Moves at the Department of Health and Social Care

What’s on Sajid Javid’s agenda at the Department for Health and Social Care?

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During an eventful weekend, Matt Hancock resigned from his position of Secretary of State for Health and Social Care after he and his aide Gina Coladangelo were caught on camera kissing in his Whitehall office, breaching Covid guidelines.

He has now been replaced by Sajid Javid, who being no stranger to Cabinet roles, is an experienced Government minister. He has previously been Home Secretary, Housing Secretary, the Business Secretary, and most recently Chancellor. In a statement, Javid said: ‘I’m incredibly honoured to take up the post of Health and Social Care Secretary, particularly during such an important moment in our recovery from COVID-19… I want our country to get out of this pandemic and that will be my most immediate priority’.  Jeremy Hunt, a former Health Secretary, has said Javid is an ‘excellent choice’ and argued that as an ex-Chancellor he will be able to ‘negotiate formidably’ with the Treasury.

However, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth has raised concern over the decision. He called Javid’s appointment a step backward for the UK and highlighted that the NHS and social care suffered underfunding and cuts due to the decisions taken by Treasury ministers including Javid, ‘a key architect of Tory austerity’.

Meanwhile, the former Special Adviser Dominic Cummings has called Javid ‘bog standard’ and an ‘awful’ choice to replace Matt Hancock.

Stakeholders from across the health and social care sector have highlighted that Javid will likely find himself with a rather busy workload despite only starting his new role on Saturday. Aside from the immediate priorities of addressing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, rising NHS waiting lists, social care reform and NHS restructuring will be other key priorities for the new Health Secretary.

On his first day on the job Javid was focused on the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and firm in his position that coronavirus restrictions should not be extended past 19 July. In his first statement to the House of Commons as Health Secretary, he said: ‘There remains a big task ahead of us: to restore our freedoms, freedoms that, save for the greatest of circumstances, no government should ever wish to curtail.’ This comes despite mounting concern over the spread of the Delta variant, which is reportedly responsible for 95% of cases in the UK.

The new Health Secretary will be supporting the ongoing Covid-19 vaccine rollout to reach the 19 July date. It is planned that that two-thirds of all adults in the country would have had both doses by then.

NHS Providers have highlighted the wider impacts of the pandemic on the health service. They have said Javid must provide the sector with the ‘support it needs to clear the substantial backlog of care’. This comes as NHS waiting lists are recorded at a record high with more than 5 million patients awaiting treatment, while demands on mental health and emergency services are also rising.

Social care reform was a key 2019 Conservative manifesto commitment, but there still seem to be no concrete plans. In the recent Queen’s speech, the Government promised it would bring forward detailed reform proposals by the end of this year. These proposals will need drive and commitment from the new Health Secretary if they are going to relieve the economic and structural pressures on the sector.

Aside from social care reform, plans to restructure the NHS are already underway with the Health and Care Bill expected to be brought forward to Parliament soon. This Bill would see NHS Integrated Care Systems placed on a statutory level and divulge greater powers over to the (newly appointed) Secretary of State. In the coming weeks, Javid will also help to choose a new NHS England Chief Executive as Sir Simon Stevens will step down from this role in the summer.

Lessons from PRFest on keeping PR sustainable

Lessons from PRFest on keeping PR sustainable

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This year’s PRFest took ‘The Sustainable Future of the PR and Communications Industry’ as its key focus, but if you thought ‘sustainability’ = environmental issues only, think again:

‘By sustainable I don’t just mean environment and sustainability practice,’ said PRFest founder Laura Sutherland in her introduction to the five-day virtual festival. ‘I mean: how can we stay relevant? How can we thrive?

‘I would like our industry to start thinking positively, so we can start planning for the future; recognising change and embracing it, rather than running away from it.’

To catch up on sessions focusing on social innovation, upskilling, underrepresented voices and more with speakers from across the industry, passes to the recorded webinars are available here. For a taster, here are some of the insights from day one’s session: ‘How will PR pros need to adapt and what are the learnings from COVID?’

1) Think local
‘Stupidly, I used to think that if there’s a national message being put out, while we might not like the creative, we should accept it – why would we try to recreate it? The pandemic has made me change my view. Local organisations know their people best; messages do have to be tailored to very specific communities. You really understand how important local knowledge and local insight is, now – localism really does work.’
Zander Mills, corporate communication manager for South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

2) Get to know your audiences
‘The understanding of community has had to get so much deeper. We’ve worked on vaccine hesitancy in Hackney, why some of our communities don’t trust the NHS – when you listen to black women talk about the enormous disproportionality in terms of maternal death during pregnancy and childbirth, how can you expert them to trust vaccinations?

‘Another example: we consulted our behaviour and insights team on connecting with the members of our community who aren’t technically-savvy. We ended up calling them on their landlines, and that’s something we wouldn’t have considered doing before. Community insight has helped us connect with different people in different ways. It will help us to be better communicators for years to come.’
Polly Cziok, strategic director, engagement, culture, and organisational development for the London Borough of Hackney

3) Turn your camera on (yes, really)
‘It’s great being able to IM people on my team. I found digital transition hard at first; I didn’t know if I should IM particular things; I didn’t want to bother my manager. But people made themselves available, and that made me make sure I was as helpful as possible to my colleagues, too. I felt closer to my team, even though I was further away. But for that to happen, I had to put in effort. Putting my camera on in meetings, speaking up. People can be very anti putting their cameras on, but you can read body language, people can see that you’re authentic with what you’re saying.’
Naomi MG Smith, account executive for Westco Communications

Watch all the recorded sessions from this year’s PRFest with a catch-up pass, available here.

You can also read more about the aims of this year’s PRFest from founder Laura Sutherland and get more tips on sustainability in our write up of this year’s CIPR conference Climate Change and the Role of PR.

Corporate Purpose Summit

‘Comms always thrives in a crisis’: Helen Dunne on the upcoming Corporate Purpose Summit

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The CorpComms’ three-day Corporate Purpose Summit starts on 29 June and we’re delighted to be partnering with the event to offer a number of tickets to our network at no charge.

To secure a place (one ticket per person), fill in the form here – but first, read on to find out more about the event’s packed schedule and roster of speakers from brands including Marks & Spencer, Aviva and Penguin Random House UK.

‘I have had an idea for a summit for some time,’ says CorpComms editor and event organiser Helen Dunne. ‘Corporate purpose is a subject that really intrigues me, because it is so multi-faceted. Most corporates now acknowledge that their stakeholders, including ESG investors, want them to do more than simply make money. The events of the past year have also exacerbated that.’

Speaking at the summit to share best practice, as well as their successes and the challenges of the last year, will be:

• Gillian McGill, former global internal and social communications director, Aviva
• Matt Carter, founder of Message House
• Maeve Atkins, external communications manager, Budweiser Brewing Group
• Rupert Gowrley, director of corporate affairs, Bupa Group
• Victoria McKenzie Gould, director of corporate communications, Marks & Spencer
• Miguel Veiga-Pestana, head of corporate affairs and chief sustainability officer, Reckitt
• Greg Dawson, director of corporate affairs, DS Smith
• Yasmin Diamond, executive vice president global corporate affairs, IHG Hotels & Resorts
• Greg Sage, director of corporate affairs, Greene King
• Rebecca Sinclar, MD, audiences, brand and communications, Penguin Random House UK
• Hilary Berg, responsible business adviser, Iceland Foods
• George Ames, director of client services, Forster Communications
• Christine Crofts, founder of Kinetic Internal Communications
• Danielle Jones-Hunte, head of employee advocacy, global, BP
• Katja Hall, chief corporate affairs and marketing officer, Capita
• Rosemary McGinness, chief people officer, Weir Group
• Innis Scott, head of engagement, Weir Group
• Esme Knight, head of corporate affairs, Costa Coffee
• Kerry Parkin, director global communications, Zip
• Asad Dhunna, founder of The Unmistakables
• Matt Bell, director of corporate affairs, Grosvenor Group
• Pia Huusfelt, business leader for IKEA global innovation, Inka Group
• Steve Butterworth, chief executive, Neighbourly
• Amanda Powell-Smith, chief executive, Forster Communications
• Nigel Prideaux, director of corporate affairs, NatWest Group
• Roger Barker, director of policy and corporate governance, Institute of Directors
• Matt Young, co-founder, Apella Advisers

Securing such an impressive line-up of experts for an event is tough any year, but in 2021? Even tougher, says Helen:

‘We’ve had many false starts along the way. I don’t envy people who put on summits full-time! But luckily, I have managed to secure a fabulous list of speakers through their kindness and also with the help of my sponsors, Message House and Forster Communications.’

While the full impact of the pandemic on the communication industry and the audiences it serves is yet to be seen, there have undoubtedly been opportunities alongside the new pressure points:

‘Comms always thrives in a crisis,’ believes Helen. ‘Internal comms really stepped out from the shadows during the pandemic as companies put their people first, which meant that, ironically as they were often in remote mode, in many companies employee engagement levels were at record highs. There is a new respect in many organisations for their internal comms people, and I’d like to think that will continue.

