Fresh - PR & Communication

27/03/2025

Work-life peak; Fresh Communication named on a bar of Tony's Chocolonely. 😍
And in very good company too, for this B Corp special edition bar.

07/02/2025

We are very pleased with this article that appeared in The Times today. We've been working closely with journalist Rhys Blakely for the last few weeks developing the story, finding relevant data, arranging interviews and providing a case study from our client Gingerbread, the single parent charity.

Gingerbread has been a client of Fresh since 2017 and it campaigns for reform of the Child Maintenance Service, which is supposed to make sure separated parents pay a fair amount towards their children's upbringing. However the service is failing and many children are not getting the money they are owed - a massive £700 million is currently unpaid.

This article highlights in particular the danger that victims of domestic abuse are being put in by being told by the CMS that they need to gather evidence if they suspect their ex is lying about their income to avoid payment - sometimes with tragic consequences.

Single mothers are being told by the Child Maintenance Service that it’s down to them to investigate violent former partners when they dodge payments

02/12/2024

It's not just about getting media coverage. It's about placing a meaningful article with a respected journalist, in a publication or platform that reaches the people you want to influence.

Last week we launched a new report by Gingerbread and Joseph Rowntree Foundation which finds that single parent families are less likely to live in poverty when they get the right child maintenance.

Following much discussion, setting up interviews and supplying of data, we were delighted that Polly Toynbee took our story for her column in The Guardian. An influential journalist and commentator in the areas of social justice, welfare reform and progressive politics she is regularly cited by policymakers, academics and fellow journalists and is a powerful advocate of CMS reform.

This is exactly the right person to be championing the findings of this report.

A new report shows a bad situation is getting worse. This really is a case for draconian action from the state, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

28/11/2024

We are happy to announce that Lisa Sutherland has been appointed as Co-Chair for # B Local Cornwall. Cornwall has the most B Corp certified companies in the UK outside the hotspots of London and Bristol. This is very impressive and testament to the energy and commitment of the B Local members in enthusing companies across the county of the benefits to people and the planet of becoming B Corp certified.

You can find out more about the B Corporation movement here: https://bcorporation.uk/

If you have any questions about the B Corp process or are interested in coming to a B Local event in Cornwall then do contact Lisa on [email protected]. 😊

21/11/2024

Equal Pay Day is a big media moment for The Fawcett Society - Official - the UK's leading gender equality charity and longstanding client of Fresh Communication.

Equal Pay Day was yesterday and it is the date when women effectively stop getting paid compared to men due to the Gender Pay Gap. We use it as a reason to talk to the media about why the Gender Pay Gap persists, such as lack of affordable childcare and limited flexible work options for men and women which tends to push women out of careers and into part time, insecure and lower-paying roles in order to balance caregiving responsibilities. It also gives Fawcett a platform to talk about solutions such as making flexible work for all the default, transforming the childcare system and eradicating pay discrimination to ensure that men and women are paid equally for equal work.

We secured coverage across a broad cross section of print, broadcast and online media, from the Financial Times to the Morning Star, from Sky News to BBC News as well as glossies such as Stylist and Glamour which are a key audience for Fawcett as a membership organisation.

This year the Gender Pay Gap means that on average, women earn £631 less than men every month. If you're interested in finding out your Gender Pay Gap you can use the Fawcett Society's online calculator: https://fawcett.shinyapps.io/equalpayday2024/

14/11/2024

Picking up the phone to a journalist can feel terrifying. Pitching a story by email and never getting a response can be soul destroying. Getting an unexpected call from the press can cause panic. Media coverage is critical to many PR campaigns but achieving it can be daunting.

Lisa spoke at this morning's CharityComms event 'Building Impactful Media Relations' which was attended by more than 100 people from across the charity sector. The talk explored how journalists work, what they need and how best to engage. It looked at what makes a story newsworthy and considered elements such as use of embargoes, exclusives and paywalls. It also discussed different types of media outlets, the tailored approaches they need and the different value they bring.

Great to share the platform with Andy Ricketts of Third Sector.

