NHS Voices contributor requirements
About NHS Voices
NHS Voices is a platform for health and social care leaders to share their views, observations and insights on key topics affecting the NHS and the wider health and social care sector.
Written by senior leaders for senior leaders, the blog posts that feature on NHS Voices aim to engage, inform, spark debate and challenge thinking.
Who will read your blog?
Your post will be published on our website, where it will be read by our members and stakeholders.
We will proactively promote your post to our audiences through our communications channels, such as our e-newsletters and social media.
We will highlight it directly to board-level leaders within our member organisations and promote it to the thousands of people who follow us because they are interested in the views of healthcare leaders on policy and practice. This includes journalists, parliamentarians, think tanks, policymakers and other opinion formers.
What should you write about?
To be considered for publication, a blog post must be on one or more of the following areas:
1. Shared learning/best practice – your experience of a successful project, action or challenge you have overcome, which could inspire others who want to achieve a similar result.
2. Advocacy and thought leadership – personal insight and analysis on key issues that impact the NHS and wider health and social care.
3. Sense making – helping to digest and understand issues, policies and challenges that members may be facing.
Commercial content
We welcome content from commercial partners or associate members if it is aligned to our priority areas of work (population health, system working, workforce, innovation, economic development and equality, diversity and inclusion).
Advertorial content that is promotional or ‘salesy’ will not be considered.
How to submit an idea for consideration
Before drafting your content, pitch your idea to our editor, Frances Longley. We ask for pitches so we can work with you to ensure content is correctly pitched and captures readers’ imagination. Taking on board the considerations on what you should write about, please send a couple of bullet points on each of the following:
- Why you feel the blog would be of interest to our readers.
- What the argument/story/innovation/intervention is.
- Who the blog is aimed at.
Our editor will consider each proposal and may ask for more detail if needed. If your proposed post is given the go-ahead, we can schedule a date for publication. Our editor will proofread your piece when it’s submitted, to ensure that it is clearly expressed and in the NHS Confederation’s house style. More detail may also be needed at this stage, and our editor will contact you if there are any queries or revisions needed.
The draft will need to be submitted no less than three days before the agreed publication date, to allow time for any revisions.
Please email your blog post idea to: frances.longley@nhsconfed.org
Writing your blog
Blog posts for NHS Voices are generally written in an informal and conversational style.
We want you to express your views as an individual in your own voice. The main thing we ask is that you write in a way that can be understood by all, and that you do not assume too much pre-knowledge.
We advise you to:
- always write with your target audience in mind. It can be helpful to think of one person who characterises your target audience, and write as though you are speaking to them directly
- think of a compelling introduction to capture the reader
- include an early sentence stating clearly what your post is about
- use short sentences (normally no more than 25/30 words)
- avoid jargon, including NHS jargon
- conclude with a comment or question that encourages discussion.
It goes without saying that your post should be written in a respectful fashion and not be unnecessarily inflammatory.
Length
Your blog should be a minimum of 400 words, but no more than 800 words.
Links
We would encourage you to provide links to your social media pages (Twitter, LinkedIn) that we can include at the end of the blog.
You may also want to include links within your blog that you think might be of interest to readers.
Reposting
We would prefer your post for NHS Voices to be original and not to include reposts of content from other websites or blogs.
About you
We will feature a photograph of you alongside the final piece. Please send a head-and-shoulders photo in landscape format with a plain background, in a minimum file size of 300dpi JPEG, or 800x400 PNG.
