Inquiries Case Study
The situation
For over four years Crest delivered day-to-day comms for a large statutory inquiry, including handling and responding to media enquiries, drafting press releases and statements, disseminating on social media channels. We were asked to plan the publication of the inquiry’s first report. Planning for this began with early liaison with legal teams to understand likely findings and recommendations and inform outline thinking on communications strategy.
Our response
We recognised the importance of ensuring stakeholders, in particular bereaved families, were kept informed and that their needs were taken into consideration wherever possible and practical. We adopted a ‘cross-inquiry’ approach holding meetings with report writers, legal teams and secretariat to create a plan which worked for internal and external stakeholders. We liaised with the inquiry’s core participants, such as relevant police forces and public bodies, ensuring that they understood the Inquiry’s plans while respecting its independence. We took particular care to identify and meet the needs of the bereaved, adopting a trauma-informed approach and ensuring psychological support was on hand.
As the inquiry took place during lockdown restrictions, we facilitated a secure media lock-in to ensure journalists had time to digest and understand the report properly before publishing their reports.
The impact
The report was covered locally, nationally and globally across broadcast, print and specialist news. Feedback from the legal team was extremely positive, with Solicitor to the Inquiry, with more than 20 years experience in this role, saying it was “by far the most well thought out and planned report publication / media lock-in” that they had worked with.
“We knew that with Crest managing and delivering our social media it was in safe hands - we were confident that they weren’t just publishing material - they understood the context, the sensitivity - the whole bigger picture around the legal process. Everybody recognised that publication of the report was going to be a very significant, sensitive moment - especially for the bereaved. Crest put huge effort into making sure we planned everything together, and that our preparations and working with stakeholders and families were meticulous, practical and deliverable. The success we had on the day was in large part down to this meticulous planning.”
Inquiry Secretary