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With the latest round of ministerial musical chairs in full swing, many people involved in policy and public affairs will be thinking about how to make initial contact with ministers as they take up their new portfolios.
First impressions count, and this is equally true when it comes to making contact with an incoming ministerial team. Your initial contact is likely to set the tone for the relationship that you will build with them (and their officials) in the following weeks and months. Get it right and you’ll have a powerful tool in your policy influencing armoury. Get it wrong, and you could find yourself out in the cold.
In this post, I provide some tips on how best to make that initial contact with newly appointed ministers.
Tip #1: You might not yet know who to write to, but start with the Secretary of State
When there is a big change of government, such as after an election or following the appointment of a new prime minister, it takes a bit of time for the ministerial dust to settle. Cabinet positions are the first to be filled, meaning that you should have a pretty good idea pretty quickly of the Secretary of State that will be most closely aligned to your area of interest or your cause. When it comes to more junior ministerial roles, it often takes a bit of time to fill those, and even when they are filled, it may take even longer for portfolios to be allocated within the new team. It’s normally a good idea to write initially to the incoming Secretary of State, and to follow up with initial contact with more junior ministers as and when things become clearer.
Tip #2: Keep it positive
When a new minister is appointed, they can expect a deluge of introductory letters from a variety of stakeholders and interest groups. Lots of those contacts will be quite forthright, highlighting a particular problem that the author wants the new minister to prioritise. In my opinion, it’s really important to keep the tone of that first introductory letter positive. While you will certainly want to highlight the importance of your issues or interests, you also want to leave them with the impression that you are helpful and constructive, and a credible stakeholder for them to engage with.
Tip #3: Make it relevant
In your introductory letter, it’s always a good idea to make sure that you frame the issue within the context of what it is that the government has said that it wants to achieve. For example, if the government has published a strategy relevant to your issue or cause, talk about how you can help them to deliver on that, or how solving the issue that you are highlighting with them will help unblock progress against the strategy.
Tip #4: Less is more
While it is hugely tempting to provide lots of detail and background, an introductory letter should be relatively short and to the point. I normally aim for no more than a side and a half of A4 as a general rule.
Tip #5: You are introducing yourself as well as the issue
An incoming minister is unlikely to know very much about either the issue that you are most interested in, or who you are as an organisation. Don’t forget to give them some insight into who your organisation is, its role and its purpose. And importantly why your organisation is an important stakeholder that the new minister can work with.
Tip #6: A letter or an email?
As a general rule of thumb, introductory contact with an incoming minister is better in the form of a letter. The formality and respect that a letter brings will go a long way to setting the right tone. For efficiency, you may choose, of course, to send the letter electronically rather than as a hard copy, if you have an email address to use.
Tip #7: Have a clear ask
Be clear in the letter what it is that you want the new minister to do. For example, are you asking for a meeting? Or asking them to consider a specific policy change? As it is an introductory letter, it’s quite likely that it will be reasonably top-level rather than focused on a specific policy ask at this stage.
Tip #8: You might get a reply from someone else
While ministerial portfolios are allocated and agreed, your initial letter to an incoming Secretary of State is quite likely to be passed on to the relevant junior minister for a reply (once they are known). So when you are putting your letter together, it’s worth bearing in mind that it might effectively double-up as your introductory letter to the relevant junior minister too.
Tip #9: Getting on the radar is key
If you’re fortunate enough to already have an existing positive relationship with the relevant officials, that is going to help you enormously. It is the officials who help an incoming minister to prioritise who to reply to, and the tone of that reply. Writing an introductory letter to an incoming minister is as much about getting on the radar with the relevant officials and it is about getting on the radar of the minister themselves.
Tip #10: Decide whether your letter is public or private
Some organisations will choose to make their introductory letter to an incoming minister public – publishing it or issuing it to the media. There is a view that such ‘open’ letters can themselves be an effective influencing tool, by raising wider public (and political) awareness of the issue involved. Personally, I’m not a fan of making such letters public (unless there is a specific campaign need). Open letters have a place, but in my opinion using that tactic in an introductory approach is unlikely to be well received.
What is your experience of reaching out to an incoming ministerial team? Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
If you or your organisation are looking to do more policy influencing work, and would like some pro bono advice, I’d be happy to have a chat. Just drop me a line via the ‘Contact’ link above, or email me at hello@thepolicycoach.co.uk
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