Accessible Communications Community of Practice guidelines

​The NSW Health Accessible Communications Community of Practice

This document defines the purpose, responsibility and scope of activity for the Accessible Communications Community of Practice (CoP).

Purpose

To bring together NSW Health staff to share knowledge and experience in delivering accessible communication and develop best practice.

Goals

• To share accessible communication resources and practices across the system.
• To solve problems and develop best practice accessible communications for NSW Health consumers, their families and carers.
• To drive greater health literacy across the NSW health system.

Reporting

The Accessible Communications CoP is coordinated by the Corporate Communications team, Strategic Communications and Engagement Branch, NSW Ministry of Health. The guidelines and membership are to be reviewed each year to ensure relevance and to continue to meet the goals of the CoP.

Sponsorship

The executive sponsor for the Accessible Communications CoP is the Executive Director, Strategic Communications and Engagement Branch.

Chairperson

The Corporate Communications Director or Communications Manager will chair the meetings. Members of the CoP may be invited to chair when appropriate.

Roles and responsibilities

The roles and responsibilities of members are:

• share ideas and new resources
• share insights and advice
• work out problems as a group
• talk about common issues
• talk about what is working
• explore more ways of making accessible communications better
• share resources, case studies and examples of work
• share common knowledge practices.

Membership

Members volunteer their time to take part in the Accessible Communications CoP and have a shared duty in planning and coordinating meetings for the group.

Members should be prepared to present if appropriate, contribute to the agenda and/or share case studies or tips.

New members can join by completing the expression of interest.

Attendance

Meetings are every three months for one hour via Microsoft Teams.

Record keeping

There will be no minutes taken during the Accessible Communications CoP meetings. Any actions raised will be shared with the CoP via email within a week of the meeting with an update provided at the next meeting.

Meetings will be recorded.