‘If purpose is currently on your ‘to do; list, the summit should spark inspiration. But there is something for everybody – including discussions on diversity and inclusion, inclusive capitalism, brand activism, sustainability and even how purpose strengthens the position of the corporate affairs director.

For whether the lessons learned regarding purpose-driven communications and corporate responsibility will last, Helen isn’t certain. But being ready for what comes next will be vital:

‘Inevitably, as business returns to normal, old practices will come back into play. But I think where comms has been integral to the corporate response to the crisis, it will be hard to go back.’

Find out more about the Corporate Purpose Summit and secure your place here on the CorpComms website.

PRCA Equity & Inclusion Council

PRCA renames Diversity Network as the Equity & Inclusion Advisory Council (EIAC)

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The PRCA has renamed its Diversity Network to the Equity & Inclusion Advisory Council (EIAC) to better reflect its aims to set benchmarks on Equity & Inclusion for the industry at large and build inclusivity through greater visible representation of the society PR serves.

Mark Webb Podcast

The group will continue to encourage the growth of inclusive cultures in PR, launching monthly podcast Disability@thetable. Hosted by Mark Webb, the podcast will feature guests, best practice advice and the sharing of stories. Potential guest speakers and sponsors are invited to get in touch and more information can be found in Webb’s blog here.

EIAC Chair Sudha Singh said of the rebrand and new projects:

‘For the longest time organisations have been focusing on diversity as a way to correct institutional and historic inequalities. Referring to people as diverse actually ‘others’ those who don’t belong to the dominant groups. So, diversity had to go. We have also seen that this approach has not really worked, the pace of change has been glacial.

‘COVID-19 and BLM last year provided a springboard to accelerate action for changing the status quo. We want to use this momentum to help bring meaningful change within our industry. We want organisations to focus on the equity inspired designs for bringing about that change – to creating equitable workplaces where talented people can thrive, no matter where they come from, what they look like. And this will require organisations to actually identify the problem areas and it is not helpful if you are determined to treat everyone equally. Inclusion of course is an outcome and has diversity at its core – do people feel valued, can they bring their true self to work? What is their experience of the workplace? Do they belong?

‘As an industry which has been striving for a seat at the table we should be able to speak from a position of knowledge and authenticity. That can only happen if we as an industry stop being tokenistic and become more intentional about our journey to equity and inclusion.’

Find out more about the EIAC’s mission, governance and key priorities here.

For more on the PRCA’s ongoing work to increase and support inclusion in the PR and comms industry, read our interviews with PRCA Race and Ethnicity Equiry Board members Barbara Phillips and Emmanuel Ofosu-Appiah.

Court case backlog

The backlog of court cases: impact on the legal/justice system

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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the justice system and has created an unprecedented backlog of court cases, presenting a challenge to the courts like never before. The impacts of lockdowns and social distancing has minimised court appearances, citing safety concerns for both staff and everyone involved.

The BBC reported that towards the end of 2020, that the most serious cases have piled up to 195,000 which may not be completely addressed until 2024. The issues within the legal system is not one that has stemmed from COVID and in fact the backlog of court cases predates the pandemic but has now reached record levels. The need for Government intervention to reform the courts and the judicial system is clear to see. Many issues are created because of these problems both to the victims, defendants and wider society, however the pandemic has also revealed ways to modernise and adapt our court systems and continue to make them more accessible.

Analysing why the backlog of court cases started before the pandemic reveals various factors and issues that have led to an overstretched system. A report produced by the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution which focused on COVID-19 and the Courts discussed some of these longer standing failures which have resulted in this situation. These issues included the decrease in Government funding over the last decade which has fallen by 21%, the decrease in legal aid budgets which have fallen by 40% and the fact that fewer staff were being employed into the workforce by HM Courts & Tribunals Service. All of this has led to a system under intense strain, exasperated by the unprecedented effects of COVID-19, where the Government had left the justice system exposed by a lack of risk assessments and preparation for an emergency situation like this.

The Crown Prosecution Service have highlighted the level of change faced for the justice system, where court workload is 44% higher now than it was prior to the pandemic and that waiting times for crown courts have increased by 25% since last year. The concerning aspect of this situation is that justice delayed is justice denied and there is a risk that victims and witnesses will lose interest and hope in their cases if they are continuously pushed back, with an outcome to their cases unclear. The backlog of court cases also has a domino effect to the rest of the criminal justice system, it has also led to an increase of remand prisons who are kept in an uncertain position, with no access to programmers and support which they would have if they were convicted, leading to a growing group of disgruntled prisoners kept in the unsettling nature of custody.

The reaction of the court systems to try to tackle these issues in the short term, has increased an avenue which can continue to be used more in the future. The Coronavirus Act 2020 extended the use of remote hearings which have acted as a good substitute and should be considered as a widely used alternative form of serving justice in the future . This has led to many adapted procedures, such as prerecorded interviews and statements from both vulnerable witnesses and victims, which has provided them with a more comfortable and confident environment to communicate their evidence. Remote hearings also allow live streaming so that the public can see and hear them. In the longer term, this method can help to clear this backlog as it speeds up and makes court processes easier to carry out. The success of remote hearings has been presented by the Institute for Government who have stated in their performance tracker 2020, that:

‘On 23 March, 550 court or tribunal hearings used video or audio technology. Two weeks later, the figure stood at more than 3,000, accounting for around 90% of the total cases processed.’

This shows that although the backlog of cases has grown substantially, the situation would have been much worse without remote hearings. There is a need for the Government to assess both the success and failures in introduced technologies during the pandemic to improve the ability to digitise our court services and improve access to justice.

Government reaction to this, both in the short term and long term, is crucial to tackling this issue of court case backlogs and the underfunding of the judiciary system. In terms of an immediate response, the Government has focused on investing more money into the courts, opening temporary courtrooms to increase the accessibility/availability of environments for trials to take place. However, this is a not a long-term solution nor is it at the rate needed to sufficiently tackle this backlog.

The recent Queen’s Speech revealed details around the Government’s plan in reforming areas of the legal system, with many measures welcomed, albeit overdue. Within the Queen’s Speech, the Government spoke about modernising court processes through documentation being transferred to more electronic means and more procedures being completed online, such as stating pleas. The Government’s focus is ensuring legislation as ensures the timely administration of justice. The Government has focused funding towards the roll out of new technology – though virtual and remote hearings, hiring more staff and adding up to 60 nightingale courtrooms, totaling investment of over £250mn. In reference to victims losing trust in the courts system as they have continuously seen their cases pushed back, the Government also committed to increased funding for victim support services this year, totaling to £151mn and an additional £5mn for Witness Care Units, to support witnesses/victims through these court processes.

Overall, the Government is investing over £1 billion to transform the courts and tribunals system and a further £142 million in COVID-19 funding to support court recovery and upgrades necessary to tackle these growing issues. Although an assessment on the successes of Government intervention can only be made after an extensive period, we have already seen some stabilisation of the court backlog, where the rise of the backlog has stalled, acting as a good indication that the Governments interventions are having an immediate effect.

G7 overview

Overview of the G7

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The G7 communique, published at the end of the summit last Sunday, sets out six areas of global action: 1) End the pandemic and prepare for the future, 2) Reinvigorate our economies, 3) Secure our future prosperity, 4) Protect our planet, 5) Strengthen our partnerships and 6) Embrace our values.

Among these goals, there are ambitions to help developing countries recover from the pandemic and ‘build back better’ for the future. Despite the ambitious pledges, there are still concerns from the international development sector on the level of commitment shown by the G7 leaders, particularly the UK which is the only G7 country to have reduced its foreign aid budget in light of the economic cost of the pandemic.

Covid-19 vaccine distribution
Ahead of the summit, G7 leaders committed to providing 1bn Covid-19 vaccines over the next year, including 100m surplus coronavirus vaccinations from the UK. The UK has committed to delivering 5m doses by the end of September, beginning in the coming weeks, primarily for use in the world’s poorest countries. Of the 100m doses, the UK will donate 5m doses by the end of September, beginning in the coming weeks, primarily for use in the world’s poorest countries. 25m more will be donated by the end of 2021. 80% of the 100m doses will go to COVAX and the remainder will be shared bilaterally with countries in need. At the end of the summit, the communique totaled the final commitments at 870m, just short of the 1bn planned.

UNICEF has welcomed the commitment from the G7 to rollout vaccines, emphasising that without a global vaccination programme, the world will be more at risk of variants that could threaten the vaccinated and unvaccinated. They also call for an accelerated timetable in light of several forecasts which suggest that G7 countries will have enough vaccine supplies to donate 1 billion doses by as early as the end of 2021, rather than the 2022 goal proposed.

Moreover, despite the large numbers of vaccines promised, it is not clear that they will go far enough. In a critique, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown argued that 11bn vaccine doses are needed to guarantee all countries the same levels of anti-Covid protection as the west. He said: ‘The gift of 1bn doses from the richest countries to the poorest is headline-grabbing and welcome. But it falls billions of doses short of a solution and does not answer what Johnson called “the greatest challenge of the postwar era”.’

