Local influencing: deciding who to talk to

Influencing can take a number of different forms, but however you’re doing it, the key element is planning. 

Making an influencing plan will help you define what you want to achieve, identify who can make that happen, and work out how best to help them make the change you want. 

Before you start any influencing work, it’s important to be clear about why you’re doing it.

• What is your end goal?
• What change do you want to see?
• What milestones do you need to achieve to get there?

For example, if your goal is to secure long-term funding, it might first be necessary to do some awareness-raising work amongst potential investors. If your goal is reaching more people with your services, you might want to build partnerships in the local community to facilitate this.

You should be able to sum up your overall aim in a concise, compelling statement. Keep this in mind throughout all your influencing work.

When you’ve identified what steps you need to take to reach your goal, you need to think about who can help you. Brainstorm all the potential stakeholders in the local area.

These might be individuals, organisations or forums (umbrella bodies or decision-making bodies with representatives from a range of stakeholders).

At this stage, it doesn’t matter whether your stakeholders are powerful or whether they are likely to be supportive – you just need to come up with a list that’s as comprehensive as possible. 

Carry out some research to find out more about your stakeholders. This will help inform the decisions you make about who to engage with and how. 

For individuals:

• What motivates them to get involved?
• What causes have they supported previously?
• Have they voiced opinions about palliative and end of life care?
• Do their opinions align with yours?
• What level of influence do they have?
• What networks are they a part of?

For boards, committees, organisations and bodies:

• What is the governance structure?
• What is the membership (and how do people become members)?
• How are decisions made (and what information do they need to make decisions)?
• Who are the key players?
• Where does palliative and end of life care sit within their plans and strategies?
• Do they have a statutory obligation that aligns with your aims?
• Do their overarching goals align with yours?

If you’re looking to influence in the wider health and care system, read our guide to understanding the structures and organisations of the NHS.

Once you’ve created a list of stakeholders and found out more about them, it’s time to carry out a stakeholder analysis. This will help you identify who is likely to be supportive or unsupportive, and think about how to approach them.

Decide which one of the following groups each stakeholder fits into:

Your research should help you work out how much power and interest each stakeholder has. This will help determine the actions you should take to influence them.

For example, if somebody is very powerful and very interested, you should target a lot of resources into keeping them engaged. But if they have low power and low interest, you might not want to spend as much time trying to influence them.