1. Claire Forbes Director of Communications PHSO
Developing digital
Claire Forbes
Director of Communications
PHSO

2. Background PHSO website relaunched May 2010 Comparatively low usage
Struggle to develop fresh, new content
Content accuracy
Overly wordy with little or no interactivity
Low staff engagement

3. A new approach
There is the potential for more people to see our reports online than in print. As a result, our reports must be written and designed for online first and foremost.
First tried this approach with ‘Listening and Learning’, October 2010.
Developed further with ‘Care and Compassion?’ (February 2011) – written, structured and designed for digital.

4. Care and Compassion?
The report tells ten stories of the experiences of older people in the care of the NHS
Focus on imagery
Accessibility hugely important –older people had to be able to access and understand the report
Use of supporting media – You Tube films
Format easy to navigate, user friendly, accessible
Techniques such as ‘contrasting statements’ that work well in digital

10. Films made available to the media (visual and audio)
Tiny URL developed for tweets
Organisations with large Twitter following (such as Parliament and Age UK) approached in advance to ask them to tweet the report, but not to breach the embargo
Agreement with stakeholders in advance about news links on their website.

11. Impact

13. Impact 973 hard copies distributed
On the launch day, 10,889 visits were made to our website (in comparison with 861 visits on the same day the previous week). In total, 48,240 visits were made to our website in February 2011, compared with 9,329 visits in January.
BBC our top referring website for February
High level of interest continued with double the number of daily visits to the website than before Care and Compassion? was published.

14. Increased visits to unconnected areas of the website:
Usage of ‘Make A Complaint’ section increased by 32%
Usage of ‘Contact Us’ increased by over 50%
Usage of ‘Annual Reports’ increased by nearly 100%
Films viewed over 1,500 times and used by Channel 4 News, ITN, Sky News and the BBC.
The report was ‘tweeted’ by bodies including UK Parliament (34,000 followers) and Age UK (1,000+ followers)
111 requests for alternative format versions of the report via the website

15. The verdict?
“The NHS ombudsman, Ann Abraham, has despaired of posh words in condemning the state of Britain's hospitals and resorted to the methods of the redtops. Forget care professionalism, accountability deficit and compassion fatigue. Abstract nouns just wash off the political back. Give us Alfred, 69. It worked. He made the headlines in every paper.”
Simon Jenkins, The Guardian