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SECTION 4: PUBLICITY PROGRAMME

4.1 Introduction

Enquire was using a number of different strategies to enhance its public profile. These are briefly described below, along with assessments of the effectiveness of these approaches.

4.2 Publicity

During 2004-05, Enquire carried out a number of Scotland-wide mailings. Publicity information was sent to 9,000 schools, educational professionals, libraries, heath professionals, social workers, voluntary groups and individuals. Previously, a 'school bag drop' had been used to send a leaflet out to every child and family in Scotland.

4.3 Publicity aimed at black and minority ethnic groups

Particular efforts were made to disseminate information to black and minority ethnic groups. A mailing list was compiled of 400 agencies which might refer cases from black and minority ethnic community groups to Enquire and through which information could be distributed. It was noted in the annual report that, as a result of this exercise, contacts from black and minority ethnic groups increased slightly.

4.4 Advertising

Enquire's services were advertised in a number of different ways. Advertisements were paid for in a number of journals such as Scottish Primary Care magazine, Nursing Scotland and First Link for Parents. Service details were also advertised in Children in Scotland newsletter and other publications.

Free advertising was also provided via a multi-lingual Scottish radio station and in a number of directories, including those of the Princess Royal Carers Trust, the Telephone Helpline Association Trust helpline and other public and voluntary sector publications.

4.5 Website

In 2004, the young persons' website and the parents', carers' and practitioners' website were merged under one web address http://www.enquire.org.uk The sites were upgraded to ensure that appropriate links were in place with local authorities, parent support groups and voluntary sector agencies. The following table provides statistics for website hits for 2004-05. It should be noted that there was no way of knowing whether hits to the children and young people's website were by children and young people or by adults.

Table 4.1: Website hits 2004-05

4.6 Views of Enquire staff

It was noted that, whilst it was extremely important to raise the profile of the service, it was not possible to run expensive TV and radio campaigns. In addition, it was important for the service to be very tightly targeted, and widespread advertising might lead to more wasted calls.

4.7 Views of SEED staff

SEED staff acknowledged the desirability of raising the service profile, but also conceded that there was a limit to the resources which could be devoted to this.

4.8 Views of service users

The service user questionnaire asked respondents about how they heard about Enquire's services. The table below summarises responses.

Table 4.2: Service users' accounts of how they heard about Enquire

Note: Some people had heard of Enquire from more than one source. Total participants: 121

Overall, professionals were the most frequent source of information about Enquire, although parents were also likely to have heard about the service through word of mouth or via a leaflet.

Respondents were asked about their degree of familiarity with the work of Enquire. Since all those who completed the questionnaire were on the Enquire database or were attending an Enquire event, we expected they would all be familiar with Enquire's work. However, this was not the case (see table below).

Table 4.3: Familiarity with work of Enquire (service users)

Twenty six per cent of parents, compared with 10% of professionals, said they were unfamiliar with Enquire's work. About a quarter of parents and 10% of professionals who completed the questionnaire, said they had not used any of Enquire's services. It may of course be the case that people do not consider that reading a leaflet or attending an event counts as using a service. However, if parents in touch with Enquire say that they do not know a great deal about what is on offer, this suggests that amongst the general population there may be fairly low levels of awareness.

Comments from parents written on the questionnaire strongly reinforced the view that much more publicity about the service was needed:

• More publicity because I still don't know all of my son's rights. My son is in primary seven and I have to choose a high school to send to in August which has support for his Aspergers.

• The help and guidance given was great but I had no idea Enquire existed. You could do with a lot more publicity about your service. I have since passed on the telephone number to four other families in my area who had no idea you existed!
• In my case, my son's secondary school appears to have no knowledge of his rights to educational provision. He has been too ill to attend school since Nov 2004 and has had no education offered to date.
• Finding out about Enquire was by chance whilst undertaking professional studies in Special Education. If it hadn't been for this I'm not sure I would have been aware of Enquire in my role as a teacher of SEN.
• Make schools more aware of Enquire's existence and support services and encourage them to use services to learn about the needs of the children and how they should be treated. Ignorance of senior staff is still the biggest problem and this results in inappropriate exclusions etc for things the child cannot help or control because of this disability.
• Enquire provides a vital service to disabled children and their parents - yet we only became aware of its existence/service when our consultant referred us to SNIP who supplied publications. More must be done to 'sell' your services which is probably best done by running meetings with parents possibly in conjunction with charities like Barnardos who organise drop in mornings for parents of disabled children. Enquire seems to be better known/publicised in larger cities. Our consultant is in Edinburgh, yet little is known of them in our home town - Dundee.

4.9 Views of local authority staff

Local authority staff were asked about their familiarity with the work of Enquire, and all who responded, apart from one individual, were very familiar or quite familiar. Almost all (apart from two) had used some aspects of Enquire's services. However, it should be remembered that only a third of questionnaires sent out were returned. Those who did not return the questionnaire may simply have been too busy, or may have felt that they lacked sufficient knowledge to make a useful contribution.

Because the website is an important aspect of Enquire's interface with the education community, local authority staff were asked about their experience of it (see table below).

Table 4.4: Quality of Enquire's website (local authority staff).

In general, participants rated the website as clear, informative, practical, relevant and up to date.

Some suggestions were made about ways of enhancing the service profile:

• TV programme. TV ads - Scottish Executive slot at 6.30.
• Supermarkets, community resources.
• Touring bus/caravan visiting LAs

4.10 Views of external key informants

There was a widespread view that Enquire needed to do more to increase its public profile. One respondent, for example, commented that in order to connect with black and minority ethnic groups, a very wide network was needed which had to be constantly updated to take account of the changing local scene. The respondent from the support organisation for deaf children also felt that more work was needed to alert parents to the specific service which Enquire could offer. A respondent from a support organisation for visually impaired children noted that, whilst he had referred children on to Enquire and Children in Scotland, his organisation had received no referrals from them. The organisation was not listed on their link page. An organisation for visually impaired children was listed on the children's page, but the link was incorrect. By way of contrast, two organisations, the Disability Rights Commission and the Govan Law Centre, reported that cross-referral worked very well, and the complementary nature of the services they offered was recognised.

It was suggested by support organisations that local authorities could do a great deal more to let parents know about Enquire's existence, for example, by including a link on their web site and publishing information in their additional support needs policy.

Educational psychologists said that, whilst the Enquire parents' guide was routinely distributed to parents of children with additional support needs, they knew very little about the other services provided by Enquire. They felt that Enquire needed to build stronger bridges with local authorities, establishing personal contact with educational psychologists and ensuring that they had information about outreach events, training events and the telephone helpline. One principal educational psychologist stated that, until asked to respond to the interview schedule, he had not realised how little he knew about Enquire's services.

4.11 Summary

Whilst Enquire had clearly been making efforts to increase its public profile, there was a general view that amongst parents, local authorities and support organisations that there was insufficient knowledge of the service. Some parents felt that Enquire was a 'well kept secret', which many other parents could benefit from. They felt that parents needed to know about the service as soon as their child was diagnosed, underlining the need for close links with social workers and health professionals, as well as parents. Local authority staff felt that Enquire could do more to publicise the support available within education departments, and the name of the responsible officer should be communicated to parents as soon as an enquiry was made. Other support organisations felt that Enquire could do more to publicise their services generally, but should also alert parents to the complementary specialist services available elsewhere and should do a lot more cross-referral.

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