Alongside the communique, the G7 set out frameworks to strengthen its collective defences against threats to global health. This includes the ‘Carbis Bay Declaration’ which promises to reduce the time taken to develop and licence vaccines, reinforce global surveillance networks, and reform and strengthen the World Health Organisation.

Education
Girls’ education has been a primary objective for UK foreign policy in recent years so it was no surprise that this was a focal point for the UK, particularly with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) coming up next month. The UK pledged £430 million to the GPE to get the world’s most vulnerable children, particularly girls, into school. This funding pledge is on top of the £400m of UK aid which will be spent this year on bilateral efforts to increase girls’ access to education.

At the session, G7 leaders discussed also how to build back better from the coronavirus pandemic in a way that creates opportunities for everyone. Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to targets set at the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting in May to get 40 million more girls into school and 20 million more girls reading by the age of 10 in the next five years.

Plan International has welcomed the funding commitments from the G7 and the action plan to address the ‘devastating impact’ of the pandemic on girl’s education. However, it argues that the G7 funding commitments to GPE, totaling $2.75 bn will not be enough. GPE hopes to raise $5bn from donors, including $3.5bn from the G7.

Meanwhile, ActionAid has highlighted that the new funding pledge for girl’s education comes at the same time as the Government is cutting its aid budget on girls’ education by 40%. They argue that advancing girl’s education should form part of a wider Government response to gender equality, including by tackling violence against women and girls.

Climate change
Under the Prime Minister’s plans to Build Back Better for the World he laid forward a new approach intended to give developing countries access to more, better and faster finance while accelerating the global shift to renewable energy and sustainable technology. It includes a £500m Blue Planet Fund to protect the ocean and marine biodiversity and a Nature Compact to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. WWF has welcomed these announcements but has called for pledges to be converted into concrete policy goals and implemented at pace to reach the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. This will be vital ‘to abate the induced catastrophes the world is increasingly experiencing and will continue to unless we urgently transform our broken relationship with the natural environment.’

Alongside this UK, Germany and USA announced new action to scale up protection for the world’s most vulnerable communities against the impacts of climate change. The £120m new funding from the UK and £125m new funding from Germany will enable quicker responses for vulnerable people when extreme weather and climate-linked disasters hit. This will protect those most at risk in Africa, South East Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific and help reduce losses and damage to communities, infrastructure and livelihoods caused by climate change.

Finally, the G7 Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and multilateral partners also pledged to invest over $80 billion in the private sector in Africa over the next 5 years. The investments will support the long-term development objectives of African economies, including those which have been negatively hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. With investments focused on renewable power, infrastructure, manufacturing, agriculture, and technology sectors it is aimed that they will provide clean, reliable power to millions of people, help create jobs and reduce poverty.

Five reasons to work with freelance journalists on your PR campaigns

5 reasons to build better relationships with freelance journalists for your PR campaigns

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Should freelancers be at the top of your list for building meaningful – and useful – connections with the media? Yes, and here are five reasons why, from our latest webinar with Journo Resources’ Jem Collins and Faima Bakar, and Freelancing for Journalists’ Lily Canter and Emma Wilkinson…

Watch the full Building better relationships between PRs and journalists webinar or read our write up with more advice from the event here.

1) Most freelance journalists are already au fait with, and effective at, working remotely
Switching to remote working had its difficulties in the PR and media industries as calls to offices weren’t always diverted to homes and inboxes were flooded with more emails than ever, just for starters. One community who already knew how to manage working from home effectively? Freelancers:

‘With people working from home who weren’t used to it during the first lockdown, the amount of requests for calls and catch ups with me really went through the roof,’ said Jem. ‘There was a month or two that was Call Central, so it’s good to see people have settled more into hybrid working. I’ve always worked from home and already had quite a good comms system set up.’

2) Your working relationship with a freelance journalist can be more intimate than with a staffer…
…in the most professional meaning of that word. Staff news teams may find relevant press releases useful to write up, but a freelancer will want exclusivity and something deeper.

‘It really is a different relationship that you’ll have with freelancers,’ said Lily. ‘Exclusivity is key. I want something that nobody else has. An exclusive case study, or you can work with me to do an exclusive report from some data you’ve been able to gather.

‘It’s about building a unique relationship with an individual. It’s more of an intimate relationship that you have with a freelancer.’

3) A freelancer may have more freedom to collaborate closely with you on content
‘The relationships I have with PRs that work will be those that come to me with something specific and they want my advice as well,’ said Emma. ‘Like, “I’ve got this info, where do you think this might fit?” It can be more of a back and forth between us.

‘Those PRs will also note when I tweet when I’m doing a particular feature, or send out an enquiry via the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service, and understand that commissioning process. If I’m interested in your story, I will pitch it, but I don’t have the power to just publish that information. Understand our beat and how commissioning works for us.’

4) Want a different take on your research/data/survey results? A freelancer will be able to think of a new angle
If you have some intriguing data and think you’ve come up with all the possible angles that might be of interest to the media and its readership, think again:

‘As a freelancer, I keep getting those generic press releases, but I’m interested in unique and interesting case studies, even if you’re pitching them to in-house staff,’ said Faima.

‘If you have commissioned research – get in touch with me. I might be able to pull out a line and build a whole feature around it. I’ve managed to pitch a piece based on research like that to Stylist. If it’s research that’s relevant to the journalist; go for it.’

5) Freelancers potentially have a broader reach than staffers working for one publication
While staffers are often limited to certain topics, times and formats, freelancers can be writing on a variety of subjects, to different deadlines, for many different outlets:

‘I’m normally working several weeks ahead, but for a magazine, it would be two or three months in advance. If it’s for Metro, it might be a month in advance. It does depend, so that’s why I’d advise building a connection with freelancers,’ said Lily.

‘They’re working for lots of different publications. It might be print, websites, magazines – lots of different audiences.’

‘Understand how each freelancer works, because we all do it very differently.’

For more on working with freelancers, watch the full webinar here, check out these tips for making the most out of the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service and here is more advice on pitching to freelancers effectively. 

Building better relationships between PRs and journalists

How to build better relationships between PRs and journalists with Journo Resources and Freelancing for Journalists

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We teamed up with Journo Resources and Freelancing for Journalists for our latest virtual event Building better relationships between PRs and journalists to find out how better connections can make working life a little easier for both sides of the equation.

Watch Building better relationships between PRs and journalists here.

Sharing wisdom with our mixed PR (mainly PR – 90%) and journalist audience was Journo Resources founder Jem Collins and senior staff writer Faima Baker and Freelancing for Journalists co-founders Lily Canter and Emma Wilkinson.

Each regularly freelance, with the combined panel covering topics as diverse as lifestyle, healthcare, human rights, religion, culture, race, medicine and personal finance. Despite the vast differences in subject, each shared common experiences of working with PRs and how the industry can better serve them in their work.

Not everything has to be a video call
‘I noticed this – if you set up an interview, now PRs are saying to you want to do a video call rather than a phone call,’ said Lily. ‘Zoom is great for this kind of thing, but I prefer doing interviews over phone, for example, because I’m not going to have eye contact with the other person – I’ll be taking notes. We don’t have to do everything as a video call.’

Keep your email signature and Contact Us pages up-to-date
‘Contacting PRs and their clients became harder when working from home, at first – I was in the habit of Googling a client and then calling them,’ said Faima.

‘It was harder to get through to people – I was someone who’d meet up with PRs; I like that face-to-face interaction. I’ve had less contact with PRs since the start of the pandemic, but some have been really good with putting their mobile number on their website.’

Approach freelancers differently than you would staffers
‘It really is a different relationship that you’ll have with freelancers,’ said Lily. ‘My top tip for working with us is that exclusivity is key. We don’t want the release you’ve sent to every single news desk – there’s nothing we can pitch. It’s different if we’re covering a news shift.’

‘It’s not useful to me if I’ve been sent the same thing everyone else has seen,’ said Jem.

‘There’s a big difference between ringing a newsroom, one person on a team, and ringing one person working alone and disrupting them. I’m very guarded with my mobile number because 90% of the time I’m called, it’s to remind me of a press release that isn’t relevant to me, as a freelancer.’

Work with journalists on the ‘smaller’ publications to get a chance at the ‘bigger’ ones in future
‘Be as willing to work with a freelancer on a smaller publication as you would on a larger one,’ said Jem.
‘I’ve found that sometimes PRs won’t want to give something to me because I’m not working on a national for that piece. But PRs that are happy to reply to something smaller are great, and the value in that for the PR is you’ll be the first person the journalist will go to for something bigger.

Connect with journalists by responding to requests
‘I’d really like to emphasise, from my point-of-view, how to build a relationship – it’s not about you coming to me, it’s about you responding to me – that’s where I build relationships,’ advised Lily.

‘If I send out a request via the Responsesource Journalist Enquiry Service or tweet with the #JournoRequest hashtag, I will be more likely to come back to you next time if you reply to me with a relevant expert or relevant content. I’ll be much more likely to work with you and your client.

