2. t
JUDGES’ COMMENT
Bridget was able to influence the internal fire
service Corporate Management Board as well as
the more political Fire Authority Board to move
communications and public relations from a
tactical to a strategic platform. She gave strong
examples to evidence the difference she had
made ensuring consistently high standards of
professionalism. She has helped the organisation
to move from being inwardly focused to
consulting more widely with the communities
it serves and embracing proactive, engaging
communications to win public support. She is a
dynamic, hardworking, articulate professional
who is a credit to our industry.
Background
I was appointed Head of Corporate Communications
and Administration for Nottinghamshire Fire and
Rescue Service (NFRS) in October 2013. The brief
set on appointment was to rejuvenate a once
effective Corporate Communications function
that had suffered strategic drift and setbacks due
to various issues. Changes to the fire and rescue
service (reductions in traditional activity fighting fires,
changing risks, reducing budgets), vastly different
stakeholder expectations along with publics wanting
to engage with services in newer methods, in addition
to organisational and departmental change, meant
communications policies and activities were no longer
appropriate.
Board communications
Board members are aware effective communication
is vital to success in a difficult environment and felt
that priorities should be around making the function
more strategic. Reputation management issues were
regularly visible during reactive / crisis situations
and, during a number of incidents prior to my arrival,
stakeholders had been dissatisfied with the work of
NFRS (expressing it via numerous channels including
direct contact and media / social media), despite
the Service having done a good technical job. While
board-level colleagues could see problems overtly
in these circumstances, it was entrusted to me to
evaluate and review the situation further to come up
with possible solutions and new methods of working.
Original lines of reporting were solely into the
Director of Corporate Services with a quarterly
briefing with Chief Fire Officer, Chairman of the Fire
Authority and Director of Finance. Since my arrival,
this has been enhanced with a dotted line to the
Deputy Chief Fire Officer (Director of Operations) to
enhance the advisory role of communications to the
director of the largest staff body as well as support
the required integration of communications to main
business of the Service.
My role / stakeholder engagement
To assess requirements, it was important to engage
with a variety of internal and external stakeholders,
understand their work and its interdependencies with
that of others (including the work of my department),
listen to views and understand desired outcomes. It
became clear NFRS once had good communication
policies and processes – but these hadn’t evolved
as the world changed. Engagement activities
often took place in isolation and, regularly, with no
influence from the central communications team.
There was confusion about channels, how they’re
interdependent with each other and the core work
of the Service and this often led to the reputational
crises described above.
An MSc in Public Service Management presented
opportunities to analyse the situation in the depth
that academia requires as well as researching
NFRS and its public relations needs in the context
of leading writers and thinkers. One particular
assignment examined the communications
department and developments necessary to become
the strategic function required by the service – this
included a SWOT, PESTLE and took into account vital
references such as the GCS competency framework
– and received a commendation with Nottingham
Business School (Nottingham Trent University)
describing findings “genuinely useful”.
I have been able to provide compelling evidence
to support my suggestions for developments and
improvements by having had senior roles in two
high performing and award-winning Corporate
Communications teams, which both truly delivered
strategic communications functions (Greater
Manchester Police and Greater Manchester Fire and
Rescue Service).
Using all that and through forging long-term
relationships with all key Service stakeholders,
trust has been gained to try different approaches.
Communications practitioners in Corporate
Communications were being used solely for
marcomms tactics and materials and, consequently,
were being utilised too late to influence outcomes
CATEGORY CIPR IoD Public Relations
Director of the Year
COMPANY Nottinghamshire Fire
and Rescue Service
NAME Bridget Aherne MCIPR
3. / provide strategic public relations advice as business was
developed. During 2014, this shifted and the team is now
being used at earlier stages as well as the practitioners in
the team being developed to deliver advice and tactics
across a greater range of activities and channels – creating
much- needed resilience in the team.
Progress, evaluation, reflections
To ensure colleagues at all levels consider communications
and its importance in their role, communications injects
and scenarios have been put into every recruitment process
from the newly recruited Chief Fire Officer downwards,
training is being put into every development opportunity
from first line manager upwards – and these activities have
already produced results with the support of Corporate
Communications being requested earlier and for more than
traditional media relations or marketing tactics.
Some results, outcomes achievements include:
• A reduction in the number of press releases issued in
2014 (down 50 per cent from 2013)
• Audiences on key channels Twitter and Facebook grown
by fourfold and threefold respectively during 2014
• The team using a greater range of content across all
channels
• Better engagement and management of reputation
because the right channels are being used at the right
time in the right way.
These accomplishments were particularly evident during a
controversial consultation to reduce resources (where there
was increased participation across a number of channels
as well as significantly improved media coverage due to
enhanced media relations) and, significantly, during a large
incident where a £20m iconic building was lost. Integrated
communications led to leveraging interest in the incident,
not only to disseminate essential information concerning
public safety but to gain stakeholder support, thus avoiding
the dissatisfaction / reputational crisis that had happened in
similar circumstances before my appointment.
As described, there have been some successes in my first
year in post but further developments are required. The
resources in the team are still aligned to the traditional
outputs of Corporate Communications teams while some
parts of the Service continue using the team in traditional
ways – we must create capacity and deliver activities in
different ways to enable consistent performance and
continued delivery growth of newer / digital activities.
Also remaining unresolved is the issue of how to provide
resilient 24/7 communications activities / support for a
24/7 emergency service in what is now a 24/7 news and
communications world. These are key priorities for 2015
and, hopefully, I will be able to work towards these through
the stakeholder support and evidence base I have created
through the successes of my first year.
4. ABOUT US
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