Challenge
The Humber, Coast and Vale Health and Care Partnership Integrated Care System (ICS) was renamed Humber and North Yorkshire and made plans for the legal and statutory establishment of the Integrated Care Board (ICB) on 1 July 2022.
Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership comprises of NHS organisations, local councils, health and care providers and voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations. It works across a geographical area of more than 1,500 square miles and serves a population of 1.7 million people. The area includes the cities of Hull and York and the large rural areas across East Yorkshire, North Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire.
The challenge for the NECS Communication and Engagement team was to project manage and deliver a refreshed identity for the new ICS, complete with a set of public channels of communication including a new website, brand, marketing collateral and provide guidance for the new brand’s use across the newly-established ICS, all within a six-week timescale.
Tasks
The team set about securing external technical support and ensuring NHS website security protocols in relation to digital products were understood and adhered to.
The scope of work was set out and a creative brief agreed with Humber, Coast and Vale senior leadership and with the brief agreed, the team could set to work on delivering the range of products quickly but without compromising on quality.
At the start of the project the NECS team took soundings from a range of website users and stakeholders to inform the structure and presentation of the proposed website. Their input fed into a brief for the website and branding designers.
A full range of creative options were presented to the customer and once feedback was gathered, a final design and brand was presented. Now the work to create digital resources could start.
One of the challenges faced by the team was working through a logical and ‘fit for purpose’ way of communicating a master brand that would accommodate geographic places and health and social care partnerships, as well as fit seamlessly with the ICB branding, which follows NHS brand guidelines.
Outcome
The overall project was delivered within scope, timescales and budget. The team delivered and
migrated content from the Humber, Coast and Vale website to a content management system platform
and the Humber and North Yorkshire website was launched on 1 April 2022.
The team successfully managed the relationship with Clinical Commissioning Groups, local authorities
and other stakeholders that played a role within the partnership throughout to ensure that they were
informed about developments in the project and made branded materials such as PowerPoint template
designs, letterheads, report designs, pull-up banners and other materials were made available to
stakeholders.
We set out a brief to create a new brand and identity for Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership. We also required a new website to match the refreshed identity of the Partnership and to host statutory requirements of the Integrated Care Board (ICB).
The team at NECS worked with a design and website agency to gain insight from stakeholders before developing some initial concepts. A selection of these concepts were refined and presented to partners within the Partnership before a final selection was made.
The new brand provides a recognisable, engaging and visually appealing identity whichwent live on 1 April 2022 and has generally received a positive response from colleagues, partners and stakeholders. A website was developed alongside this brand to meet the needs and functionality required and is also visually appealing and has been well received.