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

In the news: PPS Group MD Stephen Byfield writes for Housebuilder

  Stephen Byfield, managing director of communications consultancy PPS Group, says that the government's radical localism measures will hit housebuilders… Read more

PPS in the news: Affect of localism on waste planning

PPS Group's Head of Waste Rebecca Eatwell writes a regular column in Haymarket's Waste Planning magazine - read this month's… Read more

Hammerson appoints PPS Group and Turn Key for Eastgate Quarters

Leading Real Estate Investment Trust, Hammerson has selected PPS Group and Turn Key as the agencies to manage media relations… Read more

PPS Bulletin: Defra announces terms of waste review

Since Caroline Spelman announced Defra’s plans for a review of all waste policy the industry has been discussing the pros… Read more

PPS Bulletin: Free Schools, Free Planning?

The Prologue: So many to choose from but I went for this from President Truman:  "If you can't convince them,… Read more

PPS sponsors Bell and Scott Property Conference

PPS is excited to be sponsoring the 2010 Bell and Scott Property Conference on 1st September. The conference is a… Read more

Donald Anderson speaking at major Scottish Conference on Waste

I am delighted to accept an invitation to speak at a major Scottish Conference on tackling the challenge of delivering… Read more

Forward march of Sainsbury’s in Scotland continues at Prestwick

Sainsbury’s latest store opening in Scotland took place in Prestwick, South Ayrshire yesterday. The 45,000 sq ft store was opened… Read more

New government policy timescales

The Government has set out the timescales for each milestone in the process for planning policy amendments, abolition of RDAs,… Read more

Planning success for Merseyside Recycling Centre

PPS is pleased to report another planning success, this time for Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority, who we helped to secure… 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.