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PROFILE – HELEN BRADBURNPA person now,” she says – after another longish pause. These exchanges are typical of Bradburn’s conversation: thoughtful rather than polished, querying rather than bullish, with responses seeming to arrive newminted rather than off a corporate production line. She should gel nicely with the questioning ambience in which she now finds myself. Of the Health Foundation’s lobbying efforts, she says: “Their style has not been to create great coalitions. The process of lobbying has been personalised around Stephen and Martin [Marshall, the director of clinical quality] and their connections. But the work they are drawing on is connected to the Royal Colleges, who are the people we want to work with to develop quality.”Helen BradburnWhat others sayFORMER BOSS: Gill Morgan (permanent secretary for the Welsh Assembly Government, ex-CEO of the NHS Confederation): “Helen would want to be clear on a proper understanding of what you were asking before giving you an answer. This could be a challenge, but who wants to employ someone who doesn’t challenge them? Some communicators are more interested in the message but her background is in campaigning: Helen was always interested in the wider gains. She has an analytical, reflective nature; she’s thinking her way into her new role.” COMMS PRO: Jenny Grey (director of comms at the Cabinet Office, previously at the National Patient Safety Agency, where she worked on projects with Bradburn): “Helen is extremely thoughtful and intellectual, but not in a nerdy way. I’ve never seen her approach her task purely from a comms perspective – it is very much integrated with thoughts about corporate strategy generally.” HEALTH PA PRACTITIONER: Rebecca Gray (director of PA and comms at NHS foundation trusts regulator Monitor): “She’s very straightforward and people trust her because of that. She is very intellectually driven as well, she has a very strong policy mind and that is useful in bridging the gap between policy and comms. I’ve always found Helen helpful, knowing that you’ll get an honest, intellectually robust, reasonable answer from her.”I was very studious,” she recalls with a laugh. “It didn’t occur to me to rebel.” After the dreaming spires and then London University, she worked for Shelter. “But I got bored of housing relatively quickly,” she says. Her second job, at the Anchor Trust, dealt with housing again, along with care for older people. This seems to have been the ladder towards a career in healthcare, the vague idea for which was perhaps sparked during her final year at university, when her father was diagnosed with the lung cancer that eventually took his life. While his clinical care was good, “the way he was treated as a person was terrible”. It is exactly the sort of experience that the Health Foundation seeks to stop.‘Quietly successful organisation’Government’s NHS vision If ever there were a policy initiative tailormade for the Foundation it is Lord Darzi’s NHS Next Stage Review. Published last summer, it sets out the government’s vision for an NHS with quality at its heart, and will be the hot public health topic for years to come. Number 10 and the Department of Health are Bradburn’s main PA targets and she is crystal clear about lobbying priorities for the year ahead. “There is a genuine concern that the emphasis on quality may slip because of the economic downturn,” she says. “Inevitably there is a potential pressure there. But quality is not about quick gains. We need to make sure [in our PA work] that we’re picking areas at risk of going off-kilter or areas where there’s the biggest opportunity.” In addition to the Royal Colleges, Bradburn wants the Foundation to be influencing Strategic Health Authorities too. “Underpinning that I want to make the organisation more of the ‘turn-to’ organisation if you want to know about quality,” she suggests. A Conservative government would not make any great difference to the basic tenor of the Darzi proposals, she thinks. “There wouldn’t be any major shift,” Bradburn says. “We have a really good relationship with [shadow secretary of state for health] Andrew Lansley. But we definitely do need to step up our engagement and talk with them about how we can help.”to researching, to the approach to the consultancies it employs (currently Hill Knowlton and Luther Pendragon). “I want to use agencies and freelances,” she insists. She is also going to recruit