BCUK: Cutting through the noise to find updates that matter

About Breast Cancer UK

Breast Cancer UK (BCUK) is a charity dedicated to understanding and raising awareness of the factors that increase the risk of breast cancer. Operating in numerous areas such as diet, exercise, smoking, and more, BCUK is unique in its focus on pre-diagnosis.

BCUK’s Campaigns and Public Affairs Manager, Gareth Lloyd-Johnson, and his team have relied on PolicyMogul as their political information platform for around two years.

---

 

The problem

• BCUK’s limited time and resources made keeping up to date with political developments impossible
• Large amounts of material relevant to BCUK meant the most important updates were time-consuming to find and easy to miss

BCUK, being a small charity, grapples with limited time and resources. Navigating through the continuous flow of political news and staying engaged with policymaking schedules was a significant challenge, primarily because their work encompasses diverse fields like environmental issues, health and economics. 

 

 

In addition, finding relevant information amid the overwhelming amount of news and updates was an arduous task. Those broad interests meant BCUK needed a way to reduce workloads and maximise time efficiency for the team.

Gareth provided an example of a typical challenge BCUK might face.

“Sometimes reports come from government departments without much fanfare, particularly some bigger, heavy reports. Alongside this, I don’t have time to read 300 pages of every report to discover whether it’s useful to our work or not.”

BCUK needed a political monitoring tool that wouldn’t just provide more information: they needed something that would give the team confidence they weren’t missing the most important updates. 

They wanted something easy to use that would save time and increase efficiency. So they turned to PolicyMogul.

---

 

PolicyMogul and BCUK

• PolicyMogul’s simple, user-friendly interface makes it easy to access information
• Its strong filtering and curation features help BCUK identify the most relevant material
• Consultation tracking allows public affairs professionals to understand the status of policymaking concerning an issue

BCUK first started using PolicyMogul in 2021, before Gareth joined the team. The combination of PolicyMogul’s one-to-one onboarding assistance and intuitive design meant Gareth could get value from the platform right away.

For Gareth’s team, one of the most attractive aspects of PolicyMogul was its user interface.

 “I’ve used similar systems before where you are expected to get used to “quirks” or ways of working that aren’t ideal. There’s none of that with PolicyMogul – things are where you expect them to be, when you expect them, and in the format you expect.

This is exactly what you want from a business tool because the alternative is costly; it costs you time.”

As well as saving time thanks to PolicyMogul’s powerful update filtering and alerts, the BCUK team also heavily benefitted from the stakeholder mapping feature and consultation tracking. 

“I’ve seen and used most of the policy tracking tools on the market at some point. In comparison, I would describe PolicyMogul as the neatest and most user-friendly. I’m really impressed with the interface.

I go to PolicyMogul first thing in the morning and get all the information I need, feeling set up and informed for the day… …I don’t need to go digging and I don’t need to overthink where I’m going to find things. The quality and the breadth of the information is there.“

---

 

PolicyMogul’s impact

• BCUK can react much more quickly to political developments
• Gareth and his team use PolicyMogul for a ‘birds-eye’ view of the sector, allowing them to operate much more strategically
• Stakeholder mapping gives BCUK access to information they felt would have been ‘impossible’ to have without PolicyMogul

PolicyMogul has become essential to BCUK’s daily operations, keeping the team up to speed with relevant political updates since they joined in 2021. Thanks to the platform, the team spends less time searching for the right updates, and more time campaigning and liaising with stakeholders.

Gareth explained how, thanks to PolicyMogul, BCUK is now able to react much faster to relevant political developments.

“There have been times when, based on my logging into PolicyMogul in the morning, I’ve changed my plans for the day because I’ve been made aware of an opportunity or something relevant we need to engage on.”

 

 

Another benefit Gareth and BCUK found from joining PolicyMogul was the ability to see progress made by other organisations towards similar goals as them. This, in addition to an enhanced ability to identify trends and themes across different sources, allowed BCUK to operate much more strategically.

“PolicyMogul identifies organisations that might be helpful for us to engage with and add support to. Rather than doing everything independently, we can collaborate for a greater impact. That’s very powerful.

PolicyMogul allows me to take in the full picture and see what’s actually happening and what course of action could be most effective for us.”

Furthermore, PolicyMogul’s insights have supported BCUK in identifying potential engagement or collaborative opportunities. 

Gareth believes PolicyMogul has not only played a role in enhancing BCUK’s reputation, but could also be invaluable for any charity working in public affairs and campaigning roles.

If you’re interested in learning more about how PolicyMogul can make your public affairs easier and more impactful, register for a trial today.