Samantha Reeve Policy Officer Voice4Change England Policy and Parliamentary Lobbying Training July 2013

Planning your campaign (1) Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector 1.Issue 2.Aim 3.Plan 4.Resources 5.Evidence 6.Audience 7.Opposition 8.Stakeholders 9.Message 10.Evaluate

Planning your campaign (2) Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector 1. Select your issue carefully What issues are important to your members or stakeholders? Is there an opportunity to achieve change - what is happening in the external environment that makes this a good (or a bad) time to campaign? Can you present a solution rather than a problem? Try to identify specific things that you want changed or implemented, rather than simply saying you don’t like the way things are at the moment. 2. Establish campaign aims What do you ultimately want to happen as a result of your work? Be specific - think about a few very specific changes that you would like to see, and develop some key messages that can be delivered simply and effectively. Try to focus on solutions.

Planning your campaign (4) Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector 3. Develop a plan of activities with timescales What are you actually going to do? There are a whole host of campaign techniques select the ones that are right for you given your capacity, your issue, your audience and your aims. How do you plan to use the media, if at all? Could you develop an e-campaign? How could you use the internet? Are you producing publicity / reports and if so what are you going to do with them? 4. Resources What resources do you have e.g. staff capacity / volunteers and supporters? What resources do you need e.g. campaign materials, publications? Do you have a dedicated budget for this work? Select your campaigns and their aims carefully, small organisations cannot lobby on every interest. What is most important to you?

Planning your campaign (5) Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector 5. Develop a strong evidence base Legitimacy is essential - does your evidence come from technical expertise and/or representative experience? Are there other sources of information / statistics you can draw on? Try to locate case studies and real-life examples - these can be extremely powerful and can be more likely to be picked up by the media than dry narrative. These could come from your service users and/or members. 6. Establish your target audiences Make sure you are approaching the people who have the power to change things Think about routes to influence these audiences - this is where you can begin to think about whether lobbying techniques might be appropriate.

Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector 7. Consider potential opposition to your campaign and any obstacles Consider the opposing arguments. Why might someone disagree with you or not support you? How could you respond to this? Be aware of the external environment and how political changes may affect your campaign. Planning your campaign (6) 8. Consider potential allies / stakeholders Alliances can be very effective especially if they are cross sector and/or unexpected. If you do not have the capacity to lobby on your own, can you support another organisations campaign Which other groups are affected by your issue?

Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector 9. Consider how you will deliver your campaign messages How do you plan to use the media, if at all? Could you develop an e-campaign? How could you use the internet? 10. Monitor progress and evaluate What would success look like? Take time to reflect and evaluate and adapt the campaign if necessary. Try to monitor where your campaigning has had an effect e.g. if you send a briefing to parliamentarians check to see if they quoted it or used it. Record this information. Celebrate all successes but remember that change can take a very long time. Planning your campaign (7)

1. Issue = Rare Disease Plan. Biggest issue for rare disease patients, key moment to changing services for them. Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector Planning your campaign (example) 2. Aim = To have a rare disease plan that best fits the needs of the patients and addresses problems of late diagnosis and poor access to services 3. Plan = To respond to the consultation and encourage stakeholders to respond to the consultation in informed way. To do this we held a series of events around the country & accompanied by series webinars and online materials to make sure everyone responded!

Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector Planning your campaign (example) 4. Resources = Core staff of paid intern. By giving smaller organisations and individuals the tools to respond for themselves we could multiply the impact! 5. Evidence = Our previous surveys of patients, we gathered information and case studies from the events and online, as well as drawing on more technical medical sources for secondary evidence. 6. Audience = Department of Health (ministers and civil servants) and secondary audience of stakeholders.

Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector Planning your campaign (example) 7. Opposition = Rare diseases are rare and therefore resources should not be spent on them Combined rare diseases are not rare. Improved services, care and diagnosis can save money in the long run as conditions can be treated earlier. 8. Allies & Stakeholders = patients, families, clinicians, geneticists, industry, patient support groups, other charities such as Cancer Research UK and researchers.

Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector Planning your campaign (example) 9. Delivery = For stakeholders– stay away from medical jargon, focus on explaining the issues For our consultation response - Clear, concise, covering all the issues, using emotive case studies backed up with evidence, format predetermined 10. Evaluation = Short term success? How many people responded to consultation Medium term success? Does the rare disease plan include the things we wanted? Long term success? Is the plan working? Do patients have a better quality of life? Are all stakeholders happy?

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Using the 10 steps, produce a short lobbying plan Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector. Planning your campaign (activity)

Targeting MPs Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector. Lobbying Parliamentarians (1) You cannot lobby every MP, so make sure you target those that are interested in your topic and/or are likely to act. You can find profiles of all MPs: Operation Black Vote have a list and profiles of BME politicians: Gov.UK also provide profiles of parliamentarians: Companies like Dods and DeHavilland provide detailed background on Politicians and briefings on key issues, however they are expensive:

Targeting MPs & Peers Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector. Lobbying Parliamentarians (2) Think about who you are trying to influence. Who is the relevant minister? Who is the shadow minister? Are there politicians that have shown an interest in this issue before? It’s a good idea to engage with Parliamentarians even if you are not campaigning on a particular issue. It is worthwhile building a relationship with your local MP. You could invite them to events you are hosting or invite them to visit your organisation and see what you do.

Keep a record Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector. Lobbying Parliamentarians (3) Remember to keep a record of the contact you have with Parliamentarians. Create a simple database that lists every MP or Peer you have had contact with and what that was. This will help you identify parliamentarians who are most likely to support your work in the future. NAMECONSTITUENCYPARTYJANFEBMARCHAPRILJUNEJULYAUGUST Roger Rusell MP Browington SouthLabour We wrote a letter asking him to support the bill banning terriers. MP responding giving his reasons for voting against the bill MP visited our organisation and met service users.

Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector Lobbying Parliamentarians (4) When I get an invite to visit the local branch of an organisation, I will always go. When I get a personalised letter, hand-signed from a chief executive (as opposed to public affairs officer) that contains local statistics and information, how can I not fail to be interested? When a local constituent calls me asking for a meeting, to talk about his or her involvement in her charity, I will always do it. Make it personal, Make it local

Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector Lobbying Parliamentarians (5) Writing to your MP Address your MP with the appropriate title and honorific. For example, if your local MP is a member Privy Council of the United Kingdom, you should append the honorific 'Rt Hon‘. Keep it to one side! Include your address! Tell them why you are inviting them! Tell them why they should come!

Briefing Parliamentarians Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector Lobbying Parliamentarians (6) You may want to send a briefing to Parliamentarians prior to an important debate or vote on the issue you are interested in Keep these simple and ideally 1 or 2 sides Clearly outline the issue and what your concerns are Tell Parliamentarians what they can do to help Remind them how to get in touch with you for more information

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All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector Consultations, APPGs & Petitions (1) APPGs are informal, cross-party interest groups that have no official status within Parliament and are not accorded any powers or funding by it. They should not be confused with select committees, which are formal institutions of the House. APPG’s can provide a great opportunity to link with other groups lobbying on similar issues. They will also allow you to engage with Parliamentarians who are interested in your issue and hopefully relevant Government ministers. Civil Society and Volunteering Social Enterprise Refugees Race and Community Interfaith Faith and Society Equalities Even if you think you won’t be able to attend the meetings, sign up to an APPG mailing list to stay in the loop about the policy issue and what they are up to

Advocates for the BME voluntary and community sector Consultations & APPGs (2) All highlight 1 APPG from the list that you are going to get in touch with