‘That’s where a relationship starts – with a response. It won’t happen from you emailing me. It’s the same with freelancing – cold-calling editors is hard, responding with what they need is better.’

Give journalists what they’re actually requesting
‘Every good relationship I have with a PR started with them responding to me,’ said Emma. ‘They found a case study, or they knew of some new tech. I’m more likely to have a chat over what I find useful if you’re helped me out. ‘You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ kind of thing.

‘Respond to what has been sent out in the request, exactly. Don’t use it as an opportunity to jump to something else. That sounds super simple, but I do get ‘I don’t have this, but I do have this’ responses. Make sure you do have what I’m looking for – no tangential jump. And be timely – I use the Journalist Enquiry Service when I’m under a deadline; jump on relevant requests quickly.’

Brief your clients fully before offering an interview
‘It’s so important to make sure that if you sent a press release offering case studies, make sure they’re available,’ said Faima.

Lily agreed: ‘It’s really frustrating if case studies and spokespeople haven’t been briefed properly. I understand that things are really busy but if it’s going to work everybody needs to be onboard.’

Watch the full virtual event here for more insight on connecting with journalists as a PR and here are more tips on providing media professionals with the kind of content they’re looking for with the ResponseSource Journalist Enquiry Service.

Investment in education

Reactions to the resignation of the Education Recovery Commissioner

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The Education Recovery Commissioner Sir Kevan Collins’ letter of resignation followed the Government’s announcement that it was offering a further £1.5bn in education catch up support for young people, around 10% of what he had suggested was needed.

Sir Collin was direct about the impact of this gap between the two figures, stating: ‘I do not believe it is credible that a successful recovery can be achieved with a programme of support of this size’. He also said he believed ‘the settlement provided will define the international standing of England’s education system for years to come’.

This link to international standards in education was picked up by Labour leader Keir Starmer at last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions. Starmer pointed out the funding, equivalent to £310 per child over the next four years, paled in comparison to the US’s catch up plan worth over £1,600 per child and £2,500 in the Netherlands. He quoted Sir Kevan Collins describing the catch up as ‘too small, too narrow and too slow’.

Labour responded to the announcements with an opposition day debate on investing in children and young people, which Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green commented that the amount of catch up funding offered is inexplicable given the Prime Minister’s claim that children’s education is his priority. The Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson did not attend the debate and it was instead taken by the Secretary of State for School Standards Nick Gibb. The entire House voted to issue a motion of regret of the resignation of the education recovery commissioner and:

‘…agrees with Sir Kevan’s assessment that the current half-hearted approach risks failing hundreds of thousands of young people; and therefore calls on the Government to bring forward a more ambitious plan before the onset of the school summer holiday which includes an uplift to the pupil premium and increased investment in targeted support, makes additional funding available to schools for extracurricular clubs and activities to boost children’s wellbeing, and provides free school meals to all eligible children throughout the summer holiday.’

The Government has expressed that what has been announced is only part of the full catch up plan, of which more is to be revealed at the Spending Review. This is despite previous commitments to have Sir Collins’ recommendations delivered outside of that process, and a catch-up programme in place by September 2021. As Green rightly pointed out, Johnson has repeatedly said that education and the future of young people is a priority and key element of the coronavirus response. This makes the comparably low funding which caused the Commissioner to seems strange and out of touch with the Government’s skills drive, particularly given the lack of support for 16-19 education within the support programme. Pundits have wagered the Treasury ‘took a carving knife’ to more substantial plans set out by Secretary of State Gavin Williamson, leading calls for his resignation. Researchers at the IFS, however, commented that the decision may have been taken out of fears of the benefits of extra tuition and education support leading to a permanent increase in spending.

During a media round following the resignation news, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi recentred teachers’ unions as detrimental to education catch up, mentioning their opposition to extending the school day. Angela Rayner hit back, stating Tory Minister’s ‘always try to attack unions to distract from their own failures’.

Although the investment in education recovery so far totals over £3bn, as Sir Collins said, reducing spend in education at this point is a false economy. Further, the Institute for Fiscal Studies noted that if the losses to learning over the last year are not addressed ‘costs could easily run into hundreds of billions as a result of lost skills and productivity’. The sector will eagerly await the next announcements at the Spending Review, although it seems unlikely that it will meet the former Recovery Commissioner’s recommendations amongst a package of spending. The question left after that is whether Sir Collins was right in his estimations of what failing to make up for the learning loss of the pandemic will mean.

Sector responses:
• Labour Shadow Education Secretary said:
‘Kevan Collins’ resignation is a damning indictment of the Conservatives’ education catch-up plan.
He was brought in by Boris Johnson because of his experience and expertise in education, but the Government have thrown out his ideas as soon as it came to stumping up the money needed to deliver them.’

• Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education Daisy Cooper said:
‘Sir Kevan was a good appointment and many of us were cheering him on. The Government’s pitiful offer of a £1.4bn to support a generation of young people who have lost months of learning was an insult to him and to our young people.

Our children deserve better than this useless Education Secretary. Time and time again he keeps getting it wrong. It really is the last straw – the Education Secretary has to go.’

• Director of Education & Skills at Nacro Lisa Capper commented:
‘We must see more focus on closing the clear and significant attainment gap among 16-19-year-olds, an often-overlooked group. It is also vital that no matter where you learn, all 16-19 year olds see the benefit of this funding, including those who learn with charitable and independent providers. These students are often those most in need of support to catch up, and who benefit from the wrap around support these centres provide.’

• Sutton Trust Executive Chair and Education Endowment Foundation Chairman Sir Peter Lampl said:
‘Creating an ambitious, sustainable recovery plan to support every pupil is a considerable challenge. The extension of tutoring for the most disadvantaged young people is crucial as it’s a highly cost-effective method of making up for lost learning. The focus on quality teaching, investing in the teaching profession and early years practitioners is also much needed.

‘However, the proposed funding is only a fraction of what is required. Low-income students who have already been most heavily impacted by Covid-19 will be disadvantaged even more and overall standards, which have fallen dramatically, will be very slow to recover.

‘Sir Kevan Collins is right that much more will be needed if we are to mitigate the long-term impact of the pandemic.’

• National Association of Head Teachers General Secretary Paul Whiteman said:
‘Today’s statement confirms the disappointing scope and scale of the government’s ambition for children and young people. The government has missed an opportunity to make a real difference to the lives of young people in the short term, and ignored the necessity of putting down some firm recovery foundations for the long term. By every measure, this is a low-cost option when what pupils deserved was something first class.’

• Education Policy Institute
The EPI found that the new education recovery package of £1.4bn amounts to around £50 extra per pupil per year – a fraction of the level of funding required to reverse learning loss seen by pupils since March 2020. They commented the Government ‘decided not to take the opportunity’ to offer evidence-based interventions to protect against long-run negative impacts to education and wellbeing.

• Association of Colleges Chief Executive David Hughes said:
‘The plans for the next steps of the recovery plan will disappoint colleges and students with the least amount of time left in education. The extension of the tuition funding is good news but the failure to fund additional teaching hours or to extend the pupil premium to age 18 means that many disadvantaged students may fall through the gaps.’

Global Tax Reform

Global tax reform

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The G7 has agreed to back a historic two pillar international agreement on global tax reform that will mean the largest multinational tech giants will pay their fair share of tax in the countries in which they operate – and not just where they have their headquarters. As part of this landmark deal, Finance Ministers also agree to the principle of a global minimum rate that ensures multinationals pay tax of at least 15% in each country they operate.

The plan is based on two ‘pillars’ that have long been under discussion by the OECD, Group of 20 (G20) countries and their so-called Inclusive Framework. Under pillar one, countries would get a new right of taxation over a share of profits generated in their jurisdiction by an overseas-headquartered multinational. This would mean taxing the source of a company’s revenue regardless of the firm’s physical location. This would crack down on profit-shifting to low-tax jurisdictions. The rules would apply to global firms with at least a 10% profit margin – and would see 20% of any profit above the 10% margin reallocated and then subjected to tax in the countries they operate.

Under Pillar Two, the G7 also agreed to the principle of at least 15% global minimum corporation tax operated on a country by country basis. This is lower than a 21% proposal put forward by the US president, Joe Biden, earlier this year and lower than what the Labour party has been calling for. However, it is still regarded as a turning point, and the inclusion of “at least” in the G7 deal means it could be negotiated higher.

Which companies would it apply to?
The burden is likely to fall primarily on technology and pharmaceutical firms that have been able to place their business locations and intangible intellectual property in low- or no-tax locations and book their revenues in those jurisdictions. The details about which firms would be affected have yet to be worked out. The Biden administration has proposed that about 100-150 multinationals would be within the scope of pillar one. At any rate, the digital profits tax would apply only to firms making profit margins of over 10%–meaning many firms with low margins, including possibly Amazon – would remain exempt (its profit margin in 2020 was only 6.3%).

Moreover, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak is reportedly pushing for the City of London to be carved out of the G7’s plans for a global tax agreement. The Financial Times quotes an official close to the discussions as saying that the UK was one of several countries pushing for ‘an exemption on financial services’.

