collateral, we were happy to help.

With our team’s extensive experience of proofreading and copy editing, we were the perfect extra pair of hands to work alongside the in-house team.

Bringing a new house style to life

The company was refreshing its brand to widen its audience and ensure it was fit for the future.

Initially, we were asked to review all the organisation’s collateral, including brochures, frameworks, application forms and factsheets, checking for consistency in tone of voice and adherence to a new house style.

The Sorted team reviewed over 150 documents divided into 23 batches, with each batch having an average deadline of five days. The documents ranged in length from one-page flyers to 85-page qualification syllabuses and we liaised with the in-house team on a daily basis to keep them up to date with our progress throughout.

We were also asked to review and edit some of the company’s website content for style and tone of voice and to adjust the content to work within new page design templates.

Relieving the pressure

We were able to ensure a consistent style and tone of voice throughout all the organisation’s documentation and website and we removed some of the pressure that can build ahead of launching a refreshed brand. With our support lightening their workload, the in-house brand communications team were able to focus on the bigger picture and make sure all the other details were just right ahead of the launch.

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Highlighting and emphasising the critical work of Nottingham Hospitals Charity

It’s been SO helpful that Sorted Communications have been so responsive and able to take things on at short notice. So often you contact external agencies for support, and they say they need several weeks’ notice, which often just isn’t the nature of comms, no matter how hard we try to plan in advance!

Sam Gathercole, Communications and Media Manager, Nottingham Hospitals Charity

The communications team at Nottingham Hospitals Charity asked us to apply our expertise to three different comms projects to highlight and emphasise the impact of the charity’s work.

With our team’s extensive combined experience of delivering NHS and healthcare communications, both in-house and externally, we were confident we could help them out.

Showcasing the charity’s impact

Initially we were asked to write an updated research report, showcasing the impact of the many vital research projects funded by the charity. This involved summarising over 60 grant applications and reports and liaising directly with different people, including the charity’s CEO and grants manager, as well as colleagues in the hospital’s Research and Innovation team, to gather more information. We offered critical advice and support on choosing the best approach to sharing and structuring such a vast amount of important information.

We also supported the charity with the development of some new-look case studies, known as ‘impact articles’, to promote their work and encourage donations and fundraising. They were developing a designated area on their website and asked us to write two articles of differing lengths to see how they would come together. We based the articles on the original grant applications and focused on explaining the projects in plain English and emphasising their impact on patient care.

Finally, the team also asked us to lend our expert eye to proofreading their 37-page annual report for 2021/22.

For more information about Nottingham Hospitals Charity, go to nottinghamhospitalscharity.org.uk.

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Helping Imperial College Health Partners promote the Discover-NOW research hub

When the team at Imperial College Health Partners (ICHP) asked for our support to promote the work of its Discover-NOW health data research hub – using real-world data for research into treating and preventing disease – we were only too pleased to get on board.

Although the organisation has an established in-house communications team, we had previously worked closely with them to provide additional communications support as needed over a three-year period.

Sorted Communications did a fantastic job getting to grips with the complex projects being covered by these case studies. They were able to draw out the key messages we wanted to portray in a natural and straightforward way and really bring the projects and their outcomes to life. It’s great to know that they are always on hand to provide flexible communications support when we need it.

Rebekah Tailor, Associate Director of Communications and Engagement, ICHP

Demonstrating the power of the team’s work

Working with both the in-house communications team and key members of the Discover-NOW team, we delivered a series of informative and impactful case studies to demonstrate the power of the team’s work. These focused on several different aspects of their work and shared the way they collaborate with NHS and industry partners to draw on different kinds of expertise to get the best results.

Interviewing various people from within ICHP, as well as the (former) North West London Clinical Commissioning Group and partners from the pharmaceutical and technology industries, we were able to understand the goals and outcomes of each project. We then used this information to write a compelling story to bring each project to life and demonstrate the important role of the real-world data and ecosystem that ICHP and Discover-NOW can offer.

A flexible extra pair of hands

We were able to help the Discover-NOW team promote their work clearly and concisely, ensuring a consistent style and tone of voice throughout the series of case studies. Having us available as a flexible extra pair of hands enabled the communications team at ICHP to focus on other projects, knowing we had everything under control.

For more information about ICHP, go to imperialcollegehealthpartners.com.

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Keeping clients’ social media on point

Social media is a crucial tool in any company or organisation’s arsenal. It’s proven to be one of the most effective ways to get messages out there quickly and to the people who need to see them.

We’ve helped several of our clients with social media – from crafting a couple of tweets to promote their latest blog, right through to creating entire content plans.

Crafting content for a charity

Towards the end of 2022, we worked with a London-based charity, essentially taking charge of their entire social media output. The charity held regular events on a weekly or monthly basis, in a variety of locations around London and also virtually, and we created social posts for all of them across all four of their social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

We promoted support groups, encouraged sign-ups for the free monthly newsletter, and signposted to resources and blogs on their website. For ease of delivery, we were given login details for each account, which enabled us to schedule posts via our own scheduling platform.

