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Helping an NHS Trust take a visible stand against abuse

me&you created campaign assets to help an NHS Trust visually demonstrate what they're doing to tackle abuse against their hospital staff.


Challenge

Around 1 in 7 (14.7%) of all staff who responded to a 2022 NHS staff survey said they’d experienced at least one incident of physical violence from patients, service users, their relatives or other members of the public in the last 12 months.

The impact on staff is significant across the NHS, with violence and aggression contributing to 46.8% of staff feeling unwell because of work-related stress.

When Barking, Havering and Redbridge University NHS Trust (BRHUT) approached us in late 2023, the Trust had a number of plans and strategies in the pipeline to help prevent and reduce violence and aggression, and ensure their hospital staff were supported, safe and secure at work.

They asked us to create a campaign that would simultaneously help raise public awareness of the issue, make perpetrators of abuse aware of the consequences of their actions, and visibly demonstrate the Trust’s commitment to protecting their staff.

The campaign would launch alongside a refreshed policy, bespoke training for staff, and the expansion in the use of body cameras.

Solution

The Trust’s internal teams undertook some research to understand what a cross-range of colleagues, from Emergency Department staff, to union reps and network chairs, wished to see in the campaign messaging.

They wanted to see hard-hitting messages and photos and stories of real staff members which demonstrated different forms of violence and aggression, and how it affects staff.

We developed a visual look and feel for the campaign and rapidly organised a number of photoshoots with real members of hospital staff.

As with all of me&you’s creative campaigns, we ensured the campaign achieved our RED standard. The campaign was Relevant, the messaging clear, concise and to the point. The visuals were Emotive through the use of high-quality photography of real hospital staff in their uniforms, accompanied by hard-hitting stories about the abuse they’ve faced. Lastly the campaign was Distinct. This was achieved by using a bright and striking orange colour from the NHS palette, along with a graphic cross shape which would contain the staff photos while reinforcing the campaign’s overall ‘Stop, don’t abuse our staff’ messaging.

 

Impact

Our aim was to demonstrate the Trust’s stance on abuse in a powerful and visual way, and help support their other strategies, and ultimately make a significant impact on bringing down incidents of abuse.

Feedback on the campaign from hospital staff was overwhelmingly positive who said it perfectly fitted what they wanted to see from both a design and messaging point of view.

Reading the stories from their colleagues helped Trust’s staff realise afresh that abuse should not be a part of their job and they shouldn’t just accept it or make excuses for bad behaviour.

The campaign achieved considerable media coverage, with articles appearing on BBC, Daily Mail and The Standard’s websites.

 

“A massive thank you to the me&you team for pulling this out the bag for us! I know it’s been a pretty quick turnaround and a bumpy road at times; however, we’ve delivered on time, on budget, and we’re so pleased with the materials. Really looking forward to the launch and the impact this important campaign achieves. Thank you so much again.”


Hazel Melnick Deputy Director of Communications and Engagement, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust

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