Planning for better health – based on best practice

The NHS 10-Year Plan, published last year, sets out the vision for a health service that is ‘fit for the future’. There is a question of course as to whether the NHS is fit enough now, or indeed how it can be in the future, such is the pressure on budgets and resource. Much will need to change in the way the service runs, and in the way that people take more responsibility for their own health, if we are to achieve the change required. 

The Plan sets out three strategic shifts (hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention), and it is the latter that we’ll discuss here. The need for self-care, to encourage people to seek out healthier behavioural choices, to lessen the need for health care and treatment. Change will need to start with the individual, then the state, in this ‘new contract with the public’. We’re all in this together is the message. Just as much as we need intensive care units and trauma specialists for when things go wrong, we need the public to first have a decent first aid kit, a daily walk and plenty of fruit and veg in their diet. 

In some of our recent blog posts, we have been reflecting on our conversations with various communications leads from around the country. We covered a range of topics, including reactions to the NHS 10-Year Plan. Responses were naturally varied. From the ‘I don't think anything’s going to change overnight and I don’t think anything that’s in the plan isn’t stuff that’s been talked about in some form before,’ to the ‘We were definitely pleased to see that there are things within the plan that we’ve been asking for and championing for’. A key theme that emerged from the interviews was the existing level of demand on the health service and the current squeeze on budgets. Let’s not forget that this Plan was launched at a time of seismic change being imposed on national and local organisations across the NHS. One interviewee spoke of a ‘holy trinity’ of no money, poor regulatory performance and large-scale change. Let’s be honest, it’s a difficult base from which to develop radical reform seeking to transform the public/patient relationship with the NHS.

But what can be done? And where can we learn from? The concept of social marketing would appear to be one answer, now quite long in the making. Nudge theory has proved that it is possible to bump people along in a healthier direction, if we make the change easy and attractive enough. 

One example of work in this area has been the Better Health marketing brand from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). Better Health is based around simple and easy-to-understand messaging and imagery – ‘being healthy doesn’t have to be a chore and it can be rewarding,’ and ‘Healthy changes start with simple steps.’

The brand and campaign has a set of core principles, which can link across to any behavioural change campaign in this space. In line with the framework developed by the national Behavioural Insights Team, Better Health seeks to promote messaging that is easy, attractive, social and timely (EAST).

At Touch, we have developed numerous behaviour change campaigns, in health and local government, which all aim to benefit the individual and society, turning understanding into action. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. us today to see how we can help you achieve your goals for your target audience.