How much would it raise?
The OECD estimated last October that as much as $81bn (£57bn) in additional tax revenues each year would be raised under the reforms. Pillar one would bring in between $5bn and $12bn, while pillar two, the global minimum rate, would collect between $42bn and $70bn. However, this assumed that a global minimum rate of 12.5% would be applied under pillar two. It also captures a larger number of multinationals under pillar one. The Tax Justice Network advocacy group estimates that a 21% minimum rate would bring in $640bn in underpaid tax each year.

There are various estimates for how much individual countries would recover. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research thinktank’s Centre for Economic Justice, the UK would reap an extra £14.7bn annually from a 21% global minimum rate. IPPR reported that a global minimum corporation tax rate of at least 15% could raise £7.9bn for the UK, but warned this rate would not be enough to end the race to the bottom on tax. The Labour party said that the lower rate of 15% would let big multinational firms off £131m per week which could be used to fund the NHS and other public services instead.

What next?
The topic will be discussed at OECD group meetings in Paris on 30 June – 1 July 1st, and then again when G20 Finance Ministers and Central Governors meet in Venice on 9 – 10 July.

However, global corporate tax reform will prove difficult to implement. In the EU the plans will require a directive, subject to veto by the low-tax economies such as Ireland or Hungary, and passage of associated changes by national parliaments. Ireland’s finance minister Paschal Donohoe tweeted: ‘I look forward now to engaging in the discussions at @OECD. There are 139 countries at the table, and any agreement will have to meet the needs of small and large countries, developed and developing’. The battle for low-tax countries is likely to be about building support for a lower minimum rate (closer to Ireland ‘s current rate of 12.5%) or seeking certain exemptions.

Political prospects are difficult in the US too. Biden team could probably push through the global reform in the evenly divided Senate under so-called ‘reconciliation’, which requires a simple majority, if they can do so before the November 2022 mid-term elections or do not lose seats in that electoral contest.

Cabinet office

Cabinet reshuffle speculation

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This is a post from Daniel Loman and Jennifer Prescott. 

Despite Number 10 saying there is no reshuffle planned speculation continues to mount as to what changes the Prime Minister may decide to make to his Cabinet. And if as Number 10 said in late May there are no plans for a reshuffle it does not mean one cannot happen in the weeks or months to come or events cannot transpire that forces the hand of the Prime Minister. Here are our thoughts based on reports and the Government’s direction and policy priorities of where each member of the current Cabinet stands.

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak: Despite Sunak’s stock not being as high as it was this time last year it would be very shocking to seem him depart the Treasury. For the moment he seems to have been unharmed from the Greensill lobbying row. Sunak was also probably received the most praise during Dominic Cumming’s mammoth committee appearance, but in the eyes of the Prime Minister that could be a negative.

Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs; First Secretary of State, Dominic Raab: Dominic Raab has managed to stay out of any Covid related scandals and when Johnson was in hospital he acted as deputy PM. Dominic Cummings said the Foreign Secretary did not get ‘enough credit as he should have done’. Similar to Sunak, praise from Cummings could do more to harm Raab than help him.

Home Secretary, Priti Patel: Towards the end of last year it seemed inevitable that Patel would be moved from the Home Office. However despite the finding that she had broken the ministerial code of conduct Patel now seems to be on more steady ground. Patel also seems quite central to the Government’s priorities and the Prime Minister would probably have some people scratching their head if he moved on from Patel now considering he has backed her throughout everything that has already been.

Minister for the Cabinet Office, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove: There has been speculation that Gove could take over as Health Secretary, with sources claiming he is a consensual figure within the Cabinet, as well as one of the most experienced. Dominic Cummings spoke favourably of him, insisting that he was not responsible for the failings of the Cabinet Office. However, recent reports that he acted unlawfully by awarding a Government contract without tender process may jeopardise his promotion.

Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland QC: Publicly there has been little to suggest the Prime Minister would have a reason to move on from Buckland. The impact of Covid on prisons hasn’t really been a headline issue and neither has the court backlog. Buckland has spent more time in his job than the four people who held it before and he is probably good value to continue, he is also the first QC to have the job since Ken Clark (2010-2012).

Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace: Another Minister who is probably safe, the Prime Minister will likely want someone with some experience after the announcements made in the Integrated Review earlier this year.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock: Dominic Cummings has claimed that Hancock should have been fired for ‘15, 20 things’ so surely, he will be moving on from the Department of Health and Social Care. It seems most commentators (including us) think Hancock will be moved on. However it is worth considering that Number 10 will probably be eager to avoid validating Cumming’s concerns. The Prime Minister may also take the view that he wants Covid as far back in the rear-view mirror as possible before changing Health Secretary and that may be a little further down the line.

COP26 President, Alok Sharma: Sharma is thought to be safe in his role, especially as it could be disruptive to switch ministers just months ahead of COP26 in Glasgow.

Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng: Having only being in role since the beginning of the year, it seems unlikely that Johnson would choose to move Kwarteng, who is seen as a passionate champion of the PM’s plans for a green industrial revolution.

Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade, Minister for Women and Equalities, Elizabeth Truss: There are rumours that Liz Truss could be in line for a promotion to the role of Foreign Secretary. She has consistently been ranked as one of the most popular figures of the Cabinet amongst Conservative members and her performance as Trade Secretary has impressed many.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Dr Thérèse Coffey: The Work and Pensions Secretary sent a tweet to footballer Marcus Rashford questioning his comments about low income families just hours before the PM performed a U-turn over the provision of free school meals vouchers, which was seen as an embarrassment for Downing Street.

Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson: Williamson is perhaps the Minister who is the surest thing to either be sacked or reshuffled. The resignation of Sir Kevan Collins and the constant criticism for a lack of support for pupils during the pandemic are things Williamson is having put at his door and this doesn’t even speak on what went on around free school meals.

Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice: Eustice has been a very vocal opponent of tariff-free meat imports from Australia, positioning himself against Liz Truss and the PM. This could be a reason for Johnson to remove him. It is reported that Eustice and Truss have rowed over the deal, which Eustice believes is a bad for British farmers. Another reason he could possibly lose his role is that he is not fully on board with the green agenda the Government is pushing. There is talk that chief whip Mark Spencer could take over as Environment Secretary.

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Robert Jenrick: Jenrick is a strong ally of Rishi Sunak’s and seems to be well liked by the PM, however, it is uncertain whether this would be enough to save him in a reshuffle after his role in the ‘cash-for-favours’ housing bid scandal.

Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps: Shapps is perceived to have done a decent job as Transport Secretary and has become one of the Government’s more reliable communicators. He managed to secure a deal with France to open the border back after the Covid variant scare in December and despite being in Spain last summer when his Department changed the quarantine rules, he has largely managed to avoid any negative attention.

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis: Lewis has kept a relatively low profile, apart from when he made the news after stating in the Commons that the Government would go against international law as part of a new Brexit proposal for trade across Northern Ireland’s borders.

Secretary of State for Scotland, Alister Jack:  Jack will probably stay in post as presuming the Prime Minister would only accept an MP from a Scottish constituency there are only five alternatives. Douglas Ross is also the leader of the Scottish Conservatives and an MSP, so he is surely of the running, David Mundell was sacked as soon as Boris Johnson became PM. That leaves only John Lamont, David Duguid and Andrew Bowie as possible candidates so Alister Jack is probably safe.

Secretary of State for Wales, Simon Hart: Simon Hart seems to be doing a good job of selling the Government’s Levelling Up agenda in Wales. There is no obvious reason the PM would want somebody else to take over the role.

Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Evans of Bowes Park: Baroness Evans has been Leader of the House of Lords since Theresa May’s first Cabinet. There would be no apparent reason to move Evans so unless the Prime Minister just feels like a change, she should be safe.

Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden: Dowden finds himself in a situation not too dissimilar to Robert Buckland, Covid has had a big impact on the area he oversees, but with the exception of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s defiance none of it has really been headline news.

Minister of State, Lord Frost: Frost has been in the news a lot recently as he has been angering EU diplomats over his approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol, so much so that the EU has reportedly been urging Boris Johnson to remove Frost from his Cabinet role.

Minister without Portfolio (Co-Chair of the Conservative Party), Amanda Milling: There is no real reason to think Milling will be moved, however the position she occupies lends itself to the possibility of her being moved.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Steve Barclay: Barclay stands as a figure who is probably unlikely to see himself drop out of the Cabinet, he might be an outsider for a position of Secretary of State if Johnson finds himself with one too many positions to fill.

Lord President of the Council, Leader of the House of Commons, Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg: Rees-Mogg is a controversial figure as one of the Conservative Party’s highest profile Brexiteers and a key member of the European Research Group. His latest gaffe was his attack on a journalist under cover of parliamentary privilege. A reshuffle could be a chance for the PM to get rid, however, not having Rees-Mogg on his side could be even more troublesome.

