Winter messages campaign wins prestigious award

Devon County Council’s public health team and Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (NEW Devon CCG) are celebrating after winning a prestigious public relations award for their joint winter messages campaign.

The Choose Well campaign, which encourages people to keep warm and stay healthy during winter, won silver in the Public Sector Campaign category at the 2013 Chartered Institute of Public Relations South West PRide Awards.

The Choose Well campaign used a colour-coded thermometer logo to remind people of the steps to take when feeling unwell, including looking after themselves at home, calling their GP, contacting their pharmacy, dialling the new non emergency NHS 111 number or calling 999.

It was praised by CIPR awards judges for being amongst the “best, most creative and most effective public relations work across the UK regions”.

Dr Virginia Pearson, Devon County Council’s Director of Public Health, said: “We are really pleased to have been involved in the inception of this campaign, which was initiated and funded by Public Health as part of our role to reduce capacity pressures on A&E departments.

“Our intelligence team carried the analytical work that supported the campaign, and we are delighted with the recognition the campaign has received.

“Congratulations to NEW Devon CCG for their continued success in this area of work.”

The CIPR PRide Awards is the only UK wide awards scheme that recognises excellence in public relations and communications work across Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions.

CIPR President Sue Wolstenholme said: “The CIPR PRide Awards represent the best, most creative and most effective public relations work across the UK regions and nations and to win a silver award is a great achievement which means your work has been judged as amongst the best in the area by leading public relations experts.”