GP Consortia - Media Skills Training

Why do you need Media Training?

The media spotlight will undoubtedly swing in your direction at some point and BMS is in a unique position to ensure you are ready for that:

our well established, close relationship with many elements of the health service - including PCTs, major hospital Trusts, ambulance services and full scale resilience training with NHS emergency planning teams - all combine to make BMS ideally placed to prepare you for effective media engagement.

Whether your GP Consortia wants to ensure successful coverage from a good news story, whether there's an obvious crisis looming such as a poor set of results, or whether you want to make sure that should the worst happen, you are already geared up and ready to face the media head-on - a bespoke training course from BMS will give you and your team all the necessary tools.

BMS - Company profile

BMS has 15 years' experience working across many industry sectors, local authorities and health care providers. We work with a wide range of different NHS organisations: acute trusts, mental health trusts, PCTs, SHAs and ambulance trusts.

Our expertise in crisis communications has helped many of our clients prepare for taxing times and assisted major firms in turning reputational crises into a positive communications opportunity.

Our team of professional trainers draw on many years of experience in all sectors of professional communications - including national radio and television broadcasting, international training and senior management level corporate comms.

BMS - 15 years of Communications Skills

BMS also has many other public and private sector clients such as Boots, Severn Trent Water, OFQUAL, Christian Aid, Lake District National Park, the OECD, Network Rail, EON, National Grid, Premier Inn and many others.

Our team of experienced national journalists and trainers - has developed a unique approach in helping organisations reach out to the public by using broadcasters and the press: Media Skills Training tests resilience and how key people handle the pressure.

Our courses can be delivered at your HQ or at our custom built Media Centre in Nottingham.

How BMS will work with GP Consortia

It is vital that your GP leaders know how to develop a robust media strategy to protect the reputation of fledgling GP Consortia that carry a weight of responsibility both social and political - and that you know how to use easily understood language for even the most complex of scenarios, and the importance of giving a good performance to ensure style does not derail content.

BMS emphasise that the media is simply the middle-man between the spokesperson and the

wider public. Grasping the needs and technical limitations of the media will enable your GP leaders to communicate effectively beyond the face-to-face media transaction to the wider public.

Then, when a media firestorm happens for real, GPs in your Consortia will have the confidence to say the right things at the right time to reflect the reality that they are demonstrating leadership and authority in this broad new health landscape.

GP Consortia: confidence and control

In the proposal that follows, BMS will use its wide experience across the NHS and health sector to offer participants from your Consortia an intensive and practical broadcast media training course which would enable them to get their message across with confidence, comfort and control.

Our highly experienced professional journalist trainers will apply the techniques and insights of modern communications theory to show participants how to communicate clearly to others.

Participants will focus on identifying priorities and how to manage their time to maximum effect. The media, essentially, is an opportunity to inform the public and give them the facts and data about GP Consortia and your position within the NHS to understand and work with the world around them.

The Media Training course for GP Consortia

The agenda designed for GP Consortia centres around 4 practical exercises for each participant – 1 for print/online, 1 for radio and 2 for TV - together with a great deal of analysis, feedback and individual coaching.

The practical sessions offer participants the opportunity to be interviewed by professional journalists to test their ability to determine a core strategy and then present it with focus and authority. We take time to present a fundamental theoretical framework based on strategy, simplicity and authoritative presentation.

The confidence they would feel from delivering a robust performance to a journalist would then help them sharpen their communication skills in other areas of their work.

Aims of the training

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• feel more in control of a media or other professional 'transaction' through intense re-working of basic preparation and delivery techniques

• quickly devise a robust strategic 'position' that can be delivered in short and long form interview scenarios

• ensure they perform in a more confident and comfortable way in front of reporters, microphones and cameras in any situation - as well as delivering leadership and authority to a 'live' audience

• be armed to deal with any type of media encounter

• recognise how their voice and body language can help or hinder a media performance.

During the course, our feedback is honest and essentially constructive - encouraging participants to develop their personal communication skills and underline the organisation's position.

Typical programme agenda

0930 Welcome and Introductions
An introduction to the session, course trainers and crew: we discuss your previous media and communications experiences.

0945 The Challenge for you
We look at the key objectives of the role of GP Consortia: dealing with the media and the desire to maximise any media opportunity in order to influence and persuade those patients to whom you are responsible.

0945 The Media Interview
Is it you or the reporter that makes you feel anxious when the media call?! The unique BMS preparation process will help you identify basic communications skills in order to establish a method for dealing with journalists. Participants are guided through the techniques necessary to make an impression and for dealing with provocative, challenging and, sometimes, irresponsible questioning.

1030 Practical One - Radio: Live interview
First things first: let's get the content right then concentrate on the style. So, can you focus on making sure your themes are clear and to the point? Is the language straightforward and unequivocal ? This 3 minute interview - of a BBC Local Radio breakfast show 'strength' - will also help in providing a benchmark for your performance. Followed by playback and analysis.

1130 Targeting the audience
There are a number of universal characteristics exhibited by all consumers of media which start with 'what's in it for me?' or 'why am I listening to this person?!' Removing gender, class and race, we look at how you can be sure your messages and themes for media interviews are directed towards the audience to ensure maximum impact.

1145 Practical Two: Edited interviews
When you appear in print, online, on radio or TV, your contribution may be clipped - or edited - from a longer exchange and only a quote, fragment or 'sound-bite' broadcast. For this exercise, each person is interviewed one-to-one followed by playback and coaching.

