PPS

PPS is a company of talented people working in the tougher areas of communications consultancy. If you need an advocate to explain a complex issue in a coherent and compelling manner, then PPS is for you.

Stakeholder liaison

Companies and organisations can't just assume that they will be supported in their endeavours. The onus is now upon them to explain themselves and to correct misunderstandings. PPS has been helping clients to identify and communicate with key stakeholders for many years. This means listening and being seen to listen as well as doing the talking.

Media relations

With a blend of ex journalists and seasoned PR professionals in our team we know how to create a good story whether it is aimed at national, regional, vertical or digital media. PPS runs a number of outsourced press offices on behalf of our clients or we can act as an extension of the existing in house team.

Consultation

PPS is at the cutting edge of effective community consultation. We advise on some of the most complicated consultations using a robust framework that is bullet proof as far as the outside world is concerned and techniques that yield valuable feedback from the target community. We are active members of the Consultation Institute working with them to improve the standards of consultation in the UK.

Public affairs

PPS is the largest independent public affairs company in the UK. We are as at home guiding you through the politics of central government as we are explaining the minutiae of the devolved governments and unitary, district or county councils.

Corporate Social Responsibility

There are still a few organisations that don't believe they have to put anything back into the community, but they are rapidly running out of road. PPS is fortunate to work with some of the more enlightened, who can see the commercial advantages of acting in a responsible way and being seen to do so. We believe no other consultancy has more experience of helping business to work in better partnership with communities to their mutual benefit.

Crisis and issues management

If those responsible for running any organisation still need persuading that maintaining corporate reputation is important, it might be asked what planet they have been living on of late?

Bad news always did travel fast - now thanks to the Internet and 24 hour media it moves at a speed and intensity that can overwhelm an organisation within days if not hours.

It is therefore imperative for senior management to prepare in advance to meet such a challenge if and when it happens.

PPS has an excellent track record of helping organisations create such bespoke crisis and issues management plans and supporting them with their practical implementation when the need arises.

PPS hires good people.

They're bright, they're excellent communicators and they care about the quality of the work they do for you. You can expect senior PPS staff to be among the very best in the business. You can also expect them to be actively involved in your account.

We've featured in The Sunday Times '100 Best Small companies to Work For' in both the last two years. They say PPS is an 'outstanding' place to work.

We think this comes from our culture. We aim to recruit exceptional people, train them well and motivate them to succeed for their clients. We reward success, but also nurture and support our staff to get the very best from them. As a result we combine high profitability with some of the lowest staff turnover in the industry.

Interested? Well contact Ann Marie Stephenson, our head of HR

• Ann Marie Stephenson

Latest news & events

PPS sponsor Home Builders Federation policy conference - General Election special

The Home Builders Federation (HBF) host a General Election focussed policy conference next Wednesday 10th March at One Birdcage Walk, Westminster.… Read more

PPS' Head of Waste & Resources addresses EfW conference on effective communications

PPS' Head of Waste & Resources, Rebecca Eatwell  joins a panel of industry experts at Recycling Waste World 's Energy from… Read more

PPS Bulletin: Tory Planning Paper Published

Well, no one can accuse the Conservatives of not drawing out a process to increase anticipation; after much speculation, rumour… Read more

PPS Group signs-up for the Caledonian Challenge

On the June 12 weekend, a crack unit of consultants will be sent to Fort William, deep in the Highlands… Read more

Donald Anderson chairs Scottish Parliament public service debate

The future of public service provision was under the microscope at a Chamber of Commerce debate held in the Scottish… Read more

PPS signs up senior team as part of strategy for growth

Former Trimedia director Andy Martin has become a director of public affairs at communications consultancy PPS Group to help spearhead… Read more

PPS Bulletin: Draft PPS on Development Management

As well as sneaking out the final version of PPS4 on 29th December, the Government have recently published a consultation… Read more

PPS Group appointed by Yorkshire Water

PPS Group has recently been appointed by Yorkshire Water to conduct some research into the impact of odour and smells in… Read more

LGcommunications seminar: Building new homes

PPS Director Mark Kerr recently presented to a room of local government representatives on how to best communicate with local… Read more

PPS Bulletin: Pre-budget report analysis

The Chancellor today delivered the final Pre-Budget Report of this Parliament - and quite possibly the final PBR of his… Read more

Read more from our blog

Ethics

PPS was a founder member of the Association of Professional Political Consultants (APPC), way back in the 1990s. The APPC regulates the activities of commercial companies providing political consultancy services and has a code of conduct we adhere to.

But PPS has internal policies that go beyond even the APPC code. We have a main board sub-committee that meets regularly to discuss and police our approach. Ethical conduct is a central plank of our training programme and Charles St George, our Ethics Tsar (and a main board director) tours all our teams regularly to ensure our ethical approach is maintained.

Quality

Providing consistent high quality work across a network like ours is a challenge. But its one we make every effort to meet.

The starting point is to hire good people: and we do. Beyond that, the Company has rigorous internal quality standards drawn from the best of best practise. We then train our staff on how to achieve them using our in-house quality programme 'Operation Heston' which draws inspiration from obsessive, detail driven chef, Heston Blumenthal. We like his approach - look after the details and the Michelin stars will look after themselves.

Environment

At PPS, we take our environmental responsibilities seriously and are currently working towards ISO 9001. For instance,

• We minimise consumption of natural resources: energy, water, etc...
• We prevent pollution and minimise emissions;
• We minimise our waste and we recycle;
• Staff use environmentally friendly means of transport wherever possible; public transport to meetings and a ride2work scheme
• We raise awareness amongst staff;
• We encourage our suppliers to improve their environmental performance.

Equal opportunities

For us, equal opportunity is more than a politically correct duty - its sound business sense. So we employ the best people and we guarantee that career progression at PPS won't be affected by your race, creed, colour, age, sexual orientation, political beliefs, accent or disability, in fact, anything other than your ability.

PPS in the community

We get involved in the communities we operate in. At a basic level, this means allowing staff time off to undertake worthwhile community-focussed activity. We have employees who are councillors and others who work with charities or local schools.

And PPS also gets involved by working on worthwhile projects for free. For instance, since 2007 we have been helping the BW Foundation, a Muslim charity, get planning permission for a multi faith community centre in Harrow. It's a complicated scheme but we believe in it and have been able to demonstrate enormous community support.