SCIE media releases 2006

SCIE prepares for its next phase - 'communication, communication, communication'

27 February 2006

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) is stepping up its communications activities, to make sure that its good practice guidance is reaching all parts of the social care sector.

SCIE has been building up its knowledge base, developing practice guidance and launching its new information and practice online database, Social Care Online. Whilst this work will continue, SCIE will now invest additional resources in embedding its guidance into practice.

SCIE has appointed its first ever Director of Communications to spearhead this next phase of development.

Announcing SCIE's intention to increase its communications capacity, Chief Executive of SCIE, Bill Kilgallon, said:

"For the last four years we have worked very hard to establish ourselves as an authoritative and reliable knowledge base. Having achieved this we will now be putting more resources into communicating with our stakeholders and helping them to understand and implement our good practice guidance. Our focus will be communication, communication, communication."

Commenting on her new role as Director of Communications, Iris Steen, said:

"I'm really looking forward to working with SCIE and its partners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland at this important time for social care and health. I believe that SCIE is in a unique position to influence the improvement of social care practice and policy - particularly as we work across the full range services for adults, children and families.

"One of my priorities will be to ensure that SCIE has effective feedback mechanisms to ensure that our products are meeting the real needs of our stakeholders and leading to better care for service users. I shall also be looking to my colleagues across the whole sector - practitioners, employers, service users, carers, educators, researchers and policy makers - to work together to increase the profile of social care."

Iris has more than 14 years' experience in public sector communications, most recently at the National Treatment Agency. Her work experience has also included the King's College Hospital NHS Trust, the Family Housing Association, the NSPCC, the Audit Commission and the RNIB.

She will work closely with the management team and the board at SCIE to develop and implement a communications strategy that will see SCIE's products make a real difference to practice.

Media contact

Annie Goss | Communications Officer | T: 020 7089 7117 | M:  07739 458 192 | Email: annie.goss@scie.org.uk