The Public Sector Communications Conference

Sharon Sawers is the Director of Communication at the Cabinet Office. She leads external and internal communications including campaigns on priorities such as EU Exit and the Union.  

Prior to this she spent a decade at the Home Office as head of marketing and insight, leading campaigns to reduce crime, recruit police and tackle illegal migration.

Before working in Government she worked at media and advertising agencies including Saatchi and Saatchi.  

For the past thirteen years, Francis Ingham has been Director General of the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), operating out of London, Singapore, and Dubai; and for the past seven years has also held the position of Chief Executive of the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO), operating in 70 countries across the globe. 

Representing over 35,000 practitioners, the PRCA is the largest PR professional body in the world. ICCO is the voice of public relations consultancies around the world. Its membership comprises 41 national trade associations, collectively representing over 3,000 PR firms.

Ingham’s background is in politics and public affairs, having previously worked for the Conservative Party and the Confederation of British Industry. He sits on the UK Government Communication Service Strategy and Evaluation Council, and leads the membership body for UK local government communicators, LG Comms. He was External Examiner to the American University at Richmond, and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster.

Educated at Oxford University where he read Politics, Philosophy and Economics, he appears in both the UK and the Global editions of PR Week’s PowerBook.

Laurian is a CIPR Fellow and award-winning Chartered PR Practitioner. She is currently the Head of Engagement for Welsh Parliament and has previously held senior positions in 10 Downing Street and Cabinet Office. Laurian is also the Founder and Co-President of Women in PR Cymru, International Board member of Global Women in PR, a Chartered Assessor for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and listed in PRWeek’s Power Book 2021.

Twitter: @laurian_10

Andrea is an experienced communications professional who has successfully transitioned between the public and private sector. She is Director of Communications at Surrey County Council with responsibility for communicating to its 1.1 million residents and is currently leading the County's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her previous role at global corporation KBR she led the communications strategy for a major corporate re-structuring, deploying to the company's HQ in Houston to work directly to the new Global CEO. During her 6 years on the UK Board, she led the development of a new brand and organisational culture programme. 

In her early Government career, Andrea supported the work of the Downing Street communications team, working closely with a number of Government departments as well as overseeing cross-government communications the government’s crisis response committee COBR(A).

Her strong background operating at a senior level in government communications and at Board level means she has excellent political judgement and strong leadership. She is passionate about politics and driving government policy. She thrives working in an environment where she can make a difference.

Paul Bates is Director of Strategy and Communications at the London Borough of Lambeth. He was appointed to the role in July 2019, reporting to the Chief Executive, Andrew Travers.

He joined Lambeth following a career in senior communications and external affairs roles, most recently at Notting Hill Genesis Housing and its predecessor organisation, Genesis Housing Association, where he was Director of Communications and External Affairs. Prior to that, he headed up communications at LB of Barking and Dagenham and before that at Luton Borough Council. Paul has also worked in HM Treasury on the establishment of what was Infrastructure UK and for Local Partnerships as Head of Communications.

Paul was also Head of Media at what was Help the Aged (now merged into Age UK) and led the Stop AIDS Campaign, a coalition of over 20 of the largest UK-based international charities united to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Paul is currently a Trustee of the Albert Kennedy Trust (akt), a charity working to combat homelessness among LGBTQ+ youth. He is also an Honorary Alderman of the LB of Southwark, where he was an elected councillor from 2002 – 2010.

Claire Riley is the Executive Director of communications and corporate affairs for Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and is also communications lead for the North East’s ICS/ICP, North Tyneside and Northumberland Clinical Commissioning Group.  Claire is a qualified marketer and has a post graduate diploma in Marketing and a BA (Hons) in Business Management & Organisations with extensive experience in business, marketing and communications across public and private sectors.  She is a qualified and experienced lecturer.   Claire joined the trust in 2010 from her role as director of communications for the North East Strategic Health Authority, previous to this Claire was the marketing manager for Northumbrian Water Ltd. 

Claire is a non-executive director for a number of local and national organisations including; Explain Market Research Ltd, Active Northumberland, Age Uk (Everyday), Helpforce and is also Chair of Governors for Ashington Academy in Northumberland.

Claire holds the freedom of the City of London, is married with two girls, is a long-suffering Newcastle United fan and a life-long Wham! fan.

Paul Compton is Head of Communications and Engagement at Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service, which is the largest non-metropolitan fire and rescue service in England, covering 1.8 million residents and large tourist influx every summer. He leads a communications and engagement team of 11, which recently won an internal award for handling communications during the pandemic.

For the last three years, Paul has also been chair of FirePRO, which is the national membership body for communications professionals in the fire and rescue sector, transforming the national committee, developing training and support for members and developing communications standards for the sector, which are set to be consulted upon this year.

Paul has worked in communications for 19 years across local government, NHS and blue light services.

Claire leads the communications and engagement team, comprising 12 communications professionals in two distinct specialist teams: strategic external and internal communications. They are part of the Advancement function, working strategically across Communications, Marketing and Development and Alumni Relations, delivering to the University Strategy 2017-2027 and the Global Strategy. She is a member of the Advancement senior leadership team. 

