The Communication Award Shortlist

Transforming Justice Communications Team, Ministry of Justice

Transforming Justice (TJ) is the overarching brand encompassing the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) business transformation programmes, designed to deliver a radical overhaul of the justice system by 2015.

Driving reforms to services, ways of working and the need to make efficiencies, this far-reaching and comprehensive change programme presents huge challenges for staff engagement. Effective internal communications and engagement with MoJ’s 95,000 staff, spread across MoJ’s businesses and the country, is central to the programme’s success.

Transforming Justice is a beacon for staff engagement. Preliminary focus groups and staff involvement gave us the name for the programme and gave the Director General his job title. Staff voted on the internal ‘brand’ and helped set the language, tone and style of our communications. We established a network of over 1,500 ‘Transformers’ – our dedicated ‘change agents’ – in every court, prison establishment and HQ office throughout the country.

TWe captured the ideas of frontline staff on how we can save money, do things differently and deliver better public services. We gave them the opportunity to have honest conversations with senior leaders. Communications have given our employees a voice and collective ownership of the transformation.

Our own communications research and evaluation combined with evaluation conducted by the Institute for Government shows that TJ communications have helped drive MoJ’s staff engagement score up in 2010 – one of only two departments to achieve an increase.