The brutalist former Bank of England headquarters on my walk to the Leeds office What did you enjoy? A workshop in London to look together at the shared roadmaps for work on the NHS App and other national digital channels in the NHS. We're getting better at this quarterly planning rhythm and it really helps … Continue reading Weeknote: 5 to 9 February 2024
Joseph Moxon, 'Practical perspective; or Perspective made easie', on display at Leeds University What did you enjoy? Seeing my team members collaborating with colleagues from across the new NHS England on the launch of the Pharmacy First initiative, which means that patients can now go straight to a pharmacists for help with some common health … Continue reading Weeknote: 29 January to 2 February 2024
111 online link shown in the new design for the NHS App Five days working in the Leeds hub, including an in-person meeting of the Digital Urgent & Emergency Care (UEC) leadership team. Looking at my diary, I can see the shape of the week, with Monday and Tuesday salami-sliced into 30 minute calls, many … Continue reading Weeknote: 22 to 26 January 2024
First bike ride of 2024 took me to a garden centre What did you enjoy? An in-person meeting in Leeds with colleagues looking at how NHS 111 will evolve in the future. We ran through the vision and purpose for the service, how we work alongside primary care, commissioning and contracting, workforce, and digital enablers. … Continue reading Weeknote: 15 to 20 January 2024
A New Year's Day trip to the Museum of Power near Maldon, Essex I enjoyed the quiet days at the start of the year, and while the sparkle of Christmas is lovely, I also appreciated the space and calm after the decorations came down. Along with colleagues I made a start on our plans for … Continue reading Fortnightnote: 2 to 12 January 2024
View from Quarry House, where I worked for the day on Monday What did you enjoy? The London leg of our "welcome to Product & Platforms" events. I was pleased that colleagues came into the office for this informal event, with special thanks to the people who baked cakes and cookies to share. We welcomed … Continue reading Weeknote: 20 to 24 November 2023
View from the train along the Medway on my way to visit South East Coast Ambulance Service Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? A visit to South East Coast Ambulance Service's new Gillingham site. The 999 and 111 call centres are located above a make-ready centre where ambulances are cleaned and restocked … Continue reading Weeknote: 13 to 17 November 2023
Autumnal scene on my walk to the bus stop Who did you talk to outside of your organisation? I spent Tuesday morning at Google's King's Cross office in London with members of the government digital leadership community. I enjoyed catching up with some former colleagues and current allies in government digital transformation, and learned about … Continue reading Weeknote: 6 to 10 November 2023
What did you enjoy? Friday was the one clear, dry, calm day of the week in Leeds, so I took the opportunity to get back on my bike. In previous years I've struggled to keep up the cycling to work habit after the clocks went back. Promising myself that this year will be different, I … Continue reading Weeknote: 30 October to 3 November 2023
I'm on the sofa (terrible posture) with a cup of coffee and my laptop typing out the first set of weeknotes I've published since the end of August. I didn't mean to take a break, but it's OK that I did. As a recap, I write weeknotes for my own benefit, as a way of … Continue reading Back to weeknotes after a hiatus: 23 to 27 October 2023
Back on the in-person speaking trail after quite a long time away, I was invited to speak at Digital Government North about "the human side of digital transformation". I liked the way the organisers drew together the themes of working with users, frontline staff, and digital specialists. Cheekily, I reused the same slides and outline … Continue reading The humans of digital transformation – a talk for Digital Government North, and reprised for the GDS Speaker Series
What did I enjoy? A session in which Laura and Imogen talked us through the approach to prioritisation that they've been working on for our portfolio. This has been quite a long time coming, because there are several tensions to hold in balance. We need to: ensure we're responsive to the immediate needs of a … Continue reading Weeknote: 31 July to 4 August 2023
Back to work after a much-needed 2-week holiday in southern Germany. What did I enjoy? Being back in the office, refreshed after my holiday. The new NHS England Leeds office is a great place to work, and getting busier with colleagues from various product teams. On Wednesday I joined members of our Patient and Public … Continue reading Weeknote: 24 to 28 July 2023
As part of the NHS 75th anniversary year, I volunteered to give a talk to the year 10 students at a high school in Bradford. They listened well and asked good questions. These are my notes, more or less as delivered on the day... In the Summer of 1948, leaflets like this were dropping through … Continue reading Care and compassion at the limits of science: a school talk for the NHS 75th birthday
What did I enjoy? A chance to meet with members of the 111 online team in person as part of their monthly team day in London. I enjoyed the show and tell, including a proper live demo by one of the developers of the work he's doing to integrate the service with NHS login. Later … Continue reading Weeknote: 26 to 30 June 2023
Matt Edgar writes here 