Internal Communications Team win CIPR PRide Award

The innovative work by the Community Integrated Care’s Internal Communications Team has been recognised at the prestigious Chartered Institute of PR (CIPR) Pride North West Awards.

Our Internal Communications Team of two collected the Gold Award for Best Internal Communications Campaign. This success celebrated their innovation in launching the leading intranet and business social network platforms, Microsoft Office 365 and Yammer to the charity. Their award recognised the teams’ creativity in launching the platforms to our employees across the UK. 

They developed an exciting launch event, which created a network of champions for the new platforms and built anticipation within the charity for the launch of the product. Office 365 and Yammer has since been core to the charity’s internal communications efforts, supporting better connectivity and information sharing across the organisation.

The Community Integrated Care Internal Communications team is made up of Danielle Chan, Head of Internal Communications and Engagement, and Siobhan Biggane, Senior Internal Communications and Engagement Officer. Having both worked for the charity for a number of years in a broad Communications and Marketing Team, earlier this year they established the charity’s first dedicated Internal Communications function.

The leading internal communications experts who judged the awards praised the pair, describing their work as “a successful internal communications campaign, grounded in strong research and planning from the start”. Their work was commended as ‘exceeding expectations’ and ‘clearly delivering the desired cultural change within the organisation’. The CIPR PRide Awards recognise the outstanding work in communications and public relations.

The team was shortlisted alongside Rolls Royce and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust. This award win follows the pair collecting two prestigious awards at the Institute of Internal Communications Awards last month, where they were awarded the Best In-House Team and Best Live Event accolades.

Danielle Chan, Head of Customer & Stakeholder Engagement, says: “To deliver great care and support services, we need to enable our colleagues to have easy access to information and support collaboration. The introduction of Office 365 and Yammer has been vital in supporting this goal. It was a tremendous honour to receive such great feedback on our project and to receive this prestigious award. It is a special achievement for our charity and small team to be showcased on this big stage.”

The charity was further represented at the event with our Head of Communications and Marketing, John Hughes, being named as a finalist in the Best Community Relations Campaign category. This recognised his achievement in launching EachStep Blackburn, our pioneering new dementia care service that was last week named as the ‘Best Dementia Care Home’ at the National Dementia Care Awards. His efforts have seen the care home develop flourishing partnerships with community groups and the likes of Blackburn Rovers FC.

John Hughes, Head of Communications and Marketing, says “At Community Integrated Care we are passionate about involving local people and bringing communities together. To have our community engagement efforts recognised with such a prestigious award nomination was a real honour.”