I’ve a theory that emergency planning is 9th on the ‘to do’ list of every public sector comms team.
There are things above it that need tackling but you need to show that you’re aware of it just in case anyone leans over your shoulder. So far down the list it never really gets tackled.
So, if you want to scroll away and wait for the next big thing be my guest.
If you want a summary of things you need to know stick around.
I also know that this period is one of stress that people don’t much want to dwell on so I’ll make it short.
I’ve read the COVID-19 reports published in November 2025 so you don’t have to. Journalists have rightly concentrated on the political fall-out from a lack of leadership in UK Government at the time.
However, there’s plenty there for communicators in central, local and devolved government as well as regional police, fire and rescue and NHS.
Eight things you need to know
The slogan ‘Stay home…’ worked at first and then didn’t
Go to any photo library that maps lockdown and you’ll find the UK Government message ‘Stay home, save lives and protect the NHS.’ The black text on a yellow background is horribly iconic.
It worked in the first lockdown and then struggled with nuance as different towns, cities and countries had different lockdown regimes.
Lesson: Your initial slogan may not carry weight all the way through.
Prepare to communicate with minorities
There are some great examples of communicating to minorities during lockdown. Taking NHS staff from a particular community to deliver a message was particularly effective. But these only really came into effect after it was noticed that the core message wasn’t working with a particular group.
In Northern Ireland, for example, British Sign Language translations were not available for announcements.
Do comms teams have a map of their minorities and how best to communicate with them? I’d guess not always.
Lesson: Remember minority communities from the start.
Police had to enforce unclear and complex legislation
This will come as no surprise to police communicators who tracker surveys showed were the most stressed group of all during the pandemic.
Matters were made worse by Ministers asserting that laws were in place that weren’t.
In one place, lawbreakers were facing a £10,000 fine, a £60 fixed penalty or no action at all. These variants have been logged by the inquiry.
Lesson: Police are unlikely to face a similarly confused picture in the future.
Expect future planning… possibly
While the recommendation is for future scenario planning to take place it’s not clear on what level this will take place. The report certainly flags up the poor working between UK Government and the devolved governments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Top level planning between civil servants is one thing. Training for war preparedness for the soldiers on the ground is another thing. There is talk about better sharing of the results of national exercises. But unless you have some spare time to fill who is actrively goingh to read a report of an exercise you weren’t involved with?
Lesson: it’s unclear just how much future planning there may be.
Radical transparency
If politicians change their minds they must say they have and explain why they have, the report argues.
But beyond that, if there are long term risks to being exposed they need to be communicated. In this case, long COVID. In the future it may be something else. But the report says people can be left to work out how much risk they want to take.
Lesson: Be brutally honest.
Knarly clearly defined objectives
On the one level, it’s odd that one of the biggest comms efforts of the last 80 years didn’t have detailed objectives. But maybe that minimises the shock of the wave that COVID had. Next time, you’ll be asked to communicate what the acceptable death rate looks like.
Lesson: Talk about how many dead is acceptable.
More map re-drawing
In some areas, Local Resilience Forums worked on police areas that didn’t marry with council areas. This led to confusion.
Lesson: Expat map drawing ‘tidying up’.
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 isn’t going away
Things didn’t always work well but aside from tweaking it’s not going away.
Lesson: Tweaks rather than wholesale reform for disaster preparedness.
You can read the reports here.
Creative commons credit: Cameras by Andrea Sandini.
very interesting – thanks for sharing about the report