Contract communicators for a public health service in a time of change

A large Victorian public health service has spent the past two years delivering change on several fronts at once: a new facility opening and the closure of another facility, a major technology transformation, and a significant change program across its pathology services.

Every one of these programs depends on strong communications, and the work arrives in waves that permanent headcount alone cannot absorb. Since February 2025, we have partnered with the service’s communications director to provide contract support as each new program lands.

The Challenge

Every contract begins at a critical point in a program, with a fixed window to deliver. Each brief asked for:

• Communications experience in health or another large, complex organisation
• The seniority to deliver from day one without handholding
• The judgement to bring clinicians, technology, HR, marketing and external stakeholders along, often alongside colleagues unsure why a contractor had been brought in
• A structured process with firm timelines, matched to the urgency of each contract
• A focused search drawing on our specialism in the for-purpose sector
• Cultural fit weighted as heavily as capability, assessed against our working knowledge of each team
• Advice on the brief, looking past what the organisation expects to need to what the work will call for
• Several contracts scoped at four to six months have run to a year or more
• Three contractors have moved onto fixed-term contracts
• Two have been made permanent
• The director has returned to us with each new brief

The stakes were high. The community needed to stay informed through a facility opening and closure, and the technology rollout relied on staff understanding the change. A contractor who couldn’t earn trust quickly would have stalled that work mid-program, with no spare headcount to pick it up. Each time, the service needed a safe pair of hands.

Our Approach

The director’s briefs set out what each role must deliver. Our part is to read what a position description leaves out: the team, the manager and the unwritten nuances of how work gets done.

Each placement adds to what we know about the service, so every new brief starts further ahead.

The Outcome

Over 20 months, we have placed seven communications contractors across project delivery, public affairs, education, change communications and events.

The placements have moved with the organisation’s priorities. A senior advisor brought in for the pathology program now supports change communications for the technology rollout. Our Events Coordinator joined as leave cover, carried community engagement through the facility closure and opening, and is now permanent.

Each contractor came in for a defined piece of work and put their hand up for more. As the service’s change continues, contracting will remain part of how the service resources its next phase of change.

“Six Degrees know people. They cut through the noise and help us get to a shortlist quickly. The contractors they’ve placed with us have worked so hard through a very busy, high-change period. I know the team and I love their work, otherwise I wouldn’t recommend them to someone at another organisation. If you need someone, I can highly recommend them.”

— Director, Public Health Service