1. What inspired me this week? My former colleague Andy Callow published reflections on his first 6 months as Chief Digital Information Officer at Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. I'm missing Andy's wise reflections at NHS Digital, but it's great to know he's more-than-surviving at KGH. NHS X CEO Matthew Gould joined us at … Continue reading Weeknote: 7 to 11 October 2019 →

1. What inspired me this week? Seeing Rochelle and Tero settling into their new NHS Digital roles as head of user research and head of design respectively, and - bonus! - the news that Simon is moving over from PHE to NHS X in a head of design role there. Being part of a panel … Continue reading Weeknote: 30 September to 4 October 2019 →

Another two week batch of notes, having missed last week's due to various pressing deadlines. I hope not to make a habit of this. The downside of fortnightnotes is that 16 September feels like an eternity ago. On the upside, I'm reminded just how many good things have happened since I last hit the "publish" … Continue reading Weeknotes: 16 to 27 September 2019 →

A bumper double edition of weeknotes, having skipped last week's to work on my NHS Leadership Academy Bevan Programme "element 2" draft. Also, this happened... This new role in our Product Development directorate lets me work across a wider range of NHS Digital products and services, and build a small central design and user-research function … Continue reading Weeknotes: 2 to 13 September 2019 →

A short week because of the Bank Holiday, which I spent packing up our kitchen ready for a builder to rip it apart first thing on Tuesday morning. Also something on Friday afternoon that I will cover in next week's note. 1. How did I make expectations clear? I started planning a planning process for … Continue reading Weeknote: 27 to 30 August 2019 →

Back to weeknoting after a break including a 2-week family holiday in Finland and St Petersburg. 1. What leadership teamwork did I see? Going away for two weeks at a critical time in our organisation change process has helped me appreciate the awesome people I work with even more. In particular, Eva and Richard dealt … Continue reading Weeknote: 19 to 23 August 2019 →

"The rights are there to help ensure that staff: have a good working environment with flexible working opportunities, consistent with the needs of patients and with the way that people live their lives have a fair pay and contract framework can be involved and represented in the workplace have healthy and safe working conditions and … Continue reading Weeknote: 22 to 26 July 2019 →

1. What inspired me this week? NHS.UK team members demonstrating some of the kit going into our new accessibility lab to the NHS Digital board. Board members tried on visual impairment simulation glasses and gloves for mobility impairment, and we had some great conversations about how to improve the experience of our digital services for … Continue reading Weeknote: 15 to 19 July 2019 →

A different weeknote format because I spent most of the week on the NHS Leadership Academy Nye Bevan Programme - a 3-day residential followed by a 1-day learning set meeting. I'm learning loads, from the course directors Naomi and Majid, the guest faculty, our learning set facilitator Caroline, and of course all my peers in … Continue reading Weeknote: 8 to 12 July 2019 →

1. What inspired me this week? A post by Zoe, one of our graduate trainees: 6 things I learned in 6 months as a user researcher. The NHSx launch, and in particular the news that Hadley is joining the new organisation as acting CTO. Reading recommendations from practice leads on requests from people across the … Continue reading Weeknote: 1 to 5 July 2019 →

1. What leadership teamwork did I see? Loads! I worked with Helen, Karen and Jayne to put together a strategy day on Tuesday for our exec director Wendy and her product directors. (Thanks to Futuregov for hosting us, and to Dominic Campbell for an inspiring talk to kick the day off.) I reached into my … Continue reading Weeknote: 24 to 28 June 2019 →

1. What inspired me this week? On Monday evening I went to a brilliant Digital Leaders Week event hosted by Victoria Betton at Co>Space North, to learn more about issues of diversity and inclusion in technology. (I hope this partly atoned for having dropped out of a staff network event on the same topic earlier … Continue reading Weeknote: 17 to 21 June 2019 →

1. What do I need to take care of? Late on Friday, I finally got access to some data I need so I can work on our organisation change proposal. I need to give that as much time and attention as I possibly can next week. Partly because of that, I had to make a … Continue reading Weeknote: 10 to 14 June 2019 →

Back to weeknotes after a 2-week pause to reflect on my past 6 months at NHS Digital. I've tweaked the questions I ask myself so they focus on some things that are important to me as part of my NHS Leadership Academy Nye Bevan Programme. 1. What inspired me this week? NHS.UK show and tell, … Continue reading Weeknote: 3 to 7 June 2019 →

1. What inspired me this week? The GDS Sprint Leeds event: So many of my favourite people were there! There were service jammers, GDS people, DWP people, Leeds City Council people, NHS people. I've known many of them for years, but in separate bubbles. Seeing Eve Roodhouse and Lisa Jeffery co-hosting the event at the … Continue reading Weeknote: 13 to 17 May 2019 →