Articles

Written by Terence Fane-Saunders, Executive Chairman, Chelgate Ltd

All of PACEY’s practitioner insurance policies include ARAG’s legal expenses cover which also provides access to a Crisis Communications Helpline, offering expert public relations advice if an event leads to negative publicity for your business. We asked Chelgate’s Terence Fane-Saunders to share his experience of managing PR crises.

Sometimes I feel the work we do for our smallest crisis clients can actually be the most important. Yes, we handle crises for governments and major multinationals, and their media can be flooded with damaging news and allegation, but this seldom closes a business or brings down a government. They may be wounded, but they stumble on.

But for a small business, bad press can mean the end of the road. A surge of hostile local publicity can effectively kill the market for them. And when we talk of publicity, we are not simply referring to print and broadcast media. Social media has transformed the way information and opinion is spread within a community and, in turn, this can weave itself into spoken conversations – the chat at the school gates, the word passed on at the local pub or the coffee morning. Traditional media feed off social media too, these days, so an allegation made on Facebook, say, or Instagram, can quickly be picked up by your local newspaper or broadcaster, if it seems newsworthy enough.

With much Crisis Management, speed can be crucial, helping to limit and contain a story before it really catches fire. But it’s vital to know what to do, and which buttons to press when negative publicity strikes. For example, almost every review platform, from Trustpilot to Checkatrade and Google Reviews, will have its own code and procedures for dealing with complaints and allegations. A part of our job is simply knowing the best way to deal with each.

Sometimes a crisis will arise because something bad has happened and, yes, our client may be at fault. But when that has happened, it’s important we know the facts, all the facts, even when they are not very pleasant. Then we can work together with the client to shape their narrative.

But when we shape a narrative, we never mislead. This is not because we claim some halo of higher moral status; it’s simply that lying is bad business. When a crisis “goes public” facts will come out, and if those facts show you’ve been trying to manipulate the truth, no-one will believe anything else you say. For good news management, credibility is essential.

But there can be more than one version of the truth. One version may be accurate but hostile, aligning facts in the most damaging way, not allowing for context or explanation. This must not be allowed to dominate. So, it’s usually important to ensure that your version is out there early, shaping understanding, and leading the news and comment surrounding your crisis. It can be very difficult to turn back or correct a false or hostile narrative, once it’s “out there”.

But in getting your story out, it’s not just media and social media you need to think about. There will be others who expect to hear from you direct, and some of them will be important carriers of your message.

Start with your own staff, if you have any. Make sure they understand the story, but also ensure they know what they should and should not say, when talking to others. For a childcare business, parents will be high on your priority contact list too. You’ll probably need something in writing for them, but be prepared to talk, too. Then there may be prospective parents, planning to place their children in your care. They will also be high on your list.

Sometimes, too, there will be third parties – the emergency services, for example - who have their own communications arrangements, and may be commenting or issuing information about your crisis. Ofsted has its own arrangements for going public with news or comment.

Managing communications with these outside sources can be a vital element in your Crisis Communications strategy. If a crisis does hit, getting your communications right can be absolutely critical to the final outcome.

It can also be a complex and demanding task. But under the terms of your PACEY policy, we are available seven days a week, for immediate, urgent communications advice and support, and to help you manage your most pressing Crisis Communications tasks.

The significant pressures on all childcare providers, from increasing regulation and energy costs to parents with much less money to spend, have all taken their toll on a profession that had already seen the effects of both Brexit and the pandemic.

While the overall number of individual childcare places in the UK hasn’t declined quite as rapidly, further Ofsted data show that it is still going down at a time when the government has pledged to significantly increase government-funded places.

The story that Ofsted’s report cannot really describe is the additional work and stress that childcare professionals are having to endure, as a result.

Like most specialists, early-years carers are generally happiest doing what they chose and trained to do, rather than chasing overdue invoices or trying to push through an increase in their hourly rate that they know parents will struggle to afford.

Whatever sector a business may be in, managing legal disputes is rarely anyone’s favourite job, but getting professional help from a solicitor is often simply unaffordable, especially for very small businesses like childminders. But getting these jobs wrong can be even more expensive and potentially catastrophic.

The legal benefits available to PACEY practitioner members from our specialist partners at ARAG take a lot of the stress and uncertainty out of dealing with such headaches.

First, there’s the Legal and Tax Advice helpline that you can use to get practical, professional advice on any legal or tax matter affecting your business. Just one piece of advice from a high street solicitor could cost you dearly, but you can use the helpline as many times as you may need to, within reason.

Equally valuable and probably even more popular is our Legal Services Website, which provides customisable documents that can be used to create legally sound correspondence and contracts tailored to your specific needs.

Chasing customers who may have fallen behind with what they owe for childcare can be an awkward and time-consuming process, but maintaining proper cashflow is vital to any business. Having formal but friendly letters that are easy to personalise not only puts you in a sound legal position if things do escalate but is often all it takes to get your bill to the top of the pile.

The list of potential legal headaches that childcare businesses could face as we head into another difficult winter goes on and on. Fortunately, PACEY and ARAG have worked hard to make such problems as easy and affordable to deal with as possible.

Unfortunately, negative publicity can emerge from nowhere and, whether justified or not, could cause significant and lasting damage to any business. Safety, safeguarding, regulatory or financial issues all have the potential to blow-up into local, regional or even national news stories and, in an age of ‘fake news’, trial by media, and viral social networks, quick, decisive action is essential.

Every month, it seems, a nursery or other childcare business is the subject of negative publicity and often the organisation’s communications and messaging could be greatly improved.

Communication benefits
As well as all of the support for legal and tax issues available in the Legal Expenses Insurance section of many of our policies, our legal protection partner ARAG also provides a Crisis Communication helpline, that offers the benefit of expert and timely guidance in the event that an insured business finds itself the subject of negative publicity.

There are so many demands placed upon childcare businesses, which are facing particular challenges at the moment. From managing rising costs to a very difficult recruitment environment, childminders and business owners have to be multi-skilled.

However, handling a PR crisis is a highly specialist job that calls for very specific skills and experience to navigate a situation in which one miss-step could only serve to make the problem worse.

The problem at hand
Inevitably, negative publicity often results from another event or problem to which the owners of the business really ought to be giving their undivided attention. Having experts available to take care of the communications, will allow child carers to focus on the primary problem at hand.

If the worst should happen, and your childcare business should find itself at the centre of a media firestorm, ARAG will pay up to £25,000 towards professional fees to provide expert advice and support, to help you to manage communications effectively in a time of crisis.

Such help could include drafting a suitable statement for distribution to the media as well as preparing suitable communications for staff, customers and suppliers.

Like most types of insurance, crisis communication cover protects your business against an event that you hope and expect you will never experience. If the worst should happen, however, this is one additional benefit that you will be very grateful you can call upon.