A number of local authorities were interviewed about the work they did to communicate the TPS to teachers. Based on their experiences and sector best practice the following are suggestions of some the different types of communication activities that you may want to consider getting involved in.

Face to Face

Suggested communication activities include:

Communicating to teachers across a large geographical area on a limited budget can create many logistical difficulties for some local authorities. The area covered and the number of schools involved, often makes visiting schools individually to talk about the TPS impractical and unaffordable.

One way of meeting this challenge cost effectively is to look into what relevant networks are already operating in your area to see if you could work with them to access your target audience.

For example, if you wanted to access head teachers it would make sense to approach your local primary and secondary regional heads’ groups, which usually meet once a term, and see if you could get a regular slot to discuss the TPS and perhaps other HR issues.

Face to face communications, while being more resource intensive, are also preferable in situations that could be potentially difficult and where relationships need to be built up. In an effort to engage with foundation schools and to assert the local authority’s role as employers in regards pension issues, a number of local authorities said that they prioritised making presentations about the TPS to teachers in these types of schools.

The printed word

Suggested communication activities include:

Despite the increase in e-communications, the majority of teachers say that they still prefer paper based communications. In order to ensure that teachers do have the information they need about their pension scheme some paper based communications will still need to take place.

Wherever possible, piggy back on existing communications, for example a pension slot in the regular school magazine, bulletins and posters for school staff rooms and printed briefing materials for people to take away from staff meetings. All these can be done at little cost.

Ideally, to ensure teachers understand the information you are telling them, you should conduct a number of separate but complementary activities in a set period of time, as the more times a message is repeated the more chance there is of an individual remembering it and acting upon it.

Ultimately most local authorities will be looking to move away from paper based communications relying instead on cheaper and more easily updated e-communications. Where you do need to still use paper communications always take the opportunity to sign post people to your web or intranet site and/or the TP website to help get them in the habit of looking for information on line.

Electronic communications

Suggested communication activities include:

A number of local authorities interviewed identified having a designated pension area on their intranet site as a useful, easy to manage and cost effective resource and one they would recommend other authorities adopting if they had not already.

When the pension section on their intranet site went live, most noticed an increased interest in and activity around pensions with teachers taking a greater interest in their pension provision and becoming better informed.

The facilities on offer vary from site to site, but many included links to the TP website, e-notice boards, on-line information taken from staff handbooks and other printed literature, pension bulletins, Q & As on various different aspects of the scheme and in some cases the opportunity to register for e-mail alerts and pension updates.

Others highlighted information about the scheme benefits emphasising the employer contribution and one local authority interviewed also clearly displayed this information on its website feeling that positive messages about pensions was a good recruitment tool.