Whitehouse Communications provides public affairs and reputation management support to The Air Ambulance Service (TAAS), a charity operating the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) across Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Rutland, Derbyshire and Leicestershire, and to its sister charity, the UK-wide Children’s Air Ambulance (TCAA). Whitehouse’s integrated communications programme has raised the visibility of TAAS’s distinctive operational model with parliamentarians, the NHS and the wider healthcare sector, facilitated a framework for the charity to collaborate more closely with the UK’s urgent and emergency care sector, and increased awareness of TCAA in Parliament and the media with features and mentions from high-profile Members of Parliament and charity sector stakeholders.
The challenge
The Air Ambulance Service (TAAS) is a charity that operates the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) across Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Rutland, Derbyshire and Leicestershire. Its sister charity, The Children’s Air Ambulance (TCAA), operates a UK-wide air ambulance service.
Whitehouse Communications was engaged to provide public affairs and reputation management support across both charities: raising their profiles with key parliamentary and industry stakeholders, building sustained relationships across the NHS and the wider healthcare and charity sectors, and equipping the charities with the brand messaging, media assets and crisis communications capability needed to protect and grow their reputations at a national level.
Our approach
Whitehouse Communications delivered an integrated communications programme across both charities, combining brand and message development, ongoing media placement, sustained stakeholder engagement, and reputation and crisis management.
The work focused on:
- Developing brand messaging frameworks for both TAAS and TCAA, alongside briefing materials and Q&A media toolkits, giving each charity the assets needed for consistent, high-quality external communications.
- Implementing tailored reputation management and crisis communications programmes for both charities, protecting their standing across the sensitive operational and clinical environments in which they work.
- Drafting and placing articles and op-eds as part of an ongoing media engagement strategy, resulting in articles getting published, and horizon-scanning for speaker opportunities at relevant events, conferences and panel discussions.
- Identifying and nurturing key strategic relationships with influential decision-makers in Parliament, the NHS, and the wider healthcare and charity sectors, building the relationship base that has enabled sustained parliamentary and industry visibility for both charities.
The outcome
Whitehouse Communications’ work has raised the visibility of TAAS’s distinctive operational model, facilitating a framework for the charity to collaborate more closely with the UK’s urgent and emergency care sector. Awareness of TCAA in Parliament and the media has also increased, with features and mentions from high-profile Members of Parliament and charity sector stakeholders.
Between them, the two charities now have a shared communications foundation of brand messaging, media assets and crisis capability, and a network of parliamentary, NHS and healthcare sector relationships supporting both organisations’ work delivering emergency air response in their respective operational areas.