a deputy. “This is a comms-led organisation and there are a lot of other people doing PA and comms,” she goes on. Making sure messaging is joined up will be a priority, as will firming up the organisation’s approach to issues management and filling the vacancies in her team. She also wants to make more of the ready-made networks that exist around the Foundation. “They have strong connections with policy makers, managers, clinicians, patients and academics,” Bradburn says. “I want to develop a really strong network of people the organisation has worked with: 250 people have been through the leadership scheme and there are 80 of these demonstration projects, involving perhaps tens of people each.”“This is a quietly successful organisation,” she concludes. “They are ahead of the game. There is a huge amount of potential to do more here, which is partly what the appeal is. There is an awful lot of work to do.” One more thing: more often than not, Bradburn refers to the Health Foundation as “they” rather than “we”. I want to make the This is common in newish organisation more of the recruits, who have not yet ‘turn-to’ organisation if you been subsumed into an want to know about quality organisation and still have their outsider’s hat on. But this (perhaps unconscious) detachment in her responses also suggests a ‘that was then, this is now’ feeling: when it comes to PA, under Bradburn things are clearly going to change. PANHealth FoundationFactfile‘Very studious’ upbringing Bradburn has an open, disarming style. Asked whether she followed the machinations of the public administration select committee (PASC) inquiry into the industry, she shakes her head. “I’m not a real PA fiend,” she says. When not at work she immerses herself in the cinema, most recently with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Slumdog Millionaire and Frost/Nixon. She spent much of her early life in Zambia and South Korea, this international movement the product of her father’s career in copper mining. The exotic childhood was followed by an unbroken secondary education at Ashford School, where she excelled and got into Oxford.Comms review ongoing Everything is “under review” now in public affairs at the Foundation, from how much time it spends lobbying as opposed• Established in 1983 as the PPP Medical Trust • Became fully independent healthcare charitable trust in 1998 following sale of the PPP Healthcare group to Guardian Royal Exchange Insurance; launched its first grant programmes in 1999; changed name to the PPP Foundation in 2001, with endowments totalling £537m. • Relaunched in 2003 as the Health Foundation • Has communications team of seven, including Bradburn; two staff dedicated to PA; currently uses Hill Knowlton and Luther Pendragon for public affairs supportApril 2009 | PublicAffairsNews | 21Ian Hall APRIL 2009www.publicaffairsnews.cinside this issueCelic departs HSBC for Prudential role By IAN HALLPreparing for power How would the Tories tackle their first 100 days? page 18 ‘The register does not work’ View from Brussels PAGE 13 A picture of health? Helen Bradburn pagES 20-21 Ed Vaizey Kevin newsRail regulator bags external affairs supremo Ken Young joins from the Pensions Regulator, which replaces him with former aide to pensions minister Rosie Winterton The Office of Rail Regulation (ORR) has recruited the Pensions Regulator’s head of communications to head its newly created 18-strong newsAlstom brief for Bell Pottinger Public Affairs Alstom has brought in Bell Pottinger Public Affairs to provide UK lobbying advice. The agency appointment, believed to be the first time the company has handed out a major retained UK PA contract, follows the appointment of a new UK comms director a newsCentrica lures Defra aide Novozymes plans by ian hallFTSE 100 energy giant Centrica has lured Justin Johnson from Defra, where he was specialist adviser to environment secretary Hilary Benn MP. Johnson has taken the role of public affairs manager, reporting to director of public affairs and Euro New-biz round-up Your essential monthly digest of organisations appointing or changing consultanciesSMARTA.COM • G4S • ASSOCIATION OF LICENSED MULTIPLE RETAILERS • AMGEN • LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY • UCAS Kaup. Singer Fried. depositors’ action group – Bell Pottinger An ‘action group’ of deposito newsEx-Brunswick partner claims HSBC role Banking giant HSBC has made a brace Her role with HSBC marks a a senior appointments