Provision of The Covid Inquiry Listening Exercise - Communications

The Inquiry required a 'Listening Exercise' to run alongside its formal legal processes to complement its investigations. The Listening Exercise is a working title for the public facing process the Inquiry will use to gather people's experiences of the pandemic, providing a unique source of data for the Inquiry's legal team. This Listening Exercise will be of sufficient scope and scale to capture people's experiences, give them a chance to be heard, and turn the experiences into an evidence base that can support the broad remit of the Inquiry's investigations. This Listening Exercise will be run as a mixed programme, covering four pillars:

1) Research and Analysis

2) Communications and Engagement

3) Website (work already underway)

4) Emotional support/safeguarding

The Inquiry requires specialist communication expertise to deliver the Communication and Engagement pillar of the Listening Exercise. The Listening Exercise will provide a unique, comprehensive empirical account (via a set of synthesised, depersonalised reports) of the UK population's experience of the pandemic. Accordingly, it is important that the Listening Exercise is as inclusive as possible, in line with the large number of people affected by the pandemic, and that the experiences we gather are representative of the UK population. At the same time, it must be proportional in the delivery to ensure value for money for the taxpayer and to the Inquiry. It will also demonstrate to the country that we are 'listening' to what the country wants to tell us, helping to maintain trust and confidence in the Inquiry and its findings. Due to the nature of the subject material and the grief, trauma and health impacts experienced by many people, carefully designed communications and interactions are required, in line with the Inquiry's safeguarding responsibilities. This activity will produce research that can be used by the Inquiry as evidence.