Chief Whip, Mark Spencer: Spencer is being touted for the top job at DEFRA if Eustice departs, if this happens there has been some rumblings that Gavin Williamson could go back to being Chief Whip.

Attorney General, Michael Ellis QC: Ellis is currently filling in for Suella Braverman QC who is on maternity leave, so it is unlikely to expect any change here.

5 tips on improving SEO for your PR and communications campaigns

5 tips for getting started with SEO for your PR and communications campaigns

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If the mysteries and minutia of SEO have so far alluded you, or you know a little but the latest Google update fills you with a sense of dread; worry not. SEO aficionado Judith Lewis has put together the PR best practices for SEO guide to share what you need to know about Search Engine Optimisation in PR and comms.

Here are five starter tips from the guide to get you on your way to fully-optimised and high-ranking content:

1) Know your SEO vernacular
SEO has three main disciplines. ‘Technical SEO’ is what optimises the code of a website to enable search engines to assess and rank. ‘On-Page SEO’ is your content – what you can see, but also occasionally what you can’t, such as the title tag. ‘Off-Page SEO’ relates to links and citations – the parts that affect webpage ranking, but aren’t on the webpage itself.

2) Learn your SEO-related acronyms, too
One commonly-used acronym you’ll hear when delving into all-things SEO is ‘E-A-T’: Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. Google uses each of these elements to determine the right ranking for content. Things that can help the ‘E-A-T’-able-ness of your content – an Expert author, Authority when it comes to links and relevance, and indications of Trust, such as contact information and an About page.

3) Google needs speed
Working with a slow website? Page speed is a known factor among those 200 or so used by Google to decide ranking in searches, so if your agency, company or client website is slow, that will impact its search visibility. May’s updates to Google included the addition of a factor called Page Experience, meaning slow sites will have more difficulty with ranking now than ever. Speed things up – chase up your contacts on your dev/IT team, or start out with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool yourself to find out what will make your website faster.

4) Remember that your words are still very important (alongside the links)
Just as each social media platform has a unique – and complicated – algorithm, so too do search engines. Google, for example, has more than 200 factors making up its own algorithm, which can be intimidating to think about when starting to put together content you want as many relevant people to find, and engage with, as possible. Reassuringly, the words you use, as well as links, are most important in those factors. According to available data, each account for around 40% of the ranking factors.

5) Those words you write need to be as natural-sounding as possible – no SEO-robo-speak
It’s tempting when you first get started with optimising online content to stuff your copy with keywords in the hope it will place higher in search results, but that’s very passé, very early-2000s, and very much not liked by Google in 2021. Yes, keywords are part of what attracts visitors to a certain webpage and at least one mention of a keyword will help content to be discovered. But writing naturally is how to woo the complicated but sophisticated language and grammar algorithms Google utilises these days – good writers will automatically use words that are semantically-related and create content that search engines, and readers, will rank highly.

Want more on SEO? Download the SEO best practice guide for PR by Judith Lewis or watch the webinar.

Judith Lewis SEO PR webinar

The latest Google update – what PR professionals need to know

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Remember when Google used a cute animal like Panda or Penguin to signify that it was changing its algorithm?

Sadly, those gentler days are behind us, but Google still announces a core update around four times a year. These are significant changes that Google makes to its ranking algorithm that affects a large number of indexed web pages.

Knowing when Google announces core updates and what those updates are is important for PR professionals because of the potential impact on the visibility of your website, or your clients’ websites in the search engine.

This was just one of the areas of SEO that search expert Judith Lewis covered in our recent webinar to support the publication of our free SEO best practice guide for PR.

Here’s a summary of some of the questions about SEO and PR that Judith answered:

What is the latest Google core update and what do PRs need to know about it?
“The Google core update focuses a lot on expertise, authority and trust (EAT) which is explained fully in the guide. We also link to the guidelines that Google’s human quality raters use.

It’s a complex area that’s all about how you demonstrate EAT to Google. Google is tweaking those dials and really bumping up the emphasis that it’s placing on demonstrated expertise and authoritativeness, which is finding mentions about you on other sites.

So PR is all about establishing EAT and the latest Google update is actually increasing its valuing of EAT.

There are two more updates coming, so this will change over time. and I’ve seen that clients of mine are fluctuating, they’re going up, they’re going down, it’s like a roller coaster! So right now the algorithm update does still seem to be finding its level balance. I’m seeing more US search results in the UK, so I’m thinking it’s still rolling out, but this core update is really focused on quality.

Later this month is a long announced update to website speed.

Basically if your website is not fast and it does not pass ‘core vitals’, you will lose out to other people who do. So Google will rate you against your competitors in the search results, and you will go down, if competitors websites are faster and more efficient at delivering web experience to people.

‘Core vitals’ is later this month, and then in July we have another core update coming. So, this one was about more about quality, and the next two are going to be about landing page experience, and then more on quality.”

What are the differences between ‘follow’ and ‘no follow links’?
Do ‘no follow links’ in online coverage and do they have any impact on search engine visibility?
‘No follow’ and ‘follow ‘are technical attributions that are put on a link, and it’s a little bit more code techie, but don’t be put off by it, it’s a checkbox in WordPress. So if you’re working with bloggers or influencers, they can select the Checkmark, and that will make all of their links on their blog nofollow.

What does that mean? Well, it tells Google, not to pass any points from the origin page to the destination page.

However, from a human point of view, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a follow or nofollow, it is still a link. And that enables someone to go from where they are to where your clients information, or your information is.

I obviously would prefer a follow link, because it helps with search ranking. But I will accept the follow or nofollow link, because we’re pushing our clients or our company’s information and details out there and so any link is good because it draws the readers back to our websites.

If you don’t get a link in coverage, do citations or mentions of your brand or organisation help with SEO and search visibility?

It does help.

A citation – where there’s no link but a mention – is incredibly important for Google, because the more of those that you get, the more the increase of perception that Google has that there is something important about that company or that organisation going on.

It increases the words around the company and increases the relevance of that company name to those to those pieces of content. What’s happening is Google is seeing the word that is a brand and it recognises the brand usually because it’s usually in a URL or something similar and then it looks at the words around that citation. It looks at these words around the brand and increases the relevance of those words for that brand.

Google is already recalculating what that brand is possibly relevant for now. It doesn’t have as big an impact as when we get a link – a link is, is the key – but it does increase Google’s perceived relevance of those keywords of the brand and how popular the brand is.

Update ‘Vince’, many years ago was all about brand and rewarding brands. So the better that you can establish a brand, the better it is and citations are part of that because not everybody gives you a link.

If everybody gives you a link it looks artificial. If some people don’t then it looks much more natural and Google is more likely to trust it. Therefore if you get a citations with no link, it’s good, and it does help people.

Do shares on social media and closed or private social networks/communities like Facebook Groups or Guild have any impact on SEO or search engine visibility?

I think the problem is that people’s perception of links is that all links help Google rankings, but in my opinion, all links help people – and that’s the most important thing.

In closed ecosystems like Facebook and Guild links don’t necessarily impact on Google’s rankings but when someone is talking a lot about something, and links are being shared a lot, whether they’re shared through Guild, WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram, they will reach a critical point after which people will start to blog and write about them.

And journalists may pick up on this ambient noise, and publish something with either a nofollow or a follow link.

When that happens, then Google will possibly increase the ranking of that page, because we’re increasing the perceived relevance of that page to that topic. Even though a nofollow link says to not pass any points, it still helps Google contextualise what a target page is about.

If Google was struggling up to that point, and then somebody blogs, even if it’s a nofollow link, then it will instantly help Google understand it better – and that means that it could increase in rankings, simply because Google understands more.

Here’s the video and the Q&A with Judith is from 43:17 seconds.

Want to add SEO to your PR and communications strategy or to get the very latest SEO tips specifically designed for PR practitioners?

Download our free educational SEO best practice guide for PR. 

Vuelio has the world’s most comprehensive media database, providing up to date contact details and preferences of >1million journalists and content creators. Learn more about this essential tool for successful coverage generation and linkbuilding by requesting a demo. 

Lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis

Learning the lessons from the COVID-19 crisis

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This is a guest post from Onyx Health managing director Karen Winterhalter.

Karen Winterhalter Onyx Health

Over the past 15 months, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the communication landscape in a way that few would have predicted.

As a healthcare PR agency, we’ve seen some of the challenges of getting out the right messages during a global health crisis first-hand. As we reflect on a period of seismic change for the sector, there are important lessons to learn about the way healthcare information is communicated and consumed.

1. Getting in the headlines when COVID-19 is the only game in town
The news cycle has become the COVID-19 cycle. Research by Populous shows that content related to COVID-19 made up 87% of news consumption at the peak of the crisis.

Getting stories to cut through in a news cycle clogged up by COVID-19 is no mean feat. Stories that would normally be big news could easily get overshadowed amid the melee. Moreover, many journalists experienced COVID-19 fatigue and grew weary of an inbox full of pseudo stories with tenuous links to the pandemic.

So, to get in the headlines, you need to focus on your PR fundamentals. The power of relationships, news values and authenticity, are crucial to get your message to cut through during the pandemic.

