Engage Britain (now part of Demos) brought people together to tackle the United Kingdom's biggest challenges, giving them more say on the big decisions that affect our everyday lives. Working with a leading brand agency and a sustainability-led web agency, we created a brand identity and website that reflected the organisation's aims and values.
Social mobility – state of the nation
The Social Mobility Commission, part of the Department for Education, promotes social mobility in England. Twice in a row we won the contract to produce the Commission's annual report, which presents comprehensive data on child poverty across the UK.
Our team worked with the Commission to produce and implement a house style for text and data visualisations. Working to a tight schedule, we delivered the report to the UK Parliament on time and on budget, working with senior figures within the Commission to ensure quality control and editorial approval.
At a time when austerity was still a central plank of economic policy, the reports ensured that the Commission's messages about reducing child poverty and inequality were heard across Government.
Promoting young people’s mental health
Research led by Hillingdon Healthwatch showed that mental health services for young people in the area were disjointed and under increasing pressure. We produced a short film to highlight the issues, along with a report based on research undertaken with young people, their parents and mental health professionals. The results were distributed to local schools and service providers and shared online. The project encouraged a move towards better communication between providers and more ‘joined-up’ services.
Building healthcare success for digital agency
Building relationships with new audiences requires knowledge and expertise – and a degree of commitment. A successful digital agency wanted to attract new clients in the healthcare and not-for-profit sectors. We worked with them to help position the organisation and supported them in developing a marketing strategy and online modules tailored to the needs of their intended new client base, to build the agency's credibility as potential long-term development partners for NHS and voluntary organisations.
Photo by Maranda Vandergriff on Unsplash
Primary care data visualisation
We prepared a fast-turnaround slide deck for the Nuffield Trust as part of a joint project with The King’s Fund to highlight the results of a survey into the attitudes of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) to reform. The results revealed optimism about upcoming changes to their commissioning role, though suggested that careful implementation will be key.
Energy research aims to keep the lights on
Sustainable energy production that keeps “lights on, and bills down” is key to reducing Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the UK Energy Research Centre, based at Imperial College London. We designed a newsletter to help the Centre increase engagement with their research programme and encourage contribution to the debate.
“MBC supplied a knowledgeable and responsive service with clear communication, and took the time to understand our needs.”
Myeloma infographic
Junior doctors' intranet
As a major teaching hospital, this London trust has a regular rotation of junior doctors in training.
Feedback from previous cohorts had suggested that provision of a central intranet hub would improve information flow and increase their feeling of engagement with the Trust.
In response we created a ‘Junior Doctors' Mess’: an intranet portal for accessing a range of human and academic resources that also offered opportunities for social interaction.
As part of the project we convened a junior doctors’ editorial group, to act as a sounding board during development.
Photo by Headway on Unsplash
Promoting the Olympic legacy
The Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, an Olympic legacy project designed to improve both elite sports medicine and public health, asked MB Communications to build its new website and manage an ongoing digital communications programme.
The project involved managing the procurement, design and development of the website as a digital communications hub that also encompasses social media and regular news updates.
A year after launch, the website attracts over 4,000 visitors monthly (a 300 per cent increase) and has been central to the Institute's growth.
Communicating the case for change in the NHS
Finding new ways to deliver health services is central to the NHS’ modernisation agenda. The NHS Confederation wanted to illustrate a range of service innovations being developed across England, with a focus on how organisations were engaging with and consulting professionals, patients and the wider community.
We conducted a series of interviews with senior communications and project professionals undertaking five major reconfiguration initiatives. These formed the basis of a series of briefings for senior NHS managers. Printed copies were sent to the target audience by direct mail, with the digital version forming part of the NHS Confederation’s online resources around reconfiguration.
Commercial partnerships brochure
Attracting supporters and exhibitors is a key part of the marketing programme for the NHS Confederation annual conference and exhibition.
We edited the text and worked with the Confederation’s rostered agency to produce an eye-catching design to help the events team achieve their sponsorship target.
Young people’s cancer service booklet
The Teenage Cancer Trust
Teenagers and Young People’s
Cancer Service at UCLH is the primary treatment centre for teenage cancer in London and the South East. We were asked to co-write and design a brochure for GPs detailing the services offered and explaining how to refer patients to the Unit.
The brochure has just been reprinted for a second time.
Enhancing emergency information
A London teaching hospital wanted to update its information for patients attending the Emergency Department (A+E). The aim was to inform patients about the best way to manage a range of common conditions, as well as describe the ‘A+E journey’ and suggest appropriate alternatives to A+E.
We edited text and gained clinical approval for a suite of 40 new leaflets (including foreign language versions), then designed and managed printing.
Mental health trust core copy
Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust was undergoing a transformation programme and needed to communicate its vision for change to patients, the media and the local community.
We conducted interviews with senior staff and patient representatives to produce agreed ‘core copy’ to be used as the basis for online copy, information leaflets and externally placed articles.
Nuffield Trust: publishing strategy and training
To support the publishing programme at the Nuffield Trust, we designed a programme of process mapping, writing training and internal communications, to improve the quality of writing and engagement with the publishing programme.
The programme has delivered improvements in writing quality and helped streamline the delivery of publishing projects, as well as providing a series of reference documents and an up-to-date style guide.
The programme has also developed the publishing workflow to accommodate ebooks and print-on-demand editions.
“Understood us as an organisation, built good relationships and managed implementation astutely. Developed and successfully implemented writing training programmes that have upskilled our researchers.”
Daniel Reynolds,
Communications Director
Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash
Improving information for patients
A high-performing NHS foundation trust wanted to create an information booklet for new inpatients, as part of a welcome pack that would also contain socks, slippers and other useful items. We created a design concept for board approval, then edited text and developed the layout. We also produced a safety leaflet and contact card for insertion into the pack.
Since launch the welcome pack has contributed to improved patient feedback and a reduction in readmissions; the pack was runner-up in the Patient Information Network awards ‘Access to Information’ category.
London teaching hospital website
As part of a major site redevelopment, we were asked to edit over 200 pages of text for a London teaching hospital’s new website, to ensure the site content was ready ahead of launch.
NHS Confederation: editorial training
The NHS Confederation publishing team was highly experienced, but wanted to move beyond competence to achieve editorial excellence.
We designed and delivered a workshop to first define the key features of top-class copy-editing and then map out a practical implementation process.
The workshop received positive feedback from both course participants and managers.
Photo by Mimi Thian on Unsplash
Health and wellbeing infographic
We were commissioned to produce a briefing to map the role of Health and Wellbeing Boards in the new NHS commissioning landscape, as part of a joint NHS Confederation/Local Government Association project.
Central to this was an infographic poster, highlighting the role of the voluntary sector in developing local commissioning plans.
Nuffield Trust publications
We have produced a wide range of publications for the Nuffield Trust, both working within the brand guidelines and developing new design directions.
Projects have included a publication to mark the NHS’ 65th anniversary and a new series of policy briefings on key topics in health care, to be published around the 2015 General Election.
For each publishing project, we recruited a team of designers and editors to help deliver the project, and managed print procurement.
“Matthew has a very wide knowledge of publishing. His experience has been central to implementation of an ambitious programme. He can always be relied upon to remain calm and collected, and to turn projects round quickly.”