to bolster return to an in-house banking job: its international public affairs. before Brunswick she was interim The group has appointed Joanna director of corporate affairs newspeople moves www.publicaffairsnews.cONLINE 20MAREustice joins Allan’s Portland Portland PR last month recruited one of www.publicaffairsnews.c clients, splitting his time between the ONLINE 26MAR the best-known and longest-serving agency and his duties in Cornwall. names in the Conservatives’ PR MediaHow political rivals are faring in the presscommons incheS: Miliband, Clark and Hughes rival PARLIAMENTARIANS’ press coverage – number of mentions 16 Ed Miliband 8 Mar: Sunday papers note that Miliband will warn the Scottish Labour conference that the party and the country face testing timesmed Consultation tracker Your essential monthly digest of new consultations of interest to the public affairs communityON-DEMAND TV • ECO-TOWNS • TICKET TOUTING • GAMING TABLES • ‘CARBON NEUTRALITY’ • MEDICAL DEVICES • APPRENTICESHIPS CONSULTATIONS LAUNCHED IN THE PAST month BBC Trust – ‘Project Canvas’ european news‘EU quarter’ revamp hailed PA pros welcome news that Rue de la Loi area is set to be given makeover BRUSSELS: Lobbyists have given the values they defend and promote on the thumbs-up to news that Brussels’ international stage”. generally ugly ‘European quarter’ is Edelman’s London-based european newseuropean News in brief – EXTRA B-M PREPARES EP ELECTIONS PREDICTOR: Burson-Marsteller (B-M)’s Brussels office is this month launching a website – www. predict09.eu – that will offer updated weekly predictions, based on polling data, of the result of European Parliament elections. The el european newsConference dominated by ‘downturn’ talk BRUSSELS: the EIGHTH EUROtive Andrew Hawkins are pean Centre for Public reproduced below. Affairs (ECPA) annual The conference was conference saw top Eurodominated by talk of the pean professionals gather impact of the recession, at the Berlaymont Are you prepared for the changes about to take place in Brussels? As a political and public affairs communications specialist, Dods can help you to keep track of the personnel and institutional changes that are on the horizon. With this in mind we provide specific services focusing on the elections think-tank newsByrne and Gove at IPPR/PwC debate The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has teamed up with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to launch a three-year work programme that aims to set out the ‘practical steps’ needed to create a ‘smarter, more effective’ state. Their ‘Towards a Smart BAR . RESTAURANT . CAFÉ Located moments from the Houses of ParliamentCatering for events 10-180 people Exclusive Hire Meetings and Conferences Bar and Café Area Four Millbank, London SW1P 3JA Four Millbank, London SW1P 3JA Tel: 020 7233 0032 Tel: 020 7233 0032 Fax: 020 7233 0010 Fax: 020 7233 0010 E opinion – leadereditor’s COMMENT Scottish market typifies agency sector as ’09 q1 ends very time I ask someone working for a PA consultancy how they are coping during the recession, answers seem cloned from the same template: “...clients still need public affairs advice, even if the economy’s lousy. opinion – pan panelQHOT TOPIC: AFTER THE ELECTION... [ Jo Tanner Director, IN-HOUSE PRTHE QUESTION: What would the first 100 days of a Cameron government bring? With the Conservative Party maintaining a healthy lead in the polls, Tory strategists are planning for how to adjust to power after more th opinion – columnistsed vaizeyMP COMMENTkevin maguireJOURNALIST COMMENTWhy it’s becoming tougher to ‘Transparency’ provides lowbe a parliamentary candidate hanging fruit for hungry hacks t’s quite common these days to find prominent figures from the public affairs sector making the move into frontlin Profile – HELEN BRADBURN‘There is a huge amount of potential to do more here’ After 11 years at the NHS Confederation Helen Bradburn left for the top PA and comms role at the Health Foundation. Adam Hill finds her ‘thinking her way’ into the new role here is an electric piano in one of changes of em PROFILE – HELEN BRADBURNPA person now,” she says – after another longish pause. These exchanges are typical of Bradburn’s conversation: thoughtful rather than polished, querying rather than bullish, with responses seeming to arrive newminted rather than off a corporate production line. She should ge PA CONSULTANCIES IN SCOTLANDScot to trot As London-headquartered Mandate Communications