It’s about asking yourself what makes something newsworthy; you need something distinctive and eye-catching to get a journalist’s attention during the current climate.

Applying a COVID-19 lens to your media content is really important, as news coverage is filtered and perceived through this global news story. However, this must strike a difficult balance between adapting to the changing nature of the news cycle, without being cynical and jumping on the bandwagon to get coverage. Authenticity is the key to success and making sure your content hits the mark.

2. Fake news and information inequality
One of the most disturbing features of the pandemic is how quickly conspiracy theories and fake news spread like wildfire across social media. Whether its Bill Gates, 5G or China’s Wuhan lab leak, the growing mountain of misinformation created an uneasy sense that it was all a hoax, and the public were being lied to.

At a time when the Government needed the public to follow the COVID-19 restrictions, practice social distancing, and wear masks, this had serious implications for public health and the spread of the virus.

The NHS did some vitally important work with global tech giants Google, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to help lead the counterattack against fake news. This involved a series of targeted measures, including search algorithms to put NHS guidance at the top of the rankings, blue ticks for verified NHS sources and the suspension of rogue accounts spreading misinformation.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport recently launched a campaign to tackle vaccine misinformation, using a series of shareable videos and images on social media to create viral content to combat the anti-vaxxers.

Tackling fake news and information inequality is an ongoing challenge that we have yet to solve. As healthcare communicators, we have a duty to uphold the highest standards when it comes to healthcare information, challenging misleading content and promoting official sources.

3. The power of an emotional message
One of the most striking features of the COVID-19 crisis is the ability of emotionally driven messaging to deliver behaviour change.

The Government’s lockdown messaging got off to a strong start with ‘Stay at Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives’. These were clear, hard-hitting, and effective, prompting one of the most unprecedented acts of civil obedience in our peacetime history. People were left no doubt what they needed to do and why.

As the lockdown restrictions relaxed, the Government’s carefully crafted messaging unravelled. The new message ‘Stay Alert’ seemed vague and unclear. Grouping a multitude of potential behavioural responses under a single phrase lacked the same emotionally resonant call-to-action.

Learning from past mistakes, the Government’s ‘look them in the eyes’ campaign created hard-hitting TV adverts, asking viewers to think about the impact their actions might have on NHS staff and COVID-19 patients. It included a series of harrowing images of exhausted NHS staff and emaciated COVID-19 patients receiving oxygen, harnessing the power of COVID-19’s human cost to influence public behaviour.

Analysis by Britain Thinks suggests that 73% of the British public were following the rules at the height of the crisis in an extraordinary act of mass collective action. So, while delivering behaviour change isn’t easy, it is possible. Getting the public to follow the rules was a complicated task, but adopting the right communication tactics can make it happen.

For more on COVID-19’s impact on public relations, clients and consumers, download our white paper Engagement with health comms during COVID-19. 

Find out more about the work of Onyx Health by reading our previous interview with Karen Winterhalter and collaborator Jeff Winton of JWA on building healthy UK and US relations.  

Growing a collaborative and positive culture within remote teams

How Clarity grew a collaborative and positive culture within remote teams

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This is a guest post by Clarity PR’s managing director, UK and president, EMEA Rachel Gilley.

Rachel Gilley Clarity PR

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and subsequent rush to establish a 100% working from home model, has elevated the importance of wellbeing for individuals within organisations. Business leaders have had to adapt and evolve their workforces to ensure they provide both a safe and stimulating employee experience.

At Clarity, we are proud that we’ve been able to not only retain our employees but indeed grow our team significantly across 2020 and early 2021, with nine new staff onboarded remotely in our UK office alone during that time.

As a company that has always had a collaborative workplace, adept at working across geographically dispersed teams, we recognised the importance of continuing to build social ties while remote working became the norm. In a time where the word ‘Zoom’ could instill fear in the strongest of us, we have successfully leveraged the appropriate technology platforms while implementing new initiatives all with the aim of building a stronger employee experience than even pre pandemic.

Here are some of the initiatives we put in place to ensure we continued to build and nurture a winning company culture, at a time when there were no rule books or guidance for how best to succeed.

Nurturing our existing culture

Clarity’s positive culture is one of our most powerful competitive advantages and our transition to fully remote working during Covid has been testament to that fact. The technology sector we service has been particularly robust, representing brands who saw their businesses accelerate as they supported the world to manage the pandemic. But it hasn’t all been plain sailing and the agency’s existing culture – collaborative, kind, supportive – was essential in enabling us to continue to deliver on our aspirations, especially when the relentlessness of home working kicked in.

The flexible working policies and unlimited paid holiday benefits we offer have been vital in ensuring our team got the rest and recuperation they needed. Early on, we recognised we were going to have to push our teams to take time away from screens and the constant cycle of virtual calls and encouraged all employees to not only clock off on time (and yes, we were checking!), to put lunch slots in their calendars forcing them time out during the day and to book time off to avoid burnout. We might not be jetting off somewhere exotic, but we recognised that closing the laptop was extremely beneficial. Spotting the signs of potential employee burnout is harder when working remotely but I booked in individual calls with the team every second week, reminded them constantly of their holiday entitlement, reiterated the importance of taking breaks and encouraged the senior leadership team to embody these practices themselves, we had to role-model the right behaviour.

Staying apart, together

We’re a social bunch here at Clarity. It is why people join agencies; for the noise and the banter and the excitement that comes from working together. We will always find an excuse to celebrate with a drink or two, and that didn’t stop during the pandemic. The social team went into overdrive and the virtual event calendar was stacked up with Book Club, wine tasting, meditation, yoga, drag bingo and the unavoidable interactive quiz. We sent out fun care packages on special occasions and when restrictions were lifted we all met up in Hyde Park for a picnic.

A personal favourite was our ‘Glass of Clarity’ with a direct order to stop what we were working on every Thursday at 5pm, pour yourself a tipple of your choice and just have a natter with the team. When you’re not together you forget how much you use the office for general chit chat, so our Glass of Clarity was a chance to ignore work and debrief on the latest Netflix series and share tips and tricks on how to endure the boredom of lockdown.

Supporting health and wellbeing

During this period of increased pressure and anxiety, employee mental health and wellbeing was our very top priority. At a very basic level, we provided office equipment for those who needed help creating a comfortable working environment at home through to introducing weekly meditation sessions. No Meeting Fridays were introduced, a day when we asked both clients and the teams to cancel calls and we’ve since introduced Monday Call Free Mornings created to support the differing personal priorities and ways of working we had across the team.

As an agency lead, you know that you’re only ever as good as the people you hire. And I’m blessed to have the most superb team who are smart, creative and bursting with diverse opinions and mindsets. The supportive and collaborative nature of our employees meant we successfully onboarded new staff remotely, with the team wrapping their virtual arms around every new arrival, ensuring they felt part of the Clarity family as quickly as possible.

We also acquired two new agencies, which when you consider we’ve not yet met face-to-face through this period, and yet in both instances it has been a huge success, is extraordinary. Our buddy-up programme, which encourages employees to grab a virtual coffee with colleagues across all our global offices meant new bonds were created, with plans put in place to meet up IRL as soon as we can!

The path to the next normal

As we enter the next and hopefully final phase and restrictions ease, Clarity is working towards building a safe return to the office, something the team is universally keen to do. We’ll never return to the old ways of working, the new normal is a transition to a ‘next normal’ and it will come with its own challenges, managing the hybrid working model in 2021 and beyond.

What we do know is that it’s important to get the balance right. It will require testing different approaches; listening to the team and using that feedback to ensure we’re creating something special and strong that further enhances our values.

I’m incredibly proud that at Clarity we operate a flat management structure that calls regularly for the unique perspectives of the entire team wherever they sit in the business. The past year has reinforced for me that listening and then acting on that feedback quickly, means you move forward together, as one team, and that is so incredibly powerful.

For more on working remotely together, read this guest post from Middleton Consultancy Ltd’s Richard Middleton on leading different types of people while working remotely.  

PRCA

PRCA calls for an end to Parliamentary pass abuse

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The PRCA is calling for reviews and reform from Parliamentary authorities following its research into the granting of over 200 Parliamentary passes to representatives of organisations likely to be engaged in lobbying.

The analysis of the Lords and Commons Registers of the interests of staff revealed that 210 passes have been given to individuals with links outside of Parliament, including those working for think tanks, business groups and commercial enterprises.

Such passes enable access to the Parliamentary estate and it is individuals have potentially unfair access to decision-makers in politics.

Professional lobbyists represented by the PRCA – the representative body for the lobbying industry – are unable to hold passes under the Public Affairs Code, other than in exceptionally rare and publicly declared circumstances.

The PRCA is calling on Parliament representatives to:

1. Urgently review each passholder who has a second job to assess whether it is appropriate for them to continue to hold a pass.
2. Remove passes from anyone whose other roles make it inappropriate for them to have access to the Parliamentary estate.
3. Reform the rules around passes to ensure this abuse is ended permanently, and that passes are only issued to people who genuinely need them for their work for Peers or MPs.

