CorpComms Magazine

Three days after Sarah Pinch started as head of public relations and marketing for bus company First South & Wales in December 2003, she was told that her first official task would be to handle an extremely delicate situation - one of its bus drivers had been arrested and charged with the murder of an 18 year old student, Alicia Eborne.

It was, Pinch readily concedes, not an ideal start. The 39-year-old driver, a father of two, had propositioned Eborne as she boarded his bus. She had rebuffed his attention but the driver had followed the student after she disembarked and strangled her with her own scarf. He then resumed his route and arrived back at the bus depot, where colleagues later recalled he had been 'acting oddly'.

'My managing director Elaine Holt said it was a miracle that I stayed,' says Pinch. 'The chief investigating officer said that the driver had no previous conviction. But there were lessons to be learned.' First South & Wales found it was only legally required to check the backgrounds of drivers of school buses with the Criminal Records Bureau. But it implemented a change nonetheless; today the backgrounds of all drivers of FirstGroup (as it later became) are checked. The bus was also destroyed.

'It was the right thing to do. The family appreciated the gesture,' says Pinch. 'As a company, you cannot and should not ever defend the indefensible. It became about how we could ease the pain, in any way, for the family who had lost a loved one.'

A rollercoaster ride

The experience obviously did not put Pinch either off the transport industry or Holt. 'I stayed five years. She is an amazing woman. I learned so much, particularly about mergers and takeovers,' says Pinch, whose role, team and budget all grew as FirstGroup battled (successfully) to win the Greater Western Franchise.

Holt then led the successful bid for the First Capital Connect franchise, which Pinch joined as head of communications in April 2006. The new franchise combined the service on the cross-London Thameslink railway line with the East Coast Main Line.

Again, it was Pinch's ability to empathise that helped the business during difficult times. 'With electric railways, people steal the copper,' she says, 'and that brings the service to a standstill.' Rather than issue anodyne apologies, Pinch brought her bosses to the platforms where they were able to talk directly to passengers. They heard first hand the impact of the delays - the missed hospital appointments, the struggle to get back in time for a parent's evening. 'You must never forget the impact on the customer,' says Pinch. 'We can at least say sorry, so we did a lot of saying sorry.'

It meant a lot for stranded passengers, she says, to see 'the managing director in a high visibility jacket apologising and buying cups of coffee'. She adds: 'I encouraged the board to be visible and engaged, to talk with staff and customers and hear their concerns and views.'

But after two years, Pinch disembarked. 'I wanted to return home more often than not at weekends,' she says. Pinch was appointed head of communications at the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, just a few miles from her home.

Bureaucracy and hierarchy

The journey from the private to public sector was, she concedes, bumpy. 'On my first day, I asked what budget I had. The number was so small that I thought they had left one, if not two, noughts off. There was a lot of work to be done,' she says. 'I had to rebuild the team, refocus the work that we did and to transform a reactive media relations approach into a proactive one.'

There was, says Pinch, no sense of ownership among the 10,000 staff working within the Trust. She implemented a new set of brand guidelines, relaunched the website and introduced a series of events where members of the trust could meet staff and patients (they had never been invited to do so previously). She launched initiatives to get staff engaged. 'The NHS is going through unprecedented changes,' says Pinch. 'But people respect the NHS. It is one of the most respected brands in the world and that is all down to its people.'

But she found the public sector 'bureaucratic and hierarchical' and that staff 'didn't understand the job I had'. She missed the 'can do' attitude of the private sector. 'For the first three months, I thought it was the worst decision I had ever made,' Pinch concedes. 'A year later, and I knew it was the best decision.' The turning point was a discussion with the Trust's chief nurse, who had worked within the NHS all her life, another 'inspirational woman' who has shaped Pinch's career. 'She said Do you want to stay and make a difference to the patients or not? Sometimes I tell her that it is all her fault.'

In June 2009, I imagine, the chief nurse got more than her fair share of 'why did you persuade me to stay' comments when Private Eye called Pinch. The satirical magazine had been contacted by a Bristol GP, Phil Hammond, who claimed that the hospital had seriously misdiagnosed patients and that people had died who should not have.

Taking responsibility

Pinch's bosses at the Trust immediately launched an independent inquiry into the allegations. It was an incredibly complex situation. In fact, the inquiry took 18 months to present its findings. Pinch has received the first CIPR/IoD award for PR Director of the Year, for her work during this time, managing the reputation of the hospital and advising the board.

Concerns about the hospital's histopathology department had first been raised in 2004, and the issue had been brought to the attention of a medical director at the Trust. But he had not shared those concerns with other directors, and had personally tried to resolve the situation. The allegations had been raised by doctors at the North Bristol NHS Trust, who, frustrated at the delays, had gone to the media. The inquiry, which reported its findings in December 2010, highlighted a 'strained relationship' between the two trusts. It also found 'serious errors' in three of the 26 cases where misdiagnosis had been alleged. 'It found that we operated a safe service,' says Pinch.

During the turbulent 18 months, Pinch said she took the advice she offers her team - to meet patients and put themselves in their shoes. 'It's about personal stories. It's about living their experiences,' says Pinch; she sat in on a heart by-pass operation.

But lessons have been learned. All directors must share with at least one other director any allegations or claims made against the Trust - ensuring that the board has shared responsibility - and changes have been implemented to improve the working relationship with North Bristol NHS Trust.

Throughout all these crises, Pinch has been clear about one thing. Sorry is never the hardest word, and should always be delivered by the people in charge. 'The day that I am the spokesperson is the day that everything has gone to hell in a hand cart,' she laughs.

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