1300 LUNCH

1345 The 'Language' of Television
Television introduces the potential challenge of matching style with content: body language is a vital element of delivering a confident and authoritative TV performance. We look at how to remain confident and in control: we also ensure that the way we say it doesn't derail what we say?!

1400 Practical Three - TV: Recorded 'sound-bite'
Recorded TV interviews can be a difficult transaction to control - we only want a maximum of 15 seconds for broadcast culled from a 2 or 3 minute exchange. Can you ensure your performance is consistent and your main themes and ideas are recycled and reworked? Followed by playback and analysis

1515 Practical Four - TV: Live 'down the line'
For the final interview, you will be interviewed 'down the line' from a remote outside broadcast location where you can't see the person who is interviewing you. This is the briefest and perhaps most hazardous transaction of the day but certainly one which offers a huge opportunity if you can overcome your anxiety! Followed by playback and analysis.

1615 Open House
This is an opportunity to take stock and look at any learning points from the day.

1630 CLOSE

Interview scenarios

BMS would always work with you to develop bespoke scenario material to test participants skills and techniques during the training day itself - however here we offer initial thoughts on the areas of pressure you may face...

Example 1

47 year old Tammy Marriott received treatment for bowel cancer 8 years ago and was given the all clear. Sadly, the cancer has now returned. However, Tammy has been told by her GP that the treatment she received before is no longer available. It’s down to the funding policies of the new GP consortia. She is devastated and turns to the media to highlight what she calls the ‘postcode lottery which is playing games with people’s lives”. Journalists are asking if this illustrates a fundamental flaw with the new structure: If GP decisions are driven by financial rather than health considerations, surely the people who will ultimately suffer are the patients.

Example 2

Shadow Health Secretary John Healey has slammed the new structure of the NHS, claiming the Government is putting patient lives at risk. He has told the media that it is "grossly unfair" on GPs, to expect them to have the management skills to cope with their new role and "all the added responsibilities are diluting the level of care they are able to provide". He has commissioned a report which has concluded that yes, money has been saved, but the PCTs did a better job of managing the bureaucracy, concluding that "ultimately, GPs are just that – GPs: Not healthcare managers".

Example 3

27 year-old Ed Benson visits his GP with severe stomach pains. After a brief examination, the Doctor reassures him that it is nothing serious, but that he should come back the next morning if things have not improved. That night, Mr Benson's condition deteriorates and he is rushed to A&E where it is discovered his appendix has ruptured. The day after successful surgery, he contacts the local media: "I want to warn people not to trust their GP – I could have died".

Example 4

BBC Radio 2's "Jeremy Vine Show" is planning to dedicate an entire programme to a broad discussion on the state of the health service. They have lined up disgruntled patients and the producers are looking for a representative from a GP Consortia who can defend his or her corner. Are things better post-PCT? The disgruntled patients certainly don't think so!

Example 5

A grieving mum, Janet Markless, whose 19-year-old son Jake died following a brain haemorrhage, has gone to the press saying GPs are paid vast wages but nobody helped her boy. Jake went to the doctor with a "blinding headache" but was told it was probably a migraine and he should go home and sleep. He was found dead in bed the next morning. Janet's husband Dave has added to the discussion, saying GPs work too many hours and, no matter what they get paid, the level of care they can give is restricted by the "production line" approach they have to take due to their workload.

Example 6

A GP Consortia in north Nottinghamshire has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons: Patients claim the new structure is failing, with staff not confident or competent in their new roles. One elderly woman claims she became ill when a prescription got mixed up, and another patient says clinical safety is slack and he wants to transfer to another GP but doesn’t know how to. The patients have set up a campaign group, and the media is covering the story.

BMS Trainer Profiles

ANDY HITCHCOCK is Director of Communications & Training at BMS. He has more than 10 years media and crisis communications experience backed by 25 years in broadcasting. He is a former news bureau chief for BBC News in Birmingham. Andy worked on the main news on BBC One, BBC News online, the Today programme and BBC Breakfast as well as being a News Editor at ITN, a programme editor for BBC Radio 5 Live in London and ITV Central. He presented daily radio programmes for BBC and Independent Local Radio for ten years. He has also been a reporter and producer at the BBC's Political Unit at Westminster and worked for BBC Training both in the UK and overseas. Andy has an MA in Mass Communications.

DAN BAKER brings a unique set of skills to his role as Head of Media at BMS having worked on both sides of the information 'frontline' as a media spokesperson for a major utility and as a TV journalist. He spent more than a decade as a TV reporter and presenter with ITV News. As Head of Media at Anglian Water, where he worked for almost five years, he won a Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) excellence award for crisis communications, as well as a prestigious Communicator in Business award. Dan's experienced handling of major media issues coupled with his extensive reporting background gives him an unparalleled insight into the challenges faced by media spokespeople today. He has a BA in Communication Arts & English.

JOANNE HAYWARD has been a Senior Producer for BBC One, working towards the main 1 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 10 o'clock news along with BBC News online, Radio 5 Live, the Today programme and BBC Breakfast. She also spent many years as a BBC TV and Local Radio reporter and presenter for both regional TV and the 24 hour BBC News channel. With experience of BBC Training both in the UK and overseas, Jo worked for the World Service in Romania and Bosnia - and as a trainer for new technology at BBC London and BBC Tunbridge Wells.

Testimonials

The following testimonials have been gathered from some of our current clients.