Alongside crafting copy for each social media post (over thirty posts per week) we also sourced appropriate images to accompany them. As the charity worked with blind and partially-sighted people, we needed to write image descriptions to ensure accessibility for their audience.

Having us there to take care of the social media aspect, from crafting the copy, to creating an appropriate schedule, to gathering analytics data, meant that the charity could focus more time and attention on delivering services to the people who needed them.

Campaigning for local residents to get outdoors

We’d been working with a local city council on their quarterly newsletter when they approached us for help with their summer campaign to encourage residents to get outdoors. We helped create an extensive social media plan, promoting various activities around the city that residents could get involved with. This included accessible walking trails; cycling routes; clubs and events; and ‘treasure hunts’ for families to do around the city over the summer holidays. The city council had a presence on three platforms: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, so we needed slightly adapted copy for each platform to ensure maximum effect.

When the autumn term began, content evolved into a ‘back to school’ theme, which meant creating a series of differentiated ‘challenges’ for children to complete on their walk to school, as well as relevant copy to promote them on social media.

We liaised with the council’s transport and education teams to ensure everything was being covered and also promoted various events on an ad hoc basis, often within very tight deadlines.

All content was created in a spreadsheet, which was shared with and reviewed by the client on a weekly basis. We also sourced and provided appropriate images to go alongside the posts (including creating graphics for Instagram).

Local councils have an extensive range of responsibilities towards their residents, and by stepping in to take care of this particular campaign, we were able to help lighten the load.

Promoting reports, projects, campaigns and events

As part of an ongoing campaign to recognise and celebrate the diversity of its workforce, one client asked us to research all relevant awareness days and religious festivals and create a series of informative posts about them on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. They also asked for guidance on graphics to use with them.

To make this happen, we carried out extensive research into which religious festivals and awareness days the organisation should recognise during the year. On a monthly basis, we sent suggested posts and imagery for all festivals and awareness days happening in the coming month, which the client could then use across their social media platforms.

We often help with smaller-scale social media tasks too, when clients just need a couple of posts doing for their latest report or blog. With some of our clients we have a standing agreement that whenever we write a blog post, we also write a few social posts to go with it. It’s an effective use of everyone’s time for our writers to do this while they’re drafting the blog post itself.

Over the years, we’ve adapted our social media support to fit our clients’ needs – sometimes supporting at a campaign level; other times just writing one or two posts when they’re needed.

Whether we’re logging in to your accounts to manage the output directly, or simply crafting a few posts for you to use when they’re ready, our flexible set-up means we can step in quickly to help keep your social media profiles active and attractive.

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Promoting the work of the Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts to grow membership

Since 2020, Sorted Communications has been providing flexible and responsive communications support to the Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts (AphA).

Working with the team at Sorted has been invaluable to us as we develop and improve our promotion and communication methods. They are experts in getting to the heart of what we’re trying to communicate and bringing in the unique voices of our members and our volunteers. Aside from the quality of their work, they are all fantastic people to work with: friendly, flexible and incredibly supportive of our aims.

Rony Arafin, Chief Executive, AphA

AphA aims to raise the profile of healthcare analysts and provide a professional support network, including professional registration. With 12 branches in the UK, AphA has more than 800 members who work at various levels in health and social care organisations.

As they look to grow the membership, AphA’s team of voluntary directors recognised a need to promote the organisation’s fantastic work, and that of its members, more proactively and to a wider audience.

The team at Sorted Communications has helped with a range of different tasks, from carrying out interviews and writing articles for AphA’s members’ magazine and blogs for their website, to proofreading and editing documents and offering advice on how to promote the benefits of AphA membership.

For more information about AphA, go to aphanalysts.org.

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Easing the communications load for Traverse over a busy summer period

We were delighted when Traverse, an independent social-purpose consultancy, approached us to ask for support with various communications projects for their health and care team over a busy summer period.

Sorted Communications really were a bit of a lifeline to me over the summer. They did a fantastic job in getting to the heart of the topics we wanted to talk about and pulled everything together so succinctly. It was such a relief to work with people who could so quickly get to grips with what I needed to achieve!

Kate Brudenell, Communications and Marketing Manager, Traverse

Traverse is a social-purpose consultancy supporting better decision-making through the power of inclusion. They provide evidence, insight, and strategic advice through research, evaluation, engagement, and consultation services. They work with different sectors from health and social care to corporates including a range of organisations such as the Department of Transport, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Centre for Ageing Better, Health Education England and CITB (Construction Industry Training Board).

Getting to the heart of the topic at hand

Working with the communications team and key members of the health and care team, we conducted interviews, wrote and edited several blogs and articles to feature in their monthly newsletters, managed the copywriting and design of a marketing brochure and even edited some award entries.

The blogs focused on several different aspects of their work, including their engagement with young autistic people and how they create safe spaces for health and care conversations with different communities to ensure health and care systems and services are shaped by and include the people who use them. With guidance from the communications team about the key messages they wanted to draw out, we were able to get to the heart of the topic at hand and make it accessible and easy to understand for a wider audience.

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