The benefits of APComm

By Carrie Goodwin, APComm Vice Chair and Head of Communications at South Yorkshire Police

I’m really trying to stop myself from expressing how ‘crazy’ this week has been as I seem to say it so often. It’s not a complaint, I find that I enjoy my job the most when it’s fast paced and unpredictable but it can be hard to catch your breath.

This week, I’ve been dealing with a sensitive national media issue which South Yorkshire found itself the centre of.  Whilst this may have derailed my week, I was very conscious that the work we pulled together would ultimately benefit other forces by at least providing them an outline of what internal messaging they may wish to consider. In contrast, I found that the time I had allocated to research our VAWG communications strategy was lost so a request to colleagues across APComm meant that I had three versions to consider within an hour – a shortcut for me.

Before I became involved in APComm, I would have addressed each of these issues in isolation, working around the clock to get through everything and ultimately creating assets which were limited to my own abilities. This, for me, is the beauty of APComm. I have a network of people who are all ready and able to share ideas, to push policing to the new level of communications. As a vice chair on the executive board, I’m so proud to be able to play a small part in supporting this network.

In the North East region, we recently re-introduced our regional APComm meeting for Heads of Comms. We meet monthly on Teams to discuss local issues, share ideas and feedback anything of relevance to APComm at a national level. I thought we may struggle to get momentum as we had all tried many times before, but this time feels different. There’s such an openness to the sharing of ideas, benefiting from each other’s unique set of skills and experience and making some great friends along the way. We’re never short of things to talk about.

I’ve also been lucky enough to create the APComm Head of Communications induction pack which launches this week. I’ve been in the role for eight years now and still found I had a lot to learn whilst pulling this information together. The list of acronyms alone felt like a foreign phrase book opening up a whole new understanding. It’s hard to articulate how impactive APComm has been for me since becoming a vice chair.

I had no idea how hard the team work to bring you information, opportunities to learn and a vital support network and I’m acutely aware that I cannot always match their efforts. I hope you, like me, enjoy what APComm has to offer and if you are considering becoming more involved, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.