Inclusive communications template
As government communicators, we all have a responsibility to create communications that are both accessible and inclusive.
This template is designed to guide you through planning communications that consider the needs of all audiences, including those protected under the Equality Act 2010. It mirrors the OASIS framework and when planning your communications strategy it should be used alongside our accessibility standards and other useful resources and guidance.
When using this template, it is essential to work with your policy teams to understand how your communications might affect different groups and plan this into your strategy from the very beginning.
Contents
Introduction
The UK government is committed to making all of its communications inclusive and accessible to everyone, while portraying disability and disabled people positively. This must form a key, audience-led consideration of the campaign’s execution, including creative and design choices, use of language, media planning and buying, and channel selection. This will help us reach and engage all audiences in a way that works for them.
Consider how you will involve diverse audiences and where appropriate their representative organisations in the strategic and creative development of your campaign or communication activity from the very start. Read our guidance on co-creation.
Your communications should be based on the social model of disability rather than the medical model of disability. The social model emphasises that people are disabled by the barriers society creates, rather than their impairment or difference. This means that our communications should aim to remove or reduce barriers faced by disabled people.
Learn more about our legal obligations as government communicators.
Objectives
All objectives should be challenging and SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. When setting objectives, it is important to be aware that not all of your audience will act and receive communications in the same way. Once you have completed your communications plan, review the objectives again in light of the audience considerations suggested in this document.
Think about whether it is worth amending your key performance indicators (KPIs) and targets to account for your diverse audiences. KPIs and other metrics should be set to continuously monitor and evaluate your campaign performance and demonstrate that you have met your communication objectives and inform future communication planning.
Our evaluation cycle provides a flexible framework for measuring success across all communication activities.
Audiences and insight
The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) places a legal obligation on public bodies (and those performing functions on behalf of them) to consider how any policy or decision affects people who are protected under the Equality Act.
The following are the nine protected characteristics:
- Age
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
- Gender reassignment
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Disability
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Marriage and civil partnership
Marriage and civil partnerships is a protected characteristic but not relevant to PSED. Disability in the Equality Act covers all disability types and is generally defined by effect rather than diagnosis which must be:
- significant or substantial
- long-term (more than a year)
You may also ask the following questions to challenge yourself on your target audience and those who have one or more protected characteristics:
- Do you particularly need this audience to hear and act upon messages?
- What estimated percentage of your audience may have these characteristics?
- Who currently uses the policy, service or event your communications relate to?
- Who does not currently use the policy, service or event and is this something your communications aim to change?
- What are the behavioural barriers and motivations to behaviour change that your campaign can help to address?
- Does the policy, service or event relate to an area with known inequalities?
The Department for Education has produced a tool to estimate the number of service users who have a disability or impairment. Please note the data is drawn from different sources which may not be up to date but give you an idea of the proportion of your target audiences that have particular needs.
Strategy
When planning your strategy, reflect on your audience insight to ensure no parts of your audience are excluded from receiving or engaging with your communications. This may involve considering creative and design choices, use of language, messaging, channels and alternative formats.
| Things to consider | Considerations – the needs of different groups |
|---|---|
| Context | How does past policy, communications or other context influence how different audiences might perceive and respond to your communications? |
| Proposition and messaging | Does your messaging resonate with your target audience(s)? Is it relevant, truthful and compelling for your audience(s)? Do you need to create variants of content to better appeal to subgroups of your target audience? You should make efforts to involve disabled people, charities and other community groups as appropriate in the campaign’s strategic and creative development. This process is known as co-creation. |
| Channels and media | What channels do your audiences engage with? Who does your audience listen to and trust (for example, community or faith leaders, or other intermediaries and influencers)? How have you factored audience demographics into allocation of your media spend? Remember some audiences will have low or no level of digital engagement or access, or may use digital media differently. |
| Testing | Can you set up a focus group/s which reflects your target audiences to consult, discuss, test and seek feedback. Are there opportunities to co-create content with your audiences or their representatives? |
Implementation
Before publication, test your content for impact and accessibility before and during its use. Build in ‘pause points’ to your delivery timeline to review impact and gather feedback on its reception.
| Topic | Considerations – the needs of different groups |
|---|---|
| Language | Should be considered upfront: Does the language inadvertently promote unhelpful stereotypes or inadvertently exclude people? Is the language used easy to understand? Most users prefer simple language, including specialist audiences. Have you followed the GOV.UK style guide on how to write about ethnicity, which explains why we do not use the terms Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and Black and Minority Ethnic (BME)? |
| Diverse imagery | Should be considered upfront: Is your target audience represented in your materials visually, orally and in the contexts and scenarios featured? Is there a wide variety of people with protected characteristics represented in your materials? Have you co-created/tested your concepts with people representing your audience? Do your images inadvertently reinforce stereotypes? |
| Format | Read our accessibility standards for more information on accessible formats. |
Scoring
You should consider how you will monitor and evaluate the impact of your communications. Where possible, you should demonstrate how planning with the inclusive principles above has affected the impact of your communications, especially where you have targeted audiences you have struggled to engage with in the past.
- How have you ensured your data collection methods are inclusive?
- Are you collecting your data in a way that will allow you to assess how well you have reached and influenced key target audiences and, where appropriate, subgroups of your audience?
- How have you adapted your strategy if you have seen a lower level of engagement from particular audiences? For example, re-allocating campaign spend to specific community channels/radio stations to increase potential reach.
Further information on building in inclusivity and audience segmentation is available in our guidance on the evaluation cycle.