© Crown copyright Met Office Cold Weather Plan Dee Cotgrove , Exec Head Comms, Met Office
Apr 01, 2015
© Crown copyright Met Office
Cold Weather PlanDee Cotgrove , Exec Head Comms, Met Office
© Crown copyright Met Office
Cold Weather Alert
• Alerts issued when:
• the weather could increase the health risks to vulnerable patients and / or disrupt the delivery of services
• Alerts based on either:
• Cold weather temperature threshold
• Risk of widespread ice and / or heavy snow
2012/13 Cold Weather Plan
Distribution of Cold Weather Alerts
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© Crown copyright Met Office
Information & advice line
Joint PR
Reciprocal social media messages
Integrate informationabout the alerts into Spread the Warmth campaign materials
Public and professional websites
Local PR Localised social media messages
Display joint branded posters
Distribute alerts to Local Age UKs
Local case studies
Reciprocal guest blogs
Age UK publications Age UK
Local Age UKs
Evaluation
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Winter 2011/12
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Cold Weather Alerts Issued
Cold weather temperature threshold
Does your organisation forward the Cold Weather Alerts to front line staff and otherorganisations?
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Source: HPA - Evaluation Report - Cold Weather Plan for England 2011-12
How helpful was the CWP in aiding your actions during the Level 3 when it was activated last winter?
Source: HPA - Evaluation Report - Cold Weather Plan for England 2011-12
www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/coldweatheralert/
Web page 1,722,888 views
This page links to Age UK website
Press releases 25,128 views
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PR and social media analysis
Reach of media coverage: 29,977,744
Not including the number of views our press releases had on the website
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Questions & answers
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Cold Weather Plan - role of the Met Office
• Provide meteorological input and other appropriate assistance to DH for development of Cold Weather Plan.
• Monitor weather conditions and issue Cold Weather Alerts as required, to agreed recipients, from November 1st – March 31st
• Work with BBC and others to ensure consistent media messaging and provide support for press releases, interviews and briefings.
• Met Office Public Weather Service Advisors engage with Cat 1 responders in the event of a cold weather event to ensure they are fully briefed and are clear on actions to take.
Communications evaluation
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What worked well?
• Coordinated approach was very successful in getting messages out quickly in the event of an alert being issued
• The campaign received some high profile media coverage
• Message penetration in media coverage was excellent
• Good volume of localised coverage reported back to us by Age UK
• Lots of discussion about the alerts taking place on Facebook and Twitter
What didn’t work so well?
• The timings of the alerts made it difficult for Age UK to respond in time to get radio adverts out (unfortunately this couldn’t be rectified)
• Risk of Cold Weather Alert fatigue – alerts were thought to be too frequent
• Messages needed refining – too many messages on the joint branded poster