PR Spending - FOI Response Register

1. The total amount spent in the last five financial years on public relations, both in-house and externally (split if possible).

There are no costs for public relations for NHS Shetland with the exception of ad hoc advertising as required.

2. The total number of public relations officers or communications officers employed by your organisation over the last five years. (I am looking for the number of posts rather than the number of individuals employed to eliminate discrepancies involving staff turnover.)

Please provide the information in the form of an Excel spreadsheet if at all possible.

NHS Shetland has employed:

2018 – 1 Band 5 post

2019 – 1 Band 5 post

2020 – 1 Band 5 post

2021 – 1 Band 5 post and 1 Band 6 post

2022 – 1 Band 5 post and 1 Band 6 post

Since 2021 NHS Shetland has shared a communication team with NHS Orkney through a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and within this does not have staff dedicated solely to external press and media. The team is responsible for external, internal and digital communication.

The SLA addresses the funding of the joint communications unit. There are 3 full time members of staff in the joint team, two of whom are direct employees. The costings also include 0.3 WTE Band 8A management overheads (including the overseeing of the communications unit, advising and inputting to communications development and sign off, budget management and participating in the out of hours on call rota as required).

The cost of this agreement to each organisation is currently £96,804 per annum based on 2023/24 Agenda for Change payscales. It must be noted this is for all corporate communication work and not limited to external press and media handling.