Live Music Now – communications strategies for work in care homes and SEND schools

“You’ve given us a lot to think about and clear advice on next steps too which has been invaluable. The PowerPoint you made for us has already been very helpful.  I’ll be using elements of it next week at our Board Strategy day and as a reference guide as we develop the schools comms.  We used the language in our updated Schools Programme leaflet and it works so much better than our previous leaflets.” Karen Irwin, Strategic Director (Children and Young People).  

 

Live Music Now’s strategic director (Children & Young People) wanted to improve the way the team communicates and advocates for their special educational needs schools programme. The aim was to be able to communicate consistently, with clarity and impact.

Anita began with a series of interviews with special school headteachers and music leads, to find out how they perceived the organisation, what they thought of its communications, and what ‘messages’ they wanted to hear when contracting providers.

She then gathered the views of the team through a team survey and ran a workshop to share the results of the interviews, and discuss ways forward. This looked at customers and impact (where are we now); the ingredients for attracting and retaining customers (where do we want to get to);  and improvements or additions to communications (how do we get there).

Further discussions with the team looked at language and messaging, and how this could be improved.

Anita then developed a set of recommendations and a ‘strategy in one page’, and carried out improvements to website copy and promotional handouts.

A similar process followed with the Adult Social Care team/ care homes team.

Team members now have a clearer, more consistent way of communicating, and are more confident about how to best use their time and resources.