Dee Cotgrove, deputy director Prime Minister and Cabinet Office Communications on the PRmoment Podcast

On the show we’re talking to Dee Cotgrove, deputy director Prime Minister and Cabinet Office Communications about her time as director of communications  of the Cayman Islands and her new role as deputy director Prime Minister and Cabinet Office Communications which has an emphasis on how to improve professional standards within government communications.

Dee spent 18 years working in communications for the Met Office before moving to the Cayman Islands for a 3 year posting and returning to work for UK government communications in May this year.

Thanks to to The PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

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Here’s a summary of what Dee and I discussed:

2 mins Dee talks about her 3 year stint as director of communications in the Cayman Islands - which included the COVID crisis, an earthquake and the biggest hurricane season on record!

6 mins How Dee and her team lead the communications response to a 7.3 Richter scale earthquake.

11 mins Dee then talks about the Hurricane Season and the crisis comms required for that!

14 mins “In a crisis situation, people can’t work longer than 10 hours. It’s just too intense.”

16 mins What is the role of The Government Communication Service? (GCS)?

18 mins How the whole of government communications had to work together during the COVID crisis.

19 mins Dee talks us how the NHS Weight Loss App has downloaded 1.3 m times, as an example of government communications.

22 mins Dee discusses the difficulties of tackling misinformation.

24 mins Dee talks about how GCS retains and improves the professional standards of its teams.

Helpful resources that Dee refers to include GCS’s Evaluation Framework , The Principles of Behaviour Change Communications and a model called IN CASE which help communicators understand the anticipating unintended consequences.

26 mins Dee talks us through the government’s OASIS planning framework.

31 mins Dee talks about her time at the Met Office - does she regret staying there for 18 years?