Clare Mills, Co-Chair

clare.mills@wiltshire.police.uk

Clare is the Head of Corporate Communications and Engagement at Wiltshire Police, where she heads up a team of 15 staff. She is responsible for the development of the Force strategic internal, external and digital communication and engagement approach and leads on organisational Reward and Recognition as part of her busy portfolio.

Clare has over 20 years' experience in police communications, has been an APComm Vice Chair for over 3 years and is hugely passionate about public service comms.

After graduating with a BA Hons in English and Art, Clare worked for four years in events management, before joining Northamptonshire Police in 1999 as part of the Public Relations and Media team where she held several distinct roles. In 2003, she moved to Bedfordshire Police, then joined Wiltshire Police in 2007 moving into the Head of Comms role in 2011. Between 2012 and 2020, Clare headed up a shared service team of communications professionals across the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and Wiltshire Police, so has a lot of experience in the broader communications requirements across the wider crime and justice arena.

Further to a recent restructure, implemented by her, Clare's role now focuses on police comms specifically, which is her true passion. Clare leads the communications for critical incidents, gold groups and other strategic issues and ensures that media, public relations, internal staff engagement and digital communications are managed and delivered effectively and efficiently.

Clare was responsible for heading up the strategic communications and media approach for the inquiry into allegations of non-recent child abuse against the late Sir Edward Heath. She has also more recently led the significant communications and media for the local response to the Salisbury poisonings, which saw Wiltshire Police lead in the bringing together of multiple partners at both a local and national level to co-ordinate the response phase of the consequence management element of this global incident.

Clare leads on wellbeing for the association and, along with fellow Vice Chair, Caroline Tozer, has led on the development of the new APComm website. Clare relishes the opportunity to support members across the country and is privileged to be part of the APComm executive committee.

Lucy Bogustawski, Treasurer and Membership Secretary

Lucy.bogustawski@lincs.pnn.police.uk

Lucy joined APComm as Treasurer in the spring of 2020, around the same time she was appointed Head of Corporate Communications at Lincolnshire Police.

Her role for APComm involves handling the finances, responsibility for membership renewals and forecasting future expenditures and revenue streams.

In Lincolnshire, she is responsible for a team of communications officers, graphic designers, engagement leads and an audio-visual department. Lincolnshire is a large county, mainly rural, with pockets of urban communities. Like many other forces and their communications departments, it shares lots of common traits with others but is unique in itself.

Lucy is your point of contact for APComm if you have any questions about your membership subs or details, and/or any questions about how APComm decides what projects or work the budget is spent on.

Helen Wilson, Vice Chair

helen.wilson@surrey.pnn.police.uk

Helen is the Head of Corporate Communications and Engagement at Surrey Police, leading a department made up of four core functions; News, Strategic Communication, Engagement and Production. Since becoming the permanent Head in the summer of 2019 she has, for the first time in over a decade, secured extra funding to grow her team and is looking forward to seeing the new Engagement Team work closely with policing colleagues to enhance how they engage with all demographics of Surrey’s local communities.

Helen joined Surrey Police in January 2001 working as a Press Officer. Since joining she has worked across most disciplines within Corporate Communications, and at every level within the team. Over two decades there have been numerous challenging cases and events that she has worked on or led the communications for; Op Ruby (Milly Dowler murder); 2012 Olympics; Op Franklin (Floods) and the Magna Carta event to name just a few.

Originally from Northamptonshire, Helen moved to Southampton to study Journalism, completing her degree and a post-graduate qualification in Broadcast Journalism. Prior to joining Surrey Police she was a radio newsreader for the BBC and two independent radio stations before embarking on a career with Surrey Police.

In January 2020 Helen became one of the Vice Chairs of APComm and has been instrumental in developing and implementing the APComm Mentor Scheme which has about 30 communicators, nationally, benefiting from the experience of senior and seasoned communicators in policing. Helen has also developed the APComm membership calendar which is circulated monthly. If you are interested in learning more about the Mentor Scheme or if you are wanting to have something published in the calendar email helen.wilson@surrey.pnn.police.uk.

Vicky O'Hare, Vice Chair

vicky.ohare@thamesvalley.police.uk

I am the Strategic Communications Manager for Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) and the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU). I have 13 years of experience in high-pressure public-sector roles and have extensive experience in crisis communications, media relations and reputation management.

I began my policing career with Hampshire Constabulary in 2010, after spending five years as a local journalist in roles including crime reporter and deputy news editor, then spending a year with a local authority working on change communications. Throughout my policing career, I have worked in a number of different communications roles - covering media relations, employee engagement, stakeholder management and campaigns. I have also developed and delivered bespoke training packages to trainee detectives, family liaison officers. I also created and implemented Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary’s first social media strategy.

I joined Thames Valley Police in 2018 on a two-year secondment, to develop a new communications capability for the south east regional units. Regional policing is a whole other world and I absolutely love being a part of it. This role has tested me in ways I didn’t know possible but also enabled me to learn from and share much of my knowledge, expertise and experience with communications professionals from across the country. I managed the communications response to the Reading terrorist attack in 2020 in the midst of a global pandemic and have also led work to create a crisis communications training package on behalf of the CTP communications network. I work closely with police communications colleagues nationally through the CTP and ROCU networks and have also previously supported other police communications teams on a mutual aid basis during the 2012 Olympics in London and the NATO Summit in Wales in 2014.

I have a partner who is a serving police officer and we are busy working parents to a seven-year-old boy. In my spare time I enjoy live music – especially festivals – reading, fashion and spending time with friends. I became a Vice Chair for APComm in January 2023.

Robin Punt, Vice Chair

Robin.Punt@essex.police.uk

Robin Punt worked as a BBC Correspondent, reporting and producing for TV News for 13 years from the Afghanistan, Egypt, the USA, Australia, Europe and around the UK. He was the first reporter to interview Wikileaks founder Julian Assange after his initial release from prison in London and the last reporter to walk the production line at the famous MG Rover factory in Birmingham. His journalism while at BBC Newsnight, where he worked for almost 4 years, led to a change in the law in relation to the safeguarding of children and a cross-Whitehall review of over 2,500 private supplier contracts after he revealed that senior civil servants were being paid through their own private companies, minimising their tax liabilities.

As Director of Communications at Help for Heroes, he helped raise £300m for service personnel and veterans wounded while in the service of our Nation and established the charity among the Top Ten UK Charity brands as evaluated by the polling firm YouGov for seven consecutive years. He also devised campaigns which led to over 2,000 veterans coming forward to seek help with poor mental health and was responsible for the Communications for HRH Prince Harry’s (now the Duke of Sussex’s) Invictus Games in London 2014, Orlando 2016 and Toronto 2017, sitting on the Ministry of Defence UK Team Board.

Since June 2019, Robin has been Head of Corporate Communications for Essex Police. He was elected Vice-Chair of the Association of Police Communicators in 2022.