Parliamentary Passes in numbers

Parliamentary passes data from the PRCA

PRCA Public Affairs Board chair Liam Herbert said:

‘It is extraordinary that more than 200 people likely to be lobbying for think tanks, charities, trade unions, business groups, commercial enterprises, and others have been given official sanction to have privileged access to Parliamentarians.

‘No other office building would allow unfettered access to such a huge number of people whose main place of employment is somewhere else – so it is surprising and concerning that an institution that is meant to be secure location has such a cavalier attitude to the issuing of security passes. It is even more surprising that so many of these passes are held by people whose job seems to be to influence the political process. This is unfair, untransparent, and inappropriate.

‘The PRCA Public Affairs Code prohibits the professional lobbyists it represents from holding Parliamentary passes for the obvious reason that to do so throws up real and perceived conflicts of interest. It is time for the Parliamentary authorities to meet those same ethical standards and to strip individuals of passes to which they have no legitimate right.’

The PRCA has previously called for an overhaul of the Parliamentary Passes process in a Six-Point Public Confidence Plan for lobbing reform.

Faima Bakar accessmatters

‘PRs: know your audience’ – accessmatters with freelance journalist Faima Bakar

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Our latest accessmatters session for knowledge sharing among the media, comms and PR community was with freelance journalist and Journo Resources senior staff writer Faima Bakar. Sharing her experiences as a lifestyle writer on the Metro desk, and some of the lessons she’s learned since going freelance, Faima had plenty of advice for PRs hoping to get in touch with useful pitches.

Watch our accessmatters session with Faima Bakar here.

While the relationship between PR and journalism can get contentious when either side isn’t fully cognizant or respectful of the other’s duties and deadlines…

‘When I first started at Metro, I wanted to get lots of emails,’ shared Faima. ‘My colleagues were like: ‘Be careful what you wish for.’

…relevant content is useful – provided it’s delivered in the right way. Faima had advice for PRs who want to build relationships with the media and get results:

‘Before selling-in, I would divvy up among your team who’s contacting who. Have a chat across your team and decide who’s doing what first. As a writer, I might be excited to pitch a story based on a press release you’ve sent over – it’s not good when I see another colleague is working on it already.

‘Know your audience, too. For example, the Metro lifestyle desk is very body positive, so there’s no weight loss stories unless they have an interesting angle. Every Christmas we’d get articles about all the calories in Christmas dinners, and we’d never cover those stories because we don’t want to make people feel crap. Get to know the publications you’re targeting; read what you’re interested in.’

And is what you’re pitching interesting to you? If not, there’s a good chance it won’t be of interest to the journalist either, or their readership.

‘If you’re sending a story you’re not interested in, what’s the point?’ believes Faima.

‘For my work as a freelancer, I pitch things I talk about with my friends. There’s always a way to make a story more interesting.

‘For example, a PR friend of mine had a low-calorie ice cream client and needed a way to publicise them. She decided to take a bunch of journalists to a big park full of trapeze artists because the ice cream was “lighter than air”. It was a good way to be creative – thinking outside of the box – and it was fun.’

While Faima’s work as a freelancer now means less interaction with PRs – publications will have their own staffers writing up quick-turnaround pieces from releases they receive – she has developed good relationships over the years. Building connections and proving yourself to be a useful source for journalists in your field takes time as a PR, but there are a few short cuts. Number one: getting the journalist’s name right.

‘I get called the wrong name about once a week. And I get it – it’s easy to miss a letter. But if you’re emailing because you want coverage, it helps to show attention to detail. If you call me the wrong name, it gets you on the wrong foot. That’s not to say I won’t use your email if you get the name wrong, but it’s not the best way to start.

‘As a freelancer, I’m sending pitches out to people, and I get it wrong sometimes – it’s so easy to do. But have a quick check through of your email before you send it.

‘Being a lifestyle reporter and now a freelancer, my interests were and are quite wide. I developed a good relationship with quite a few PRs – there are some I’ve never actually met, but we’ve been emailing back and forth for years.’

‘If there are journalists you want to work with, find out what works for them.’

Watch the full accessmatters session with Faima Bakar here and check out our previous sessions on the accessmatters hub.

PRCA Office Return Study

UK PR industry ready to embrace hybrid working model

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Research from the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) has found that a majority of the PR industry in the UK is prepared to move away from a traditional five-day office-based week in favour of a hybrid working model.

The PRCA’s Office Return Study of agency and in-house leaders found that 44% of senior professionals will not specify the number of days that employees will be required to work in-office, with only one in twenty industry leaders expecting employees to be office-based five days a week.

On masks, COVID-19 testing and vaccination policies, 23% have plans for weekly or fortnightly testing, while 56% have no plans as yet. Others plan to follow advice from the Government.

While 22% of those polled for the study said they have asked staff about vaccination, the majority – 86% – have no plans to implement vaccine policies.

Over half of respondents – 58% – will not require staff to wear masks, 35% will require masks to be worn in all areas except for desks, and one in twenty will require employees to wear masks throughout the working day while in the office.

‘The data from the PRCA Office Return Study are conclusive – our industry overwhelmingly stands ready to embrace a new hybrid working model,’ said PRCA director general Francis Ingham.

‘PR and communications professionals have delivered exceptional work while operating remotely. But ours is a social industry; one in which teams are built and creativity is sparked through face-to-face relationships. There are elements of our practice which simply cannot be replaced by Zoom calls. That is why our future will be built around a hybrid model that fuses the best of both worlds. But let’s be clear – for the great majority of us, our working lives have changed fundamentally and forever.’

Concerned about an eventual return to in-office working? Here are 11 ways to mentally prepare for heading back to the office with advice from mental health professionals and fellow PRs.

COVID-19 UK public relations agency startup report

Wadds Inc. Report finds a boost in startups during COVID-19 pandemic

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The COVID-19 PR Agency Startup report released by Wadds Inc. this week has encouraging news for the industry with findings that over fifty PR agencies were founded in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Along with an exploration of why so many agencies launched over such a short and challenging time-period, the report includes profiles of startups including Second Mountain Communications, BB Partners, Little Mesters, Hard Numbers, Inpulsus, Look After, Happy Yolk and CommsRebel.

Two-fifths of agency startups were founded during the first lockdown between February and July, pointing to redundancy and furlough as being key drivers for new launches and career redirections. While the pandemic proved that London-based working isn’t a requirement for business success, two-thirds of the startups were located in the UK capital.

Those interviewed for the report celebrated support for their new agencies from the industry and pointed to innovation as an area for opportunity in modern business – startups featured focus on services, business model or specialisms, and propositions centre on data, creativity and lead generation, with Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), fintech and healthcare particularly popular markets.

‘The report is dedicated to anyone who has founded an agency during the COVID-19 pandemic,’ says Wadds Inc. managing partner Stephen Waddington. ‘It celebrates your work. It’s also intended as a source of inspiration for anyone considering setting up their own agency.’

PRCA director general Francis Ingham is encouraged by the data: ‘It’s hard not to feel optimistic about the future of our industry after reading the findings included in the report. The PR industry has adapted remarkably well to the pandemic and the explosion of new agencies is testament to the strength of our practice.’

Read the full report here.

For more from Stephen Waddington download our whitepaper The ESG Opportunity for PR, co-authored with Dr Jon White and featuring insight from Rebecca Zeitlin.

Women in Transport

Women in Transport selects Jo Field as president

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Women in Transport has elected CIPR fellow Jo Field as President for a four-year term.

The not-for-profit professional membership network, which celebrates its 15th year this June, works to empower women in the transport sector to maximise their potential and provides access to leadership training, mentoring, events and its All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG).

JFG Communications founder and managing director Jo Field brings experience of driving equalities initiatives, including an award-winning accessibility campaign, a women’s sponsorship programme and a youth panel, and a passion for addressing women’s under-representation in the transport industry.

‘It is an honour to become President of Women in Transport and I would like to thank our members, Board and Chief Executive for putting their trust in me,’ said Jo.

‘I am a passionate campaigner for gender equality and I bring this energy and expertise to the role.

‘It is important for PR professionals to have senior roles in any organisation to shape strategy and build advocacy for its work.

‘My election as President recognises the important role that communications professionals play in the transport industry, from engaging customers and stakeholders to making the case for infrastructure and services.

‘I look forward to using my experience to advocate for Women in Transport and boost our connections with industry employers, parliamentarians and government to enable us to create positive change for our members and ensure we have an even greater voice on the issues that matter to us.’

Prior to founding JFG Communications, Jo spent almost ten years at Transport for London, leading its stakeholder engagement team, building stakeholder support and advocacy for London’s transport infrastructure. She has been named among the 100 most influential women in Westminster as well as one of the top ten most inspirational women in public affairs.

The Women in Transport Board members working alongside the new president are vice president Marny Moruzzi, past president Katie Hulland, events lead Steve Griffiths, marketing lead Nicola McMillan, regional coordinator Asiya Jelani and regional lead – West Midlands Alliance Daljit Kalirai.

Find out more about the Women in Transport Board here.