Behaviourally Informed Communications Initiative

Improve your communications with behavioural science.

What is Behaviourally Informed Communications Initiative (BICI)?

The Public and statutory sector in Wales send out millions of letters, texts and emails to patients and the public every year, encouraging them to make use of our services for better health and wellbeing. We put up thousands of posters, distribute information and develop multi-media campaigns all aiming to influence a behaviour, and there is strong evidence that making them behaviourally informed can improve their effectiveness.

The Behavioural Science Unit toolkit, Developing Behaviourally Informed Communications, has had significant interest and use. There have also been numerous requests for support with client/patient-direct communications that the Unit has worked with partners on.

In response, the Unit established the Behaviourally Informed Communications Initiative (BICI), a programme designed to improve direct communications – e.g. letters, text, emails, – through the integration of behavioural science. As of 2025 over a hundred colleagues have joined this initiative with a broad range of communication material that they have been seeking to improve with behavioural science.

The aim of Behaviourally Informed Communications Initiative (BICI)

The aim of BICI is to optimise the impact of communications through supporting colleagues to (re-)develop their communications interventions (e.g., letters, texts, emails, and other communications interventions), with behaviourally informed content, helping to increase recipient engagement and promote healthrelated behaviour change. The programme helps colleagues to plan implementation and evaluation of ther work to understand impact.

BICI offers a blend of direct input from the BSU, learning from experts in behaviourally informed communications, guided workshops, a workbook and self-directed activities to help teams increase the impact of their communications and develop their own behavioural science skills.

If you’d like to see examples of how BICI has helped teams improve their communications, you can read our report that features examples and case studies from across the system.

If you’d like to develop your own behaviourally informed communications, you can use our self-directed workbook which will take you step-by-step through the BICI programme, as well as our Behaviourally Informed Communications Guide, which provides more detail on why these steps are important.

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