SCoPEd framework

British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)

Client

British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP)

Project

SCoPEd framework

Services

Animation
Design
Strategy

Specialism

Membership Organisations and Regulatory Bodies​

Date

January 2021 – ongoing

The Brief

To develop and support the communications and engagement strategy for BACP around the developing SCoPEd framework ahead of the proposed launch of an updated version in early 2022. 

SCoPEd (Scope of Practice and Education) is a ground-breaking project to map shared professional competences for 75,000 therapists across counselling and psychotherapy professions for the first time. It is being developed by BACP in partnership with six professional bodies.

Our objectives were to:

  • Raise awareness and understanding of and support for SCoPEd amongst BACP members and key stakeholders
  • Develop knowledge and understanding of SCoPEd and key messages amongst the wider BACP team to give them the confidence and understanding to engage with members and stakeholders
  • Inform, engage, inspire and involve BACP members by ensuring the organisation was not only engaging with them but listening to and reflecting their priorities in its communications activity

Our Work

Our work to date with BACP has covered three distinct phases:

Research and strategy development

Using the Government Communications Service’s OASIS framework, we worked with BACP’s leadership, project and communications teams to review existing practice and co-create a communications and engagement strategy for BACP around SCoPEd that set out:

  • A vision, mission and defined key benefits of SCoPEd for BACP
  • Clear objectives and KPIs for BACP’s activity
  • Target audiences
  • Key engagement themes and linked key messages
  • Agreed calls to action
  • Guidance and direction on who should lead engagement with different stakeholder groups and how that should be done
  • A detailed and fully-costed six-month campaign plan outlining earned, shared and owned media channels to ensure the communications activity followed the strategic approach
  • Defined evaluation metrics for tracking success

We used a range of research techniques to ensure our strategy was based on insight and the accurate current context for and challenges facing the project and the organisation. This included:

  • review and research of existing communications activity around SCoPEd
  • review of previously conducted research amongst members and stakeholders
  • workshops and one to one interviews with key officers from the BACP Board, Senior Leadership Team, project and communications teams
  • audience and channel research to identify realistic and deliverable solutions for engaging with members and stakeholders moving forward

We shared and discussed drafts and rationale with the BACP team as the project progressed to ensure our recommendations and the approach was accurate and appropriate, which was critical for such a large and important project.

Core content creation 

Before new proactive outreach activity was done to engage and inform staff, members and stakeholders, we worked with BACP to improve the SCoPEd section of the BACP website (www.bacp.co.uk/scoped) and create a suite of core materials – presentations, FAQs, animations, graphics and videos to: 

  • clearly communicate what the draft SCoPEd framework is 
  • explain why it is important to BACP members, stakeholders and wider society
  • set out how it would benefit BACP members, stakeholders and wider society if adopted
  • explain what, if anything, members would need to do if it was adopted

All content development was led by DTW in conjunction with and approved by the BACP team prior to publication. 

Ongoing outreach and campaign support 

Our initial six-month campaign plan used this core content and identified a range of channels such as staff briefings, member emails and events, professional journals, stakeholder events and engagement activity. 

Emerging key themes and areas of interest from members and stakeholders were identified and key messages and new content developed as appropriate to engage on these as the work progressed. 

A follow-up plan of activity was then developed to inform, engage, inspire and involve BACP members around the development and publication of the new version of the framework in January 2022.

Results

  • BACP’s new SCoPEd communications and engagement strategy was adopted in May 2021 with a clearly defined vision for the importance of SCoPEd
  • The SCoPEd partnership agreed and published the new framework in January 2022 with BACP working collaboratively with partners to shape the content and communications activity
  • BACP has a positive, confident and consistent strategy that positions SCoPEd at the heart of delivering its member priorities and enables its staff to engage positively with members and stakeholders about SCoPEd
  • Stakeholders, commissioners and training providers are already looking to reflect the SCoPEd framework in planning their future activity

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57%

Increase in total visits to the SCoPEd section of the website

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39%

Increase in unique engagements with SCoPEd content in ebulletins

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88%

Staff strongly agree or agree that BACP has done a good job of communicating with staff about the publication of the January 2022 SCoPEd framework

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