recruits well-known Scottish lobbyist Craig Harrow to open an office in Edinburgh, Public Affairs News maps out the consultancy scene north of the border FLEISHMAN-HILLARD Opened in Scotland in Dec 1996 Top PA pe PA CONSULTANCIES IN SCOTLAND M c EWAN PARTNERS Was GJW Scotland in 1999, then McEwan Purvis; has been McEwan Partners since 2007 Directors are Sam McEwan, Jayne Swanson and Jacqueline Jamieson Four staff ‘85 to 90 per cent’ of turnover is from PA Independent, but part of FIPRA network First minister PHARMACEUTICALSPharma chameleons Counterfeit medicines and ‘market access’ are just two of the issues exercising PA professionals in the drugs sector, writes Adam Hill n 2007, more than four million counterfeit medicines were seized at EU borders, a contraband haul up 51 per cent on the previous yea PHARMACEUTICALSthe European Commission and due to be read in the European Parliament this spring. It aims to standardise the current ad hoc arrangements on patients’ rights when they receive medical treatment in other member states. Another is an EU directive on information to patients, taking in is GM FOOD‘Countries have different rea ‘Frankenstein food’? Or an idea whose time has come? Adam Hill reports on the groups battling it out over GM technology there was more discussion in Brussels,” says Moll. “It depends on the local agenda; countries have different reasons to reject it.”AEuropean re GM FOODasons to reject it...’ Policy director Peter Melchett explains: “Our fundamental argument against GM as a technology and GM crops as products is that the technology gives rise to uncertainties and risks.” Yet a large part of the group’s messaging also revolves around downplaying the whole iss EVENT PARTNERNOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSEDMONDAY 11 MAYTHE SHORTLIST WILL BE ANNOUNCED ONFOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AND TABLE BOOKINGS CONTACT:EMMA STEPHENS Dods, Westminster Tower, 3 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SP +44 (0)20 7091 7677@emma.stephens@publicaffTHURSDAY 2 JULY 2009 www.publicaffairsn recruitment PC ad(PAN)030-4-09-c 3/4/09 11:34 Page 1appointmentsEnterprise Insight Head of External Relations to £45k (possible part-time arrangement available, £ pro-rata) Enterprise Insight increases entrepreneurial behaviour in the UK by equipping people with the confidence, skills and ambition t “Over many years I have drawn upon Steve Atack’s expertise in international executive search for public affairs appointments. 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This is a position for a robust and well-rounded communications professional wit ePoliti .com Parliament Policy CommunicationPolitical EPolicy Con suCa mventspaigltat ion snC ove ragei Parla menNe tarywsParli am Briefi entary ng Pa persYour route into Parliament ePolitix.com driving the UK’s online political communicationOur services include: Parliamentary news Campaign coverage classifiedThe magazine for MEPs, by MEPs theparliament.com subscribe online POLITICS, POLICY AND PEOPLETo advertise here call......Emma Stephens 020 7091 7677 April 2009 | PublicAffairsNews | 35 bridge_195_60 copy.pdf 16/12/2008 10:57:14classifiedCMPOLITICAL INTELLIGENCE Dods Monitoring is a specialist political information provider delivering real-time monitoring to the political and policymaking community, from multinational corporations to trade associations, government agencies to chari reviewsWAITING FOR THE ETONIANS byNick Cohen | £12.99 | Fourth Estatehe last Etonian prime minister, Harold Macmillan, formed his administration more than 50 years ago in January 1957. When asked what represented the greatest challenge for a statesman, Macmillan famously replied: “Events, my dear bo out and aboutmy life Sophie Sutcliffe Corporate affairs executive News International Newspapers Where do you live? Shad Thames, next to Tower Bridge. So it’s a very civilised 20-minute ‘commute’ to work and ideal for trips to Borough Market on a Saturday. What’s your media diet? Wake up to the Today out and about All group shots are captioned left to right. To include photos of your event, send images to ian.hall@publicaffairsnNewsreader Alastair Stewart OBE (an Action for Children ambassador) and Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families Beverley Hughes MPMarket Research Societ Best In Class James Nason Warwick Smith Chris Lowe Richard Sutcliffe-Smith Robbie MacDuffMerging to makeContact: firstname.surname@coll