07/11/2024

“Nature should be viewed as critical infrastructure for the global economy."

Great to be invited to the Green Economy Forum 'Financing the Green Transition' at The Conduit near Covent Garden.

A day of lively discussions by excellent speakers covered topics such as:
- Rewilding and the role of nature in mitigating the impacts of climate change.
- The rise of exciting new marine technology such as zero carbon ships.
- The need for a standardised method for small businesses to measure carbon footprints and discussion around reporting and who is responsible.
- The need for infrastructure to support SME green transition, for example no business will invest in a fleet of EV vans if it's not possible to charge them.
- The need for robust government policies and funding to enable green transition.
- Natural capital markets, nutrient neutrality and natural flood management.
- Carbon credits, the controversy and the potential.
- The need for improved bio-literacy and always more data.
- The role of AI in reducing emissions such as precision agriculture, energy management and smart buildings.
- The impact of AI on energy use and how Google and Amazon have commissioned their own nuclear reactors to run data centres.
- Decarbonisation and electrification of emerging economies.
- Climate justice and the importance of open data.
- Restoration of natural carbon sinks in the marine environment.
- The importance of good communication in understanding the challenges and opportunities for government, funders and business in working together to drive forward the green transition.

https://hubspot.theconduit.com/financing-the-green-transition

01/11/2024

“Single parents tell us they feel ignored by politicians."
Thanks to Geraldine Scott at The Times for coming to us for a response from Victoria Benson at Gingerbread on the fact that Labour is abandoning Conservative plans to judge child benefit claims based on a household’s income rather than by individual earnings.
"Single parents pay all of their households’ living costs from a single income. This is difficult enough. But to be penalised and have money taken from child benefit payments when their income is half that of a two-parent family shows a lack of consideration for the unique circumstances of single-parent families. This reversal underlines just how important it is for the government to properly assess the impact of its policies on single parents and other vulnerable groups.”

Labour is ditching Conservative plans to judge child benefit claims based on a household’s income rather than by individual earnings

01/11/2024

The financial services industry had “long had a very big problem” with gender inequality.
We set up this interview with Jemima Olchawski of the The Fawcett Society - Official for Oliver Wright at The Times.
In this excellent article, she says: “What we know is that the gender pay gap is worst in sectors traditionally dominated by men and where there is little transparency around pay and progression. Both those things apply to financial services.
“In fact, when you factor in bonuses the situation is even worse.”
She calls on the government to take a more “holistic approach” to the problem including banning practices such as employers asking candidates for their previous salaries or their salary expectations.
“That just transfers inequality from one organisation to another,” she warns.

ONS gender pay gap report reveals that female managers and directors in finance are paid £11.71 less an hour

30/10/2024

Great to get Jemima Olchawski of the The Fawcett Society - Official on BBC Woman’s Hour talking about the disbanding of the The Women's Equality Party alongside Emma Graham-Harrison from the The Guardian.

Why the Women's Equality Party want their members to call time on the organisation.

28/10/2024

According to the Public Statues and Sculpture Association, there are 13,500 public statues in the UK. 17% of these are of women - and most of those are of Queen Victoria.

When you take out royalty and unnamed statues, it leaves 140 statues of 'women of achievement'. That is 1% of the total number of statues in the UK.

That's it.

One of these statues is that of Millicent Fawcett, pioneering suffragist and namesake of the The Fawcett Society - Official. This morning Alesha De-Freitas MBE, head of policy at Fawcett was at the statue in Parliament Square for an interview we set up with Salma El-Wardany on BBC London.

It was a fantastic interview celebrating what Millicent Fawcett achieved, the fact that she is the only woman statue in Parliament Square, the need for more women sculptures and sculptors and discussion around which women might be the next candidates to be a statue.

The interview is here, just after 9:30am https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jvlny3

20/09/2024

"You can't put this down to a single individual."

The Fawcett Society - Official CE Jemima Olchawski earlier today in a stand out interview that we arranged with Matt Barbet at Sky News.

She says Al Fayed "thrived in a culture that turned a blind eye" after lawyers for 37 alleged victims called him "a monster" at today's press conference.