Through strategic communications activity, her team builds and manages Durham University’s external reputation with international, national and regional stakeholders and leads University-wide staff and student internal communications and engagement. They work across all areas of the University business.

Specifically, their remit covers strategic positioning and messaging; strategic stakeholder engagement; media relations; research profile raising; promoting thought leadership; corporate communications, including crisis, reputation and issues management; and leadership of University-wide internal communications and engagement including management of their core internal communications channels.

Smyth Harper is head of communications at Lancashire County Council, one of the biggest and most complex councils in the country, where he leads Lancashire's highly-regarded multi-agency communications response to the pandemic.

Prior to working at Lancashire County Council he held a range of senior public sector communications roles including: head of communications at Greater Manchester Combined Authority which included managing the comms for the Mayor of Greater Manchester's office and the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service; head of news and media at Manchester City Council; and head of Greater Manchester Police's press office. Before working in communications Smyth was a journalist, but don't hold this against him.

Outside of work he chairs LGBT Foundation, one of the UK's leading equality charities and is chair of governors at his local primary school. An Irishman who has made Manchester his home, Smyth has three cats who permit him and his partner Ed to live with them. Pre-pandemic he spent too much time on karaoke and not enough time in the gym.

Marysia started her career as a local journalist before moving into corporate communications within the NHS.

Marysia has been a senior manager within public sector communications for almost 15 years, leading a diverse range of crisis communications, campaigns, service change communications and, incongruously, information governance and Freedom of Information (FOI).

She joined Scotland’s national fire and rescue service just over two years ago where she has undertaken a significant restructure and redevelopment of the communications function and team.

Mark joined Alder Hey in July 2017 from the UK Charity Beating Bowel Cancer, where he was Chief Executive.  He has a degree in Medieval History from the University of St Andrews and has worked for most of his career in the Third Sector in Communications, Campaigns and Policy.  Mark has extensive health experience, having worked at senior level in the Royal College of GPs, Royal College of Nursing, Diabetes UK and elsewhere.  Mark is responsible for internal and external communications, including media relations, brand, staff engagement campaigns and the website.

Niamh is a skilled communications professional with 16 years of experience in journalism, public relations and press office communications within both public and private sector organisations. Currently working as the Head of Communications and Engagement at Avon & Somerset Police & Crime Commissioner. She has extensive experience in communications project planning and management, and passionate about how the right communications, to the right audiences through the right channels is an immensely positive force for good.

Dan has over 20 years' experience in NHS communications. He is currently Director of Communications at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, a specialist mental health and learning disability services provider. He is also Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Communications Research, New Bucks University.

You can find him on Twitter @Dan_Charlton1

Jo has been closely involved with the Engage for Success movement as a volunteer since its launch.  She is Partnerships Director as well as co-host of the weekly Engage for Success radio show. The Engage for Success purpose is ‘Inspiring people and workplaces to thrive’ which is absolutely aligned with Jo’s own vision ‘To make workplaces better places to be’.

Jo’s ‘day job’ is MD of Woodreed, a specialist ad agency who use the tools, techniques, creativity and insight of the advertising world to engage employees inside organisations.

Jo is passionate about brands and their power to move people.  She is equally passionate about employee engagement and its vital role in delivering a high performing organisation. Put the two together and she becomes almost evangelical about the power a well-positioned and consistently delivered brand has as a catalyst for employee engagement and organisational success.
 

Twitter handle for Woodreed                     @TunWellsWoodies

Linkedin profile                                                 Jo Moffatt

Twitter handle for Engage For Success    @Engage4Success

Anna is an accomplished public affairs and communication specialist, lobbyist and campaigner with over twenty years’ experience in organisations that include Liberty, Labour Campaign for Human Rights, National Council for One Parent Families, Times Higher Education and the Association of School and College Leaders. An experienced facilitator, trainer and public speaker, she is also a former family and human rights solicitor. 

A marketing professional previously working at leading direct marketing agency Lowe and Partners. After a 15 year career break agency side I returned to the lure of Local Government having started my professional career at Brighton Council. Because….well there is never a dull moment, you never know what is going to land on your desk next.  A creative communications specialist striving for targeted communications based on data driven insights. Always looking for the new way in to reach different audiences and talk to them in a way that is meaningful to them.  

Amanda is the Head of Communications at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust. She is a CIPR member and has undertaken continuous professional development for the best part of nearly two decades. She has a particular interest in the use of behavioural science to inform communications work.

Amanda is a qualified and practising executive-level coach and mediator.

Jo likes to make complex things simple and to use communications to deliver lasting change.

Starting his career in politics, Jo built a reputation for delivering impactful, engaging and community-led campaigns before moving into the higher education sector where he has held several senior roles with remits covering PR, engagement, internal communications, reputation management and branding.

In his current role, Jo has helped UWL establish itself as the University of the